LeeConnell

Here are my thoughts: I haven't posted on this thing in a long time. I haven't really even looked at this thing in a long time. I haven't even really followed wrestling as closely this year as I have during the course of my life. But I read this entire thread from start to this point and honestly it makes me sick. I am embarrassed by many immature comments from McCallie fans, and I am irked by fans from Baylor side who make bogus statements. I wasn't able to attend the big match Friday; it's the first one I have missed in my life that I can remember. But it sounds like it was another classic epic battle. Both sides always have their guys ready to go. And when people get on here and start casting judgments, making bogus biased comments, and just flat out representing their respective sides with a mincing degree of immaturity it takes away from sport and it takes away from the accomplishments of these young men who put themselves and their dignity on the line out there in front of thousands of fans and peers. I can tell you from my experience, and I'm sure any wrestler from Baylor, McCallie, or anywhere that wrestled when I did or before me will tell you the same thing, that wrestling is not just the toughest sport physically but also mentally and emotionally. I was nervous every time I stepped out on the mat. I was risking a lot by being out there, we all did. For me it was even twice as hard having my dad, Gordon Connell, as my coach. Everyone expected me to win. But the thing is, AS NERVOUS AS I WAS; I WAS HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE. (I'm also having the "time of my life" up here at U.T. now haha). But in all seriousness I think about what wrestling meant for me and what it has done for me. I'm sure all of you old timers and guys like me who are just out of the mix of things will agree that it did much to shape you into the person you are today. In reply to the comment about my father's quote in the newspaper...I talked to my dad last night and he was very irritated by it. He was extremely misquoted. You all know how that goes. It happens. He really said something about how so many of the individual matches could have gone both ways and how that could make a difference in the final outcomes of the matches if they were to wrestle some 10 times or so. Sometimes when my dad talks he goes off on tangents and it becomes hard to follow him. I know this because not only have I lived with him my whole life but I also had him as an 8th grade science teacher and many can attest to this statement. Haha sorry dad. Baylor fans lay off my dad and stick to supporting your tough young men like Dan Waddell (very impressive win by the way), Corey Manson, Ben Johnson, etc. And McCallie fans I'm disappointed many of your immature comments as well. Praise these young men who are actually in the arena doing the hard work and putting it all on the line in front of peers, fans, friends, and family. People, have fun on here. Make your comments. But check yourself at the door. This is a great sport, highly respected. Two great teams Baylor and McCallie, with two extremely respected programs both currently and historically. Congratulations to an impressive win Baylor and Congratulations to my brother wrestlers and former teammates at McCallie for a hard fought well represented match. Can't wait to come down for the State in February!

This was an arguement I wanted to take NO part in, but since I was mentioned I must reply. First of all, Spencer IS a very close friend of mine. We are former teammates. We are friends. Just about every wrestling road trip, wrestling camp, and trips to the NCAA's we were roomates together. And Spencer is my brother in Christ. This is seen easily if you know Spencer and what kind of a guy he is: strong Christian, smart as a whip (GPA of 4.2 at McCallie), and a tough hard nosed/hard working wrestler (the hardest working teammate I ever had, right up there with Steven Levitt). Spencer, or "The Maneater" (as Coach Kenny Sholl deemed him), and I had a lot of fun times and memories together. I was nearly in tears when I saw him walk off the mat last Saturday night. I know everything he put into the sport and how hard he worked. He is rightfully deserving of being a 3-time state champ and maybe even a 4-time champ but that is a whole separate arguement). Point is, we are still good friends. With that said one must understand how hard of a situation it is for me. One of my closest friends, and my Dad (Coach Connell) who I love with all my heart and owe everything in my life too. Both sides of this disagreement have valid facts (most of which have been listed somewhere along the lines of this thread). I'm just sick of how people get on here make claims about my dad when they know nothing of what they speak. They don't know what goes on behind the scenes. They don't know about my family and what goes on at our house (themessenger). How much has my father given to this sport? I'm not just talking about at the High School level either. And to the people that say he was just trying to add to his trophy case. I want to know where this trophy case is. OK? Because I haven't seen it. Why is that? Because my dad is the most humble person I have ever known. There is not one trophy in our house except for my personal State Championship medals. Maybe I should take after my dad and just throw those medals and brackets and plaques and trophies in some secluded closet at McCallie. This is where the ones that haven't been thrown away are, in a little Janitor's