ArtusCimber

I think Bundy's showing was probably the most impressive of the tournament. Brings to mind, but actually is a little more inspiring, than one Mr. Josh Bosken. Any kid who is aspiring to greatness should look at this performance. It's what wrestling is all about.

Waylon Lowe never showed his potential in high school, but I think it's safe to say that he's shown it at Findlay. He's also going to graduate in May, which is better than anything he's accomplished on the mat. It took some work to get him out of Jefferson County and on the right track, but looking back it was all worth it. I'm more proud of him than I can ever say.

Cordell finds ways to win, and that's what it's all about. Not too many kids could finish a match like he did against Bo. That's why he's a three timer. In my opinion, one of the signs of a great wrestler is that they don't concede points for long. When they get scored on, they get their points right back. Thats' what Shawn did against Bo. I hope Usary learns that lesson. It would help him a great deal.

I wasn't surprised at all to see Chad there. I've liked him since the first time I watched him wrestle as a freshman. He's physical and gutty, exactly my kind of kid. Folks can speculate all they want. He was there and nobody can take that away.

Well, this one sure was something. I had a pile of challenges this year. Graduating seven, then dealing with the quitting epidemic that's seemed to plague so many teams this year...the first half of the season had me worn out and perplexed. Finishing tenth at Parkland in December, then eighth in the state...I would never have thought it. Anytime a kid wins state it is sweet. Waage just worked so hard, and Bosken just loved wrestling so much, but Ty is another story altogether. When his dad brought him into the room five summers ago I would never have thought I'd be writing this today. One of those things it's nice to be wrong about. This was five years of travail, and a much more arduous path than the other two. Many disappointments, all of which now matter not one whit. Everyone involved will agree that it's worth it. Getting Andre to state and getting Tommy a medal was a real plus too. Bo Usary is now on the screen. Look out for him in the future. I'm personally thankful for a loss that helped me regain the proper perspective on things. It's nice to get back to wanting to learn. I've got a bunch now that could be the best I've ever had. And I think they see it. Whatever the case, the next two years are going to be a great deal of fun. Thanks to Sandy Cody and Randy Shelton. You guys are the best. You bring things to this situation that I don't have, and this year it's been more help than ever. Let's keep on the path of the beam in our quest for the tower. Thanks to Buster Brimer for starting this web and thanks to everyone all over the state for recognizing my kids and saying nice things about the program. It is very motivating. We won't be hiding this offseason we'll be riding. Hopefully next year will be one that shows progress. Later Artus Cimber

Great job Scott, Chad, and Justin. I know you guys have had a hard time this season, but this has to mark most of that out. Justin, I hope to see you on the top step next year. Kerry and Joe-you guys have done a great job-if you ever decide to get into this for real, move to Johnson City. We have a microbrewery and a Barnes and Noble. The city has the right perspective on its college football, and there's NO TRAFFIC!! You'd love it here. Besides, I need all the help I can get.

Bo lost to Ryan Fuller in the consolations. Ty won his semifinals match and has the opportunity to become our third champ in three years. Schnell lost. Hopefully he'll get back to third. I think the team is in seventh. Not bad for a rebuilding year. I'll do a close of season post first of next week. Thanks to whoever started this thread. It's been fun. I think it's Buster. Maybe we can get some more Golfview pizza sometime.

Bo is a sophomore. Wants to be a two time state champ. I think he may have a shot.

Any Topper fans out there: We're down to three heading into the semifinals. Bo Usary lost to Shawn Cordell in the final seconds. Hoping he can come on back. He really thinks he can, and tha's what really matters. Ty Cody and Tommy Schnell have both made it to the semis. Let's hope Science Hill can have two finalists for the first time ever. We're seventh in the team race. Two finalists could put us in place for a possible top five. Let's hope....

Thirteen medals would be the most for region once since I started coaching. Looks like a group that could pull that off. Good luck this weekend; let's do it right Region I.

