delaWarr

According to my Source, '99 was the year that Bradley beat Matre Dei, and that was Steve Craig's senior year. Antonio Boyd was a junior that year and placed in the State, and it was during his senior year in 2000 that he won the State.

As mentioned in another post, Bradley beat Matre Dei in this tournament. I believe it was either '96 or '97. MD needed to win the 215 finals to take the team championship, but an East Lit finalist at that weight got in his way. The best I remember, BC included the East Lit 215 champion in their team picture.

dd09, Note in my above post that the reference to USA camps is in past tense. As far as I know they no longer sponsor technique camps for all comers on the scholastic level, which was the camp I was referring to. I believe they stopped sponsoring those camps in the early to mid nineties. But realizing the value of the psychological aspect, I would be surprised if they did not utilize some level of exposure among the scholastic elite or specific competition training camps...if indeed, they still sponsor camps for select athletes. (I have been out of the mix for some time.)

When USA WRESTLING sponsored camps, they had an excellent session on psychology each day during the camp. The personnel they had on staff contributed a great deal to the quality of the program, but USA may have literature that addresses what you are looking for. Russ Hellicksen at Ohio State consistently offers a talk session that is worth the price of admission in his camps. He has had a camp at Brentwood High the past few years.

twittycanes, Isn't your question something you should take up with the coach of the team you support? I would imagine that a coach who is getting ready to pull off three tournaments in one weekend has his hands full right now.

Matre Dei has been tough ever since they have come to the tournament at Brentwood. Bradley Central is the only team to beat them (once) there. They are able to rack up points through placing so many in the medal rounds. Does anyone have the scoop on Matre Dei this season...their strength from bottom to top? Will the field, which looks to be solid, have the depth to knock of enough of the MD wrestlers to open it up for another team...Franklin probably being the favorite...to take the championship?

Dunning grew up in the sport. His father is one of the most knowledgeable (technique, application, and strategy) coaches around. His proven team coach has the longest track record within one of the limited number of elite programs dating back to the first decade of TSSAA wrestling. Whitt is himself a talented athlete, dedicated to being the best he can be. Those resources and his willingness to buy into them, as evidenced by his record and by seeing him in action, place him at the top. Whitt very well may be the most polished wrestler in the state this year.

dragonwrestler, In a post above you wrote "...but as far as D2 qualifiers, you have to keep in mind that they do graduate more kids from their varsity than the average D1." I don't understand what you are saying. Can you elaborate a little?

Louise, There is another thread on the board that addresses your post: The best wrestler who never won the State. Eric absolutely had all that it takes to be called State Champion. As you pointed out, a serious injury at that level becomes an additional tough opponent on the mat. bhsOL, Shawn ONeal lost in the State finals to Kevin Johnson of Chattanooga Central in '91. As someone else pointed out, Kevin was named OW at one State. To the best of my recall, the OW followed that match. The two swapped wins back and forth during their careers. I was told that they ended up tied in wins in matches betweem the two of them.

Hamm, Try a search engine for the tapes. One site had SEASON ON THE MAT in hardcover listed, used $29 up and new at about $135...out of print according to a site.

Muffin, Wrong board. "Rasslin?"

Hamm, The sum of your posts reveals knowledge, insights, and passions that can come only from someone whose commitment is absolute. Since my own loose connection to the activity came to an end at about the time the more rigid structure was apparently not working out, your posts on these boards became the connection. The upturn in activity was obvious. Over time, those of us who followed your posts could read the progression that was leading to those things for which you are so justly proud. I agree with Sundancer. You don't owe anybody an apology.

Bobby is one of those kids that wrestling coaches hope they get one like occasionally. He has the ability, aptitude, drive, intellect, passion (total love of the sport) that puts him in the rare class. As a sophomore he placed third in DI and was on an upward spiral. There is no doubt that had he remained in Tennessee for his junior year, the placements in one DI weight class would have been different last year. There is no surprise that during his senior year he is competing on the Reno level. Given that he has a coach like Coach Blair or his equivelant, the surprise would be if he were not competing on that level.

Wrestling USA Magazine site lists Bobby Musser in the finals of the Reno Tournament of Champions datelined Reno, Nevada December 21, 2004.

