duggerd1

The season is at its end , and as a retired coach I greatly enjoyed the state tournament. Congratulations to coaches Logsden, Morgan, Henry, and Connell on their championships and runners up finishes. These outstanding gentlemen, as well as many others were insturmental in various ways, in my having what I think was a fairly successful run as the wrestling coach at Karns High School in the early '90s. They helped us by scheduling Karns when we were struggling, allowing us to enter tournaments when we were outclassed,not with enthusiasium, but with experience, and conducting summer camps at Karns High School. When I started coaching at Carter as an assistant, because they needed one, I had never seen a wrestling mat up close. The next year I was sent to Karns to start a program. I had two jobs, learn to coach and introduce wrestling to "rasslin" fans. Everyone wanted to know where the ring ropes were. I bought every book I could find on coaching wrestling. Some of them were so out of date that the holds they taught were illegal, but I learned something from every one of them. I was never afraid to ask for help from anyone who came along. One of my best mentors was Pete Stafford. Pete told me once during a heated exchange, that when my wrestlers learned to wrestle then he would be a better referee. And he was right! I always had numbers, usually in the 45-50 range, even though we had to roll the mats out in the commons and put them up every night. During this time every dollar we used had to be raised and if we needed money it could be borrowed from the general athletic fund but had to be repaid. The administration gave me their support by leaving me alone, as long as I didn't rock their boat, and that was fine with me. I had excellent parental support. I had three of the four things that you need to have a successful program, numbers, parents, and a type of administrative support. The fourth one we achieved after a while but it took a long time, MONEY. There are two things that would have made the Karns program successful sooner, a way to get advice about how to establish a successful program and money to do special projects, i. e. start a feeder program or bring in a top wrestling coach to conduct a camp for a small school or buy a mat. It would be great if a foundation could be started that could make grants to wrestling programs to do projects with. It could also be a clearing house for infromation to assist struggling programs and to gain positive publicity for wrestling. We talk about the lack of popularity of our sport, but we don't appear to do do anyhing positive about it. It is time we got off our duffs and used the resource in our local community as well as our wrestling community. The most important thing each of us can do is to let everyone know and understand what a great sport we have had the opportunity to be associted with. Everyone have a great between season and I look forward to next year. Dan Dugger

Quinn Gibson showed the most class in winning his championship match I have ever seen. I am sure he has been a pleasure to coach. Congratulations Quinn on your championship and the best of luck to you in the future. Dan Dugger

Voleagle, You have been riding Greenback all season. They have done an outstanding job. Their dual meet team was truly outstanding for the length of time they have been working. There were only five teams that sent five or more wrestlers to state. and none of them were small schools, Farragut-8, Maryville-6, South Doyle-5, Karns-5, and Halls-5. Gibbs and Seymour both are sending four. All of these schools are anywhere from 3 to 6 times the size of Greenback. Congratulations to Coach Ridge and his team. Next year should bring great things to them and I looked to watching them. Dan Dugger

My favorite is now retired, but, in my minds eye, I can still see him especially at tournaments. Doug Newman, Hunters Lane, was 100 percent coach at all times and was always fun to watch. Dan Dugger

For the benefit of wrestling in Tennessee, I strongly feel that it is more important to add a small school division than it is to include the second place school under the current set up. Greenback and Greeneville are the only schools in recent history that have come close to qualifying for the Duals. The smaller schools need something to shoot for. I have coached only in a large school and a D2 school, and am not coaching now, so I have no dog in the fight except that I think fairness is important. Dan Dugger

Congratulations to all the winners and participants of the State Dual Meet Tornament. The Tournament allows coaches to compete by using both the strategy, which they have developed and their individual philosophy. Although I was unable to attend the Tournament, it appears that they were well displayed by all. There are two changes to the overall format of the tournament which I have long felt should be made. They are, the team from each school should be limited to twenty wrestlers who would be listed by name at the begining of the tournament and that each of the wrestlers be required to make all weighins. This would make the playing field level for all of the teams and require each coach to carefully weigh his options against his resources, whether they are from the Nashville/Clarksville area or distant parts of the state. Under the current format if you are in the Nashville/Clarksville are you have your entire wrestling room available and can make changes even as late as Saturday morning. The cost of lodging and food prevents teams from bringing everyone from East or West Tennessee and gives the closer schools a great advantage. Dan Dugger