Look out for Bo Usary. With the exception of pure physical power, at this point in his career he's better than the best kid I've ever coached in every other aspect of wrestling, especially mentally. That kid was Waylon Lowe.

I don't need to tell anybody that Spencer Manley is the real deal. When Ty Cody was just beginning to wrestle, the first thing he was able to do well was counter takedowns. He's developed into a fairly total wrestler. Spencer was able to take him down pretty much at will. Ty's being able to ride him the second period was an act of damage control for which I was thankful. Spencer is a total package. He's strong and technically sound. I saw Marable this summer. That's gonna be one heck of a match, maybe a classic. Hopefully Ty will be in the finals on the other mat. Save me the tape Tim.

We miss you Clint.

Tennessee High is hosting Region 1

Science Hill will have 11 starters back next year. Only one will be a senior.

Brad Jackson is one of the best coaches and finest people I've encountered in the sport. Class all the way.

Well, for those of you who care, we rebounded from last week's loss tonight to win 34-30. Andre Gillispie came from behind at 171 to score a near fall in the final two seconds and win his match. It was up to Schnell to seal the deal with a pin, which he did. Kudos to Matt Drish who came back after a three week injury to get a pin, and to Luke Williams who pinned his opponent after being pinned last week. As someone in our region predicted last year, the Toppers were in the mix. Great week for the kids and for me. I learned a great deal about myself. Like I said before, my guys are warriors. We're happy to get to come to the party again. Thanks to everyone for taking an interest in Topper wrestling. We'll see you Friday.

Thanks. My only goal is for us to live those few minutes well. See you tonight.

Interesting, Coach Delgado. I had a kid come in last year from football who was 25% bodyfat at 241 pounds. Our football coach had the audacity to claim that I wasn't interested in his health because I wanted him to cut to 215. Wow. I'd agree with you on the testing, but it will be a task competing with football coaches who follow the rationale (as ours does) that the heavier you are, the stronger you'll be. Then, when we get a kid in and tell him we want him to get bigger, he discourages them with the rationale that the arduous conditioning of wrestling will keep them from gaining weight. Light and in condition is apparently no good. Fat and out of shape seems to be the credo here. It blows my mind.

Our first year at the duals (2001) we were welcomed to Clarksville with a 63-3 clubbing at the hands of Soddy-Daisy. Jon Edmonds won 2-1. I often said the only determining factor in whether or not they could have shut us out repeatedly would have been how many times Jon could squeeze out that victory. That kind of greeting was perfectly in line with my sense of justice and fair play. We were the new guys and needed to get treated as such. Right now, Bradley and Soddy are the class of division I. They have consistently, year in and out, put quality teams on the mat. They deserve, in my opinion, to be separated in the brackets. The rest of us (of whom SHHS may not even be a part this year) are still aspiring. The road to the duals finals goes through those two programs. In the last two years, all of us have crashed and burned there. Right now, I'm just trying to enjoy consistent success at the regional level. Steve and Steve, you guys are the real deal. I just hope one day soon I can swap ironman war stories with the legman.

I understood what you were up to, BOTW. No problems on my part. By the way, the region duals are at Greeneville. Round one will be Greeenville versus Science Hill and Dobyns-Bennet versus Morrisown East. Winners wll wrestle for the championship. Match time is 6:30. Thanks to everyone for the good posts. I love you too matrat.

Last night we beat Tennessee High 62-12 and Daniel Boone 54-24. This looks to put us in the first round of the regional duals against Greeneville. The other matchup is looking like Dobyns-Bennett versus Morristown East. Looks like some good close matches shaping up.

I don't know. I can't remember having any teachers named bobbyboy.

