karelin

Our trip to the WVa Duals (Parkersburg WVa) has been canceled due to inclement weather, so we are scrambling to find a replacement. Anyone have any openings for duals or individual tournaments for either Fri or Sat, or both? If so,e-mail me at- gconnell@mccallie.org Need to know something by 3:00 today EST; obviously not much time, but we just got the news of the cancellation. G Connell

Tournament is Nov. 18

Tennessee USA Wrestling Girls Wrestling State Championships Soddy Daisy Wrestling Arena Each year the number of girl wrestlers increase in our annual wrestling match with Red Bank High School. By popular demand, we are hosting a Girl's State Wrestling Championship to offer these athletes and others across the state another opportunity to compete. We are hosting it earlier in the year to coincide with the girls match already scheduled. Weigh In 8:00 A.M. and Wrestling starts at 10:00 am and continues until completed. Athletes must weigh-in wearing singlet or wrestling attire. Eligibility High School female athletes grades 9-12 in good academic standing. Weight Classes - 98, 103, 108, 114, 120, 125, 130, 140, 155, 175, 220. We reserve the right to group weights based on number of entries per weight. All wrestlers must have a valid USA Wrestling card. These may be purchased online or at registration. Style Folkstyle rules. (1-1-1) Entry Fee $25.00 per wrestler. Individual Awards Medals to the TOP 4 in each weight class. Uniforms Singlets or two-piece uniform, athletic shirts and t-shirts, wrestlers must have wrestling shoes. For more information contact Steve Henry (240-7444) or Trevor Fuller (842-5904) Email-trev054@aol.com Fax 423-332-8831

Despite the coaching change at UTC, the Bad Boy Wrestling Camp run by Joe Seay has been cleared by the School Chancellor for them to run the camp as advertised at UTC. Click on the following to gain access to all brochure info: http://www.gomocs.com/article.asp?articleid=77103

First time I've been on this year, probably the last as well, but I've got something I want all to hear. Below is a link to Josh Wheeler's Sr chapel talk that he gave a couple of weeks ago. As many of you know Josh, state runner-up to Whit Dunning last year, is having brain surgery this Thursday for removal a of a billiard-ball size tumor. Listen to his speech and you can understand why the McCallie community loves him and is praying hard for him. Today we had a prayer time for him in the McCallie wrestling room. Besides many of his teammates, coaches, teachers, and friends, there were four members of the Baylor wrestling team present, along with coach Morgan and some Baylor parents. I was very impressed, and I know I speak for all in thanking them for their support for Josh. I personally think anyone who's been around the sport of wrestling and/or been dealt a real challenge, would appreciate Josh's message. Please listen. http://www.mccallie.org/media/video/wheeler.asx

The Middle Tn. Individual wrestling camp is held at Father Ryan HS-June 13-17. Cost is $115.00 and runs fom 9:30-4:00 Mon-Fri. Instructors are Gordon Connell of McCallie School and Pat Simpson of the host school. Morning sessions are dedicated to Takedown instruction, with about 20 minutes live wrestling before lunch. After lunch we watch videos such as 2005 NCAA finals, highlights of the tourney, Senior Open Freestyle championships, Olympic Trials, UFC, RPW, TSSAA state finals, etc., followed by some competitive wrestling-related games. We go an hour on the bottom position and an hour on top in the afternoon, finishing up with about 20-25 minutes live wrestling. On Friday we conclude the camp with a tournament, pairing guys of equal wt, age, experience, etc. The camp will be limited to the first 65 sign-ups. For additional information, contact Pat Simpson 383-4200 (School) 319-3687 (Home) To register, mail application and fee to: c/o Pat Simpson Father Ryan HS 700 Norwood Dr. Nashville, TN 37204 Checks made out to: Father Ryan HS

Good news, hopefully; we did vote as a group of coaches to seed the tournament next year, using criteria in the HS wrestling fed for seeding to eliminate politics. The reason is because of obvious flaws in the current interpretation as voiced by others. We are making progress; it's just a shame that others before didn't have this opportunity.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=38&u_sid=1330737

Great job Clarksville; you guys go the extra mile to make things work smoothly. Personally, I like the 'tradition' that is now associated with the Duals being hosted by Clarksville. Yes, seating is tight at times, but the schedule moves people move in and out fairly well so that no one has been left standing outside. Artie, you are the best. Congrats to Baylor and Franklin, two very fine teams. Wouldn't it be a great match between the two of them. Still missing the 'good ole days'. Soms-I need to talk with you; I've misplaced your card. Call me at school or e-mail me.