closet in the wrestling room. My dad works hard year in and year out and never asks or looks for any recognition. My dad continues to give his life to the sport. You should see his office at home it is filled with over 2000 videos of wrestling. Different clinics he has gone to, different Olympics (everyone since 1974) he has gone to, NCAA’s, Olympic team trials, Big 10 championships, World Cups, National Championships (Vegas), the list goes on and on. Heck, one day I went home and there was a message on our answering machine for my dad from Dan Gable (who by the way has slept at our house before)! He knows so much wrestling it is ridiculous! I usually kid with people and tell them if you don’t say something to my dad that has to do with wrestling then he won’t be interested or care to talk about it. It’s only a joke, but probably has some truth to it. He has coached a state championship team in 4 different decades now! Hixson in the late 70’s… McCallie, in the 80’s, 90’s, and a state dual championship in 2003. He himself is still wrestling. For those of you who didn’t know he won the Nationals two years ago in Las Vegas by tech-falling Wayne Boyd (if you know much about wrestling you should know who he is a former NCAA champion)! And he is going to be wrestling this year at the young age of 56 in the FILA World Championships. I don’t need to go on, because my dad wouldn’t want me to. Bottom line is my dad doesn’t deserve all this badgering and all these accusations from anyone. The situation he was in was probably the toughest one he has had to face as a coach right next to the TSSAA scandal. If everyone knew all the details involved they would be saying well what’s a guy to do? I openly told my dad that if I were in his position I probably would have handled it differently. I wasn’t sure if I agreed with how it all went down, but I don’t even know all the details as I am off away in college at UTK. All I do know is that Spencer is a great guy and a great friend of mine, and so is my Dad. I’m glad that someone mentioned me in this argument. My situation last year was very similar to Spencer’s (although not as tough a situation, there was no promise made to another wrestler that year or anything else that factored into this mess of an argument). I weighed normally about 150. The same I weighed my junior year when I won it at 145. I wanted to go 145 again, but like this year we also had the problem of a few of us (Me, Ryan Scott, Steven Levitt) weighing about the same. Justin Blair, Spencer, and Andrew Smith weighed about the same too. None of us wrestled off. We just looked at each weight class and figured out what was best for the team. As most of you know I lost last year to Adam Stark from Father Ryan 3 times before the state tournament. As much as I hate to admit it he even majored me once at the Ryan tourney. I was giving up weight, I mean heck look at Stark this year winning it at 171 (I still weigh around 150, although I might have added some lazy college pounds). Each of those three times I lost to Stark I kept thinking of how could this happen to me my senior year. Everyday in the practice room I thought of one thing winning state, and more particularly Adam Stark. Everyone was real supportive of me and I always tried to keep my mind clear of negative thoughts. Coach Jim Blair helped me a lot with this aspect and it was the difference for me come state time. My mindset was focused clear of the negatives and ready to rumble with Stark. That match was the one match of my entire career at McCallie that I went out onto the mat in total relaxation with no nerves rattling at all. I was free to wrestle my match and do it for the glory of God as Coach Blair so gracefully reminded me. It was a challenge. I was giving up weight too. I felt I should have been at 145 but I knew what was best for the team so did Steven Levitt who weighed no more than me and wrestled 160. The saddest part about this whole thing is that I personally feel that Spencer is a better wrestler than Marable, but with all that added pressure caused by a 3-month argument from both sides of the coin and the pressure to defend your state title and give up that much weight to a wrestler of Marable’s caliber is a VERY TALL ORDER. The team was set, they could have won state and Spencer could have won. The one thing that I think my dad learned most from this situation is to remember to include how much pressure a high school wrestler is going to be feeling and the level of distraction he will have to deal with when he is put into this situation. My dad did not factor that into the equation and that is sole reason for Spencer’s loss to Marable. With the pressure and the distractions from all the arguing from both sides it must have been pretty darn hard to concentrate on wrestling itself. And for that I feel terrible for my buddy Spencer. I know he is going to work hard and train for senior nationals where I think he will definitely fair well. And I know that he will be a great asset to the Naval Academy or UVA where ever he goes on and off the mat. Spencer will always be a 3-timer in my book as well as everyone else’s too I’m sure of it!! And for all of you who continue to downgrade my father I have a very fitting Bible verse for you: “…He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone…” –John 8:7 KJV