Hamm, From the perspective of someone who kept in touch with MTSU wrestling activity in a distant, detached sort of way during the past few years, I judge that your tenure was about as successful as it could be based on what I perceive is the nature of the activity mission and the limiting circumstance of the student leadership position. From my casual observation, the University's activity mission appears to be to provide for those students who so choose an opportunity to participate in wrestling on a scope that ranges from working out on the University mat, all the way through inter-institution competition, regional competition, and competition on a national level for those who qualify. The student leadership can offer direction. It can encourage student involvement in a variety of ways, but it can neither command nor demand without the consent of those being commanded or demanded of. Leadership may be at the mercy of any and every activity on or off campus that is more appealing at the moment to any given student-wrestler than making it to any given practice session. The leadership changes regularly, every year or so. One such change is currently in transition. How many successful, or even semi-successful, athletic groups could be named that changes leadership (coaches) so often? No Hamm, in retrospect, the earlier characterization of your leadership role as "commendable" is inadequate. Think of some appropriately complimentary superlative that you would like to see attached to it. You deserve it.

'At a boy Hamm. Never read that tone in your posts before. Good to know that beyond that mild-manner, congenial, positive disposition that unwarranted criticism will receive its just response. You continue to make valuable voluntary contributions to the sport. Your efforts at MTSU have been commendable.

Few programs have the continuous stream of top-end performance that Bradley has built for itself and are ready to step up and claim the prize when opportunity presents itself. An uninterrupted tradition, program maturation it might be called, contributes mightily toward sustaining itself. It very well may take more than a less-than-overwhelming talent pool alone to best Bradley (especially in, but not limited to, dual competition).

The Title IX numbers crunchers apparently agree with the anti-sport designation for cheerleading also. Count my vote among the folks favoring sport designation for cheerleading.

Congratulations to Fern Creek (Kentucky, I assume) for winning the championship over a geographically diverse 16 team field. Congratulations to Brentwood Middle and to Coach Steve Craig for a solid 2nd place finish.

Hey 911, When you "see how the middle TN media reads the results", post the source for us fans here in the Mid-State. We have trouble finding media wrestling results on our own.

Hamm, Thanks for posting results. It allows more of us to have a stake in the action. A suggestion that might make your reports more inclusive is to give the school names rather than abbreivations. While most of us may be familiar with higher-profile teams, i. e. UT-C, some us may be in the dark on the identities of lesser-known abbreivations.

The Traditional tournament, in addition to giving individuals opportunities to win golds that go home with them, also gives teams opportunities to win awards that go home with them. That is the way it has been from the beginning. The introduction and success of the Duals has not in any way deminished the honor and sense of achievement associated with winning the biggest team prize that Tennessee wrestling has to offer.

In the early post-split past, there were overtures to the DI coaches group by the DII coaches group to unite the two divisions once again in the Traditional and recognize only individual championships...no team points, no team scores. The proposal was not met with favor by the DI coaches. I have no knowledge of positions on this idea in more recent years. In the Traditional, there are some of us fans who enjoy the dual pursuits to win gold by individuals and by teams. That is the way it has been from the beginning. That is the way we conduct our Invitationals that give individual placements. To change the Traditional to no team scores would create a whole different atmosphere. The addition of the Dual Tournament by the TSSAA during the late '80s gave teams an additional avenue to compete with one another toward winning a championship. Some of us (maybe most of us) have come to appreciate the entertainment value of each tournament and would be disappointed to lose any of that value provided by either tournament.

Texas, There was a post early in the season that asked which area of the state is the best in wrestling. There was speculation that the area around Chattanooga was head and shoulders above the rest of the state. There was a mix of speculation about who was second. The areas laid out by the initial poster were, generally speaking, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, Memphis. With these general areas in mind, points and placement rankings were calculated to give information to help with the speculation/analysis. In the recent post, I was just picking up where we left off on the other post with this year's calculation. This is for the folks who want to think in terms of four geographic areas. For those who don't want to think in those terms, it certainly is a valid option not to. Historically, the wrestling community has thought in terms of these four general areas when divying the state into wrestling segments. Maybe we have reached a point that these four divisions no longer apply. Although, from my observations, the four divisions seem to still be pretty strong in the minds of a lot of people. The breakdown as I have offered it indicates, once the obvious is stated, which is that the team championships are won by Southeastern teams signigicantly more often than Mid-State teams, that the wrestlers from other areas enjoy a significant presence in their performance on the state level, as reflected by the points scored for their teams through wins and placements.