BAYLOR, TN McCALLIE, TN CLARKSVILLE H.S., TN McEACHERN H.S., GA DOBYNS-BENNETT, TN MONTGOMERY BELL ACADEMY, TN EAST RIDGE H.S., TN MURRAY COUNTY H.S., GA ETOWAH H.S., GA NORTH COBB, GA FATHER RYAN H.S., TN NW WHITFIELD H.S., GA FRANKLIN ROAD ACADEMY, TN RED BANK H.S., TN FRANKLIN H.S., TN RINGGOLD H.S., GA GREENEVILLE H.S., TN SEQUOYAH H.S., GA HARRISON H.S., GA SODDY DAISY H.S., TN LAFAYETTE H.S., GA WALTON H.S., GA Tournament director Luther Killian says that 7 of the TN top 10 teams are entered, plus #1 from GA-Walton HS (beat Collins Hill a week ago), McEachern, Sequoyah(all in top 10 in GA), plus defending 4A state champs Ringgold-all adds up to a very competitive weekend ahead at 24th annual McCallie Inv. Action starts at 4:30 Fri, with the Finals scheduled for 3:30 Sat.

Hey coach, what are weigh-in and starting times, etc. E-mail me tomorrow; I need to ask you a couple of things before coming up Saturday.

This may take a while, but not half the time it takes to enter in the results of a quad-meet on-line. Just some thoughts on implementing the new weight management issues (something that isn't going to go away). Just think if football coaches had to weigh their players on July 25, after a Spring and Summer of lifting weights; I would wager that well over half the players could not keep from losing 1.5% per week of their weight consistently throughout the season. Football players lose more weight than many wrestlers; they don't mean to, but it happens with the grind of the season. One note before the suggestions, weight loss has always been the black-eye of the sport and we are being given a formula to fix the problem. It's a start but it needs some major tweaking. Some suggestions- 1. Check wrestlers weight loss progress ONLY if they change to a lower weight class(this will eliminate the silly concerns we now have about guys who compete in matches with weight-allowances or the guy who is simply a little lighter today). We had a 1 lb allowance Sat.; I had to multiply a wrestler's last weigh-in by .015 and divide that result by 7 and then multiply that by 3, to convey to the boy that he had to be .8 (.834 to exact) over scratch (or less) in order to wrestle Tue. No one should have to do all that if there is no intent to change weight classes. (I bet many hwts lose more than a 1/7 of 1.5% per day and they're not trying to cut any-same analogy used with football). 2. The dead zone (body fat 5-7%) at alpha weigh-in needs to be deleted. Why should a guy with 7.1 % be allowed to drop to a 5% weight, while a wrestler at 6.8% is stuck and PENALIZED to wrestle the weight class immediately above him. EVERYONE should be allowed to appeal to 5%-period. 3. Allow for a SECOND chance alpha date weigh-in, say the 3rd weekend of Dec., for those who want to. When kids weighed in for their alpha date they weren't in any shape yet, but they were weighed in at the wrestler's mode. For many, the season hadn't even started, and now many kids are wrestling way above where they could/should be. They are NOW in wrestling mode. The colleges allow for this-this year Dec 17. 4. Change the 1.5% to 3%. Personally I believe 3% isn't high enough for a well trained athlete. 5. (This isn't going to happen but wouldn't it be great) Fax names, results, and exact weigh-in weights, etc. to the TSSAA and let them put in ALL the data of every match-JV & varsity like we have to do. Had an interesting conversation with a Ga coach this weekend; he said (don't know if he's right) that Ga wasn't a member of the Nat'l Fed and that they would never go to this weight management requirement. He may be right; they weigh in the morning for dual matches, and sometimes the night before for tournaments (like a Friday night for a two-day tourney).