In 1991, Karns went to the large school dual tournament for the first time. At th at time there were only four schools there one each from Upper East Tenn., Chattanooga, Nashville, and Memphis. At that tournament during a converstion with GP West and me, Ronnie asked what we thought about bringing the second place team to the tournament the next year. I am sure he had already made up his mind, but we agreed that it was a good idea. The next year 1992 both small school and large school had the winner and runner-up from each division at their respective location. That continued until the split into Div I & II. Bradley was in the large school and Cleveland was in the small school. Other powerful schools were split along the same lines. Basically this assured that all areas of the state were fairly represented. I think that it would greatly help wrestling if we could go back to large school and small school classifications. I have followed Greenback this year and they have developed into a team that can compete as a dual meet team, not necessarily against the Bradleys of this world but against teams from schools of their size. Coach Ridge has done an outstanding job of developing this team and if there had been a small school dual tournament this year they surely would have gone. Without selling any coach or school short, it is hard to make it to the "Big Dance" with limited funds and support. By limited support I don't mean that the parents of small schools don't support their wrestlers, but that with numbers out for wrestling it means more people to help, both physically and financially. The incentive of being able to participate in a state dual tournament could certainly add to the numbers who come out for wrestling in the smaller schools. If the choices are, runners-up to the dual meet tournament or a small school tournament, then I would vote for a small school tournament. Bottom line on any tournament is money. It would seem that the more excitment that can be created for wrestling would result in more money for TSSAA. Dan Dugger

Rabbit, The year was 1996 and Father Ryan won. Baylor left the night before, which the public schools were not allowed to do. They were the only East Tennessee team to compete. Overton won the individual state toutnament that year. Dan Dugger

In 1996, the tournament went on with who ever could get there. As a consequence Red Bank, Maryville, and Karns were left out. Karns and Bed Bank both had a shot that year. I am still unhappy about that. That is as close as an Upper East Tennessee has come to winning under this current eight team format. I am not sure we would have won, but I would have like to have had the opportunity to try. It appears that on some threads Science Hill is being sold short. Jeff Price did a triathalon this summer and Science Hill will do well this weekend. Good Luck to the Hilltoppers Dan Dugger

Congratultions Coach Price. Good luck next week. Dan

The Greenback Wrestling Team and their coaches are to be congratulated for two outstanding meets. The object of a dual meet is to win the meet. That means you have a full line up and you move your wrestlers to the best advantage. And each match must wrestled to either get the most points possible or to give up the least points possible. Many times this means that some wrestlers will have to make a sacrifice for the good of the team. Greenback did an excellent job of having everyone in the right place at the right time. Congratulations also to Karns on an excellent performance.

I have been associated with wrestling for over 20 years, most of that time with Karns High School. I have always been treated with respect by Coach Morgan and his staff and have found his wrestlers to be outstanding young men. I liked having the Baylor fans come to our tournaments because of their numbers and their enthusiasm. Some do not agree with the fact that they do not shake hands with the opposing coach after each match, I fully agree with Baylor on this. Whether an individual has won or lost a match, the time to shake hands is after the meet is over and the adreline has stopped flowing. Dan Dugger

Bill, Stevie and your family are in our prayers. I really enjoyed meeting Stevie at the Tournament. His enthusiasm and courage is to be greatly admired. Dan Dugger

The last two years that I coached, 94-95 and 95-96, Karns was ranked and finished in the top ten of the Coaches' Poll both years. To this day I do not know who voted or who didn't. We just worked hard to get there and harder still to stay there. To quote my good friend and fellow coach, Chris Vandergriff, Halls, "The cream always comes to the top."

Xbody You were right the first time. Seed 8 goes on line 4 and seed 5 goes on line 5. The eighth seeded wrestler should be in the same quarter as the first seeded wrestler. After the seeds are placed on the correct line the rest of the wrestlers are drawn to the remaining lines. In many cases there will not be 8 seeded wrestlers, For example if there are only four seeded wrestlers then they will be placed on the correct lines and everyone else will be drawn to a line.