Morelanmn, I agree with just about all of your points... Except I disagree that high school coaches are responsible for these type of actions. When I was at McCallie I played football and wrestled. Every year Coach Ralph Potter (McCallie's head football coach) encouraged the lineman and linebackers to wrestle because he told them it would help them with quickness and mental toughness for football. Also I was a defensive back and my position coach, Coach Kenny Sholl, told me my junior year that running track in the spring would help me improve my overall footwork (speed, agility, etc.). And it did. And at the same time my dad (Gordon Connell) and Coach Mike Newman never encouraged anyone to just wrestle. They did tell me and my teammates that wrestling year round would improve our skills immensely which is very true. But then they left it up to us to decide. There are many kids (usually the best wrestlers) who realize that "just wrestling" and not competing in any other high school sports IS what is RIGHT for for them (i.e. Jordan Leen, Kyle James, Spencer Manley, the Simpsons, and the Dunnings etc.). But then again there are those who realize that it IS NOT RIGHT for them. This is how I was in high school. My Sophomore year I "just wrestled" for all three seasons. After that school year was over with I was so burned out from wrestling that it wasn't even fun for me anymore. The next fall I played football again and it helped me a lot in preparaton for wrestling season in a different way. By the time that wrestling season rolled around I had a great desire to get back on the mat. There are many other wrestlers from around the state that are multi-sport athletes Ryan Scott, the Marable brothers, from my graduating class: Chase Mctorry, Jes Greenwood, Blake Goodman, Jack Silberman. The list goes on. While I played more than one sport I still considered wrestling to be my main sport. This is true for some, not necessarily everyone. Anyways I personally feel that the reason wrestling isn't more popular is because yes it is true that "anyone can wrestle, and it is made fair with weight classes etc." but realistically it is not a sport for everyone. You have to be mentally and physically tough, you have to be able to accept personal defeat in front of a giant crowd and be humble in response to a great personal acheivement in front of a giant crowd. So why isn't it more popular among competitors? Because there are only a select few out there who can handle everything that goes along with taking it to the mat. It all comes down to the individuals. It is not what the coaches or spectators or CoachT'ers do or say. It is how the individual athlete responds to what everyone else is saying or doing.

Coach Logsdon, I want to apologize to you for whoever this Bluewhirlygig person is. I personally do not know. But what I do know is that he is totally misrepresentative of me, my fellow teammates, my dad, and my school. In fact these Bradley and McCallie arguements make me sick. I can't stand reading all this crap that these people say about why you choose not to wrestle us or other D2 schools. I totally understand you and the Bradley faithful's point of view, and if I were in your postion I would maybe even think the same way. Bradley wrestling has a rich tradition that I am very familiar with. Growing up and watching McCallie and Bradley matches back in the late 80's and early 90's I can always remember them being barn-burners. I can remeber my dad (even though he would most likely not want me to say this) when he would be so serious with his coaching especially when his teams wrestled Bradley. That is because he respected/respects them. I personally have a history with wrestling good bradley wrestlers. When I was younger Matt Keller and I would always wrestle each other in the little league tournaments. Sad to say that I never beat him. But we always had tough little matches against each other. And then during my middle school years at McCallie I wrestled Michael Creagan I think three times he pinned me the first time when I was in 7th grade and I couldn't believe it. I can remeber that match vividly, I remember how that was the first time anyone had every really thrown legs in on me and I had no idea what to do! I wreslted him later that year and beat him something like 4-3 in a good tough match. And he then beat me again when we wrestled our 8th grade year. So I know how good Bradley wrestling is. These people on these boards that argue about this stuff really don't have a clue about the individuals. Even though I have never met you I know that you are a good man. I have watched you coach over the last couple years and seen you display characteristics of great class and humility. This is very true for many DI coaches in our area, Coach Steve Henry, Coach Danny Glibert, Coach Roger Vandergriff, Coach Brad Jackson to name a few. And the people that feel that we at McCallie and in particular my dad have a grudge toward you and your program could be no further from the truth. I can honestly sit here and tell you that I have never once heard my dad use any derogatory comment regarding you, your program, or any other program for that matter (including Baylor!) . This is because he is such a strong Christian man. Yes he can get very animated in the heat of battle, but that is just normal competive human nature...Sorry for the rambling on but I was just very disgusted at Bluewhirleygig's accusations/comments on this whole situation. Even though a dual meet with yall would be a lot of fun with some of the match ups (I would enjoy the challenge that your boy Catlett would give me) I and the rest of the true McCallie men understand why yall feel the way you do. The best of luck to you and your team this year Coach.