Our tournament schedule has been as follows. We opened in the Catholic Invitational. Cody was the champion there, defeating Moore of Baylor in the finals. We then went to the Mustang Stampede in Winston-Salem North Carolina. It is an excruciatingly brutal tournament featuring Durham Riverside and some of the better teams from all the different classifications in NC. Cody was champion there, defeating a state placer from Riverside in the semis and Byron Sigmon of Bandys in the finals. He pinned him actually. I didn't know it until after the match but it was a big deal to several coaches there. Apparently the kid is one of the best in NC. It is a killer tournament and I'll go there as long as I'm still invited. We've been two years and loved it. The win got Ty some OW votes from some of the coaches there (Vincent Ramirez of Riverside won that-if you haven't seen this kid, you're missing out-he's the real deal). We then went to the Woodford County Kentucky tournament, a 24 team tournament which features some of the best in Kentucky. It is a tough tournament and allows me to see all my old friends from back in the day when I first started coaching. Cody pinned his way through that tournament, which wasn't really all that tough at 152. We then were a last minute entry in a small invitational at John Battle High in Bristol VA. We got in there when a dual meet with Owatonna, MN was snowed out. Cody pinned his way through there as well and was voted OW. Then we went to the GIT where Ty lost to Spencer Manley (who is an incredibly classy kid and a brawler after my own heart). He then won our tournament, the Scott Fandetti Brawl. The tournament is held in memory of a wrestler of mine at Jeff County who died in a car wreck shortly after his 16th birthday. The weekend we have this is marked historically by bad weather and has turned into a sort of 11E/Interstate 81 tournament. The field has pretty much evolved based on who could get here as opposed to being a killer tournament. Still, it is very nice, has great pageantry, and helps us all remember a great kid who represented all the good things about this sport. Anyway, that is what SHHS and Cody have done. I hope that no one is implying that we haven't wrestled anybody. That would be both not very nice and relatively inaccurate. Plus, it wouldn't be fair to Ty. Heck, we only had to drive 30 minutes to get trounced by Baylor and McCallie. A two hour drive to Knoxville to get creamed by Baylor and Parkview is a real bargain in my estimation. The reality is that NC is closer than Memphis or Nashville (and that Mustang Stampede...what a tournament!), I go to Kentucky for sentimental reasons, and the Fandetti is something I do for Scott Fandetti and his family. Hopefully we'll be making that six hour trip to Clarksville. Or maybe it's that some of you out there would like to see us more often. That's really flattering. I'll honestly take that into consideration when I schedule next year. Really. I'm not being a wiseacre. I'm pondering some changes.

Science Hill is fine. We lost 37-35 to Dobyns-Bennett last night. That is our one loss. Coach Mann has picked up a couple of kids late in the season and they are, in my opinion, a very solid team. They were also very gracious and classy in victory, as I would expect them to be. We graduated seven kids last year from a team that finished fourth in the duals and sixth in the traditional tournament. A team at the duals last year with which I was very impressed was Collierville. They seem to be at the very least where I thought they'd be last year. We are a very young team. We presently put three seniors and one junior on the mat. My goal as a coach was to qualify for the duals again this year. Anything beyond that would be gravy. That goal is still within our reach. We had not lost a dual meet to a region one team since late in the 2001 season, and last night's loss smarts. Still, we rebounded with a 69-12 victory against Sullivan East (six of their points were forfeits). I was really proud of my guys. They were all down, they didn't want to wrestle that match, but they went out and did. We're going to try to regroup next week and defend our region duals title. I feel good about our chances. This program is really in its infancy. We're functionally four years old. A challenge I failed to meet at Jefferson County was to keep the program consistently competitive on the state level. I've done better here, but we're not there yet. I still have much to learn. Having said that, I have been proud of my teams because the last two years at the duals we scrapped our way into the top four when not too many people gave us a chance. Two years ago we went 7-7 in our semifinal match with Soddy-Daisy. The people there respect what we're trying to do, and that's some right fine respect from where I stand. We may not even get to Clarksville this year, but if we do I'm sure my guys will do their best as we try to develop the consistency of of some of the better programs in the state. If that doesn't happen, the fault is mine. I have great support here, and I wouldn't trade my kids for any in the state; they're warriors and I love them.