In honor of Veterans Day it would be nice to recognize and pray for guys serving in the military today. In keeping with this forum, who do you know that wrestled in Tn that is now serving overseas. I know of one, Alex Henegar-McCallie, class of 1992; he is in Falluja with the Marines as they are attempting to take control away from the enemy. Alex has been an officer in the Marine Corp for several years now.

What did Michael Bingham do today in the 100, 200, 400?

If the IOC, the strictest body governing rules of sport found anywhere, can give two sets of gold medals for two skating pairs found in the last Olympics, then surely the TSSAA can do likewise. Yes, it is highly unusual, but so are the circumstances that surround this dilemma.

…..I'll be praying for you in all of this; it is a really messed up situation from both sides of the coin. Love Lee (sent last night) Hey daddy! I love you sooooo much!!! You are the best ever! Just thought I should e-mail you and tell you that& anything bad people say about you is all covered up and forgotten b/c the love I have for you is much greater than the hate some people may feel towards you!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (from my daughter, sent an hour ago) I have taken criticism from a lot of people for years; I like to think that much of it is the normal jealousy and associated ridicule that comes with minor success. A lot of people have said some very harsh stuff on this post; I usually have fairly thick skin for this stuff, but when it affects my kids, I would like to ask that the criticism stop. I will attempt to explain a couple of things, probably lengthy, but not nearly the complete story. And, I’ll try to stay ‘on the high road’. Basically when the season opened we had four guys, if given the choice of what weight to wrestle for the year, would have all chosen 145. It was Dec 5, a Fri that I sat the team down to explain the season-ending state tournament line-up. Each year we do body mass measurements (skin calipers, etc) to find which weight might be the best fit for each guy. Andrew was the lightest, with Ryan right behind him, followed by Justin, and then Spencer. Ryan hasn’t grown any; he was 5 lbs(body mass lighter than Spencer) Any of these guys could win at 145, but someone needed to go down a weight and someone else up one/and two weights. The fact that Spencer was the biggest suggested that he go to 152 where the toughest challenge (Marable) would be, and 160 was doable for Ryan because the weight class wasn’t as challenging even though he would give up 15 lbs in the finals. This was only the second time in my coaching career that I superceded the traditional wrestle-off method. Sometimes the coach has to go out of bounds to put together his best line-up. Look at Okla. St this year, Kevin Ward won 3 wrestle-offs to the current starter, Hendricks. I know this is different, but John Smith is going with who he sees as the best wrestler, what’s best for the team. There is no one in the state that deserved to win a state title more than Spencer; he is simply the hardest working wrestler we have EVER had in the room; the same goes for his time in the weight room too. Often he would have change into a dry t-shirt 4 or 5 times per practice. It is the combination of this work ethic and size/strength that I thought would lift him to another state title. Sometimes wrestle-offs create division among teammates, and I thought that by matching the guys to the competition would yield each guy an opportunity to win a title, not just 2 or 3 guys. I felt strongly that Spencer could beat Nick; I still believe he could’ve won the state at 4 weight classes(140-160). I have never felt so bad for a wrestler not winning a state title than I do for Spencer. Our decision(philosophy) was to make this move for the team, BUT not at the expense of a wrestler’s chance to win an individual state title. It is the only time that I have ever been faced with this kind of situation; we are not talking about 4 good wrestlers, we are talking about 4 state champs and how’s the best way to fit them. Yes, Tim was upset, but we as a staff never worked so hard to prepare one wrestler for his quest at a state title, and we all knew he would win. Spencer is as tough as Ryan Scott and Ryan had only lost to Nick once(1-0); Spencer has more offense than Ryan, so we felt he would be harder to hold off. Spencer can be relentless as most of you know, and so we expected him to win by the same margin that Ryan did last year in the state finals. I told one of our coaches earlier last week, that I would rather see Spencer win his title than the team title. (At this point some maybe saying then why didn’t you let him go 145- because everybody had a chance to win their own title including Spencer-Spencer was our best chance to beat Marable, for reasons already explained). Since the state tourney, I have only thought about Spencer’s match, and not the narrow loss to Baylor for the team race. I hurt for Spencer because he will carry a sense of bitterness with him for a long time; I know, I am still somewhat bitter to my old HS for not lettering me or inviting me to the only athletic banquet of my Sr. year because I was caught smoking two weeks after the season(I never did it during season, and don’t today) There is much, much more that can be said, but this is long enough. I will hold Spencer up to anyone who needs to see the efforts of hard work-to that example, he is the ultimate state champ. Again, it was a for-the-Team decision, but not intended to be at his expense. And for those who don’t think the team title doesn’t means something, you should have been in the McCallie gym Saturday night when Baylor’s wrestling team walked in during the middle of the Baylor/McCallie basketball game, hoisting their State Trophy for their fans to see-they went wild, and this with a team that only had one champ. This message board is far too negative; I believe that people should not use it to criticize others, but rather inform others. It’s okay to disagree, but why make personal attacks, especially behind the cloak and safety of a computer. Most who have made criticisms have no clue who I am. If you want to attack me further, please do so via e-mail (gconnell@mccallie.org), not on this board, at least for my kids sake. Gordon Connell

