Cox

The AAU Middle School National Duels are held every year at Simpson College ign Indianola, IA. Tennessee has been going for several years with growing success. Prior to this year the team was hand selected from coaches around the state. While this hand selecting process has provided great wrestlers such as Cameron Croy, Michael Hooker, Jeremy Miller, Zach Watson, TJ Duncan, and Daniel Bauke all State Champion, hand selection is not the wrestling way. Those involved in the selections are planing in the future to have 4 qualifiers (West, Middle, Chattanooga, and Knoxville) that will meet in Middle Tennessee with the winner being the selected wrestler. This year time is not allowing us to have the 4 qualifiers but is it allowing us the 4 man final tournament. This will be held in late January or Feburary. With the time crunch the coaches will be responsible for each area's team that will represent their geographical area against the rest of the state. The winner of the 4 man mini tournament will be selected for the team. I do not know how the rest of the state is doing it but in Middle Tennessee I would like to figure out a way for the middle school coaches of the state to meet together and have some form of seeding meeting to determine the team. I know between Metro, HVAC, WMAA, The Shooters, NCW, Mt. Juliet, Dickson County, and others we can produce a strong team. This selection is going to take the help of many coaches. Any coaches with Ideas or input please email me at KLC5J@mtsu.edu This team will be selected in the up coming weeks and information will be used as it is received. ] This is a great opportunity to see the best the country has to offer. But it is not for the faint of heart. TJ Duncan was asked after The Duels what was harder winning the TSSAA State Title as an 8th grader or going undefeated in Iowa......His response IOWA

Having watched Croy and Kennedy for many many years and having seen Berry wrestle Kennedy the gap is still WIDE. Kennedy is a wonderful wrestler but he is not in the same class as Croy. If Berry had any wind in the Blackman due he would of kept the lead he had and won the match. No one in this state can stay with Croy he is huge and cutting from 220 in football down to 189...

Thomas Berry of Indy took Patton (Blackman) into overtime. Berry was up 3 (8-5 i think) with a minute to go but Patton step up got the escape and a takedown to send it to overtime. Patton finished it with a takedown in OT. Great showing for Berry in the loss!

Can McGavock still host a tournament with Davidson county canceling school tomorrow?

What time are weigh ins on Friday? And the most important question...Will there be good hospitality room food?

This is a hard question for a couple reasons. Feeder programs are defined not only by their success on the youth level but the success of the young ones at the High School level. There are programs that are constantly top notch from 1st-8th grade; Soddy, Wave, Baylor, OLPH, and Sharpshooters come to mind. If I had to make a guess I would say. 1. Baylor- Year end and year out they have a very competitive team and we all know the High School success 2. Sharpshooters-Blackman- They have a deep competitive youth program and we are starting to see the results with Blackman's sophomore stable or wrestlers 3. A toss up between Wave, Soddy, OLPH, and others. They all have there years and the High School coaches make great wrestlers with and without the support of the youth program.

I did not go, so I only have the results close to home. Brennen Cox (Indy) beat Ethan Henry(Cook) 4-0

Father Ryan @ Indy will be a great one in January.

This was a very competitive middle school tournament. Many big names lost; king, freemon, and others. However in my opinion, all of this was overshadowed by the refs. In an attempt to save money the sharpshooters went with "in training" refs or blue shirts, instead of the normal refs (who charge a fees as opposed to the blue shirt guys who do not.) I understood that this was a preseason tuneup tournament so I was not too upset initially with having to explain which guy was on top to a ref who had forgotten during the walk back to the middle, or getting an apology from the same ref after he noticed he called a pin when the boys entire torso was out of bound. I also had the tell another ref that maybe they should stop standing next to me and check to see if the guy in the center was on his back and pinned (which he was). I was also almost thrown out because I challenged that one boy chose top and did nothing but ride for the entire second period and therefore it was impossible for him to have earned a take down, to which the blue shirt responded he chose neutral and refused to check with score keeper. His word was the only and final say I was informed. All of this while frustrating, I can live with it. What I can not live with as a coach, a fan, and a brother is the amount of illegal holds allowed to slip by. More than one time, I witnessed a full nelson go for 10 plus seconds driving a kid to his back several times. Not to mention the straight head throws that about took off a boys head that was missed. I get that this is a fundraiser and it saves lots of money not having to pay the trained refs to handle the tournament. I also know that what I am saying will probably do little to change anything so I guess all this will do is serve as a warning. If you plan to send your middle schoolers to this tournament be aware of the increased injury risk that comes with unqualified referees.

75,82,90,98,106,114,122,130,138,148,158,175,190,225

If any coaches are interested in getting their boys some extra mat time this month please contact me. We are attempting to get some duel meets in this month before conference matches begin. We are also interested in Tri meets or Quads if multiple coaches want to get together on the same date. Please email me if your team is interested. Thanks, Kevin Cox Assistant Wrestling Coach Page Middle Klc5j@mtsu.edu

I believe if I am not mistaken, that this is the first win in school history for Centennial over a school in Wilco that has a senior class. (Page does not count) 0-12 against Brentwood 0-12 against Franklin 0-4 against Ravenwood since 2005 Until this game they were 0-2 against Indy since 2007. Congrats on this..

I see no need to go down the list of boys and how they will fair next year. I can tell you that Seth Seneca beat Chris Hoop would took 2nd in Region 6 at 135 and lost a very close match to the Tullahoma 135 Sunny Knight, who took 4th I believe at the same weight. He could not beat out Austin Cox and therefore had no spot. I would expect him to fill in one of the three voids left by seniors and take a medal next year. Others will do the same. Hoosierdad, I would say that while yes Chattanooga has dominated for many many many years Williamson County is indeed getting stronger and stronger. I am not saying they are going to surpass Chatt. but the talent is getting better and better. Sooner rather than later they will indeed be comparable, not in previous acomplishments but rather depth across 6 schools rather than one or two power houses.

I always thought Zach was from Tennessee. I do know that TJ Duncan is from across the boarder. We had to work that out last year so he could be on the AAU national team Also as I have stated before, No One not Hames or anyone else in this State under 110 Lbs can beat Watson and it will only get worse before it gets better. Looks like a race between TJ and Zach for the 5x crown.

I 100% agree. If you look at who was on those teams then and how well they are competing now it is amazing. The first 3 Champs in D2 werebeen on the team Watson, Hooker, Doster as well as runner up Manely and Champion Tj Duncan. As well as former champ Miller and newly crowed 189 Champ Cameron Croy in D1. Give it a year or two more and that team will be dominating the finals of both sides. Getting kids out of tennessee is the best thing a parent can do. It shows kids how good you can be and takes those kids who dont have matches in Tennessee and gives them some fights. Croy was not touched in Tennessee his 8th grade year but lost twice in Iowa. It is a wonderful thing, everyone should be involved in it.