A very deserving award, Jim was truly one of the greats of the past. He won the mid-south tournament his Sr. year(1967?) at 185 lb, and then two weeks later he won the Nat'l Preps at 148. He had to drink water to get over the minimum weight of 157 in order to wrestle in the 185 lb class. And as MLK stated, Jim is a class act-contgrats.

Spencer Manley recently received his letter confirming his appointment to Annapolis-Navy. He will fit in quiet well with Navy coach Bruce Burnett, 2000 Olympic coach. While Univ. of Va. is still very interested, it looks very likely that he'll be the fourth Tn wrestler to compete in the competitive EIWA conference, thus joining the Simpsons(Phillip & Patrick-West Point), and Jordan Leen-Cornell. It's very likely that they'll meet each other from time to time as well. Being a great wrestler isn't all Spencer does well in; he has a 4.2 GPA while taking several AP courses. Congratulations to Spencer for this honor.

Sly, All attempts have fallen on deaf ears. Rawn-I'll say it one more time, it doesn't matter who you beat, if you don't beat a medalist you can't be seeded, and if you beat a medalist you take his spot in the seed.(until this year) Nothing much more can be said or done. Time to rumble.

The Webb wrestler actually has a win over Hoang, but I believe Hoang has more wins or the last win; he should be seeded 3rd and Johnson should be simply drawn in(blind draw).

Sly, Go to the TSSAA website; they actually give an expalnation for why he is seeded 3rd. It is interesting to me that until this year there has never been a discussion or debate about who should be seeded where; the only problems in the past are when coaches move people around at the last minute. If the powers that be only followed the past examples- there is no problem. But the criteria is now being viewed through three sets of lens-1. Clear (but not used); 2. Red-tinted; 3. Blind-folded.

Sly and others, When the seeding criteria for seeding non-medalists was devised three years ago it specifically stated that the the only way to be seeded if you were not a returning medalist-was to beat a returning medalist. When RC was asked the question, what if you beat a guy who beat a medalist, does that count? He responded NO, it would be too difficult to calculate. Bottom line is Johnson has not not wrestled a medalist and therefore CANNOT be seeded. BUT HE IS!!!!!

At 103, since Johnson did not wrestle Hoang(only returning medalist), he cannot be seeded-BUT HE IS!!!!

This is incredible; for the second time with this year's seeds(119 &140-first violation), now we have someone seeded who hasn't beaten a place winner.

Delawarr, You have interpreted the criteria the way RC has correctly, showing there are two ways to read it. However, not only was Bob explaining the original interpretation, but the only interpretation used before this year. While there are seven cases of the original interpretation seen in the past two years, there is NONE which support your interpretation, and HEREIN lies the problem. Coaches were told that seeding will be the same as it has always been. It has obviously been changed. Actually Simpson deserves to be seeded first, based on his win at the state duals; if there was a true seeding meeting he would have received the #1 seed. However, D-2 is stuck with the present format (which doesn't allow for competition of the Duals), which has been flawed by changing the interpretation of past years(the record).