tnmat

Whoa!!! I left for a few days and didn't realize that this topic would bust open like it did! I do, however, still need to say something. (pardon me if I say something that has already been discussed, I haven't been able to read all the posts) Earlier I asked another user of these boards if they thought that it was only DI people who were involved in splitting up sports in TN, or if DII people were also involved. The reason that I asked this question was not to defend public schools, but rather to put a few things in perspective. I think everyone that views or posts on these boards needs to step outside their little world for a moment and see the big picture: IT WAS NOT ONLY THE OTHER GUY AT FAULT! What do I mean by this? I mean, simply, that no one person or group of persons is responsible for the segregating of sports in Tennessee. First of all, it is not only the wrestling community's fault. Second, it is not only DI's fault... OR DII's. It is not only football's fault, or basketball's, or baseball's, or Brentwood Academy's, or Shelbyville's. Notice, I didn't say that it wasn't anyone's fault at all (excuse me if I referred to your particular affiliation). What I was trying to get at earlier, and what I believe everyone needs to realize, is that we are ALL (except for one group) at fault! At least in some way, some more than others, we are at fault for this disaster of a decision. DII (in general, please don't think that I'm pointing out any one particular school, or saying that no school was innocent of this offense) for not being willing to give up fin aid to their students, and for breaking rules before the split. DI for not being willing to let them, and for refusing to give them a second chance. Coaches for their involvement, parents for their lack of involvement. The TSSAA for being a staging grounds, and the Supreme Court for finalizing it. I mean, honestly, not one person can definitively say that they had nothing to do with the split. The only group of persons that are innocent of this is the athletes... and that is only because they are the victims, not the criminals. People... I'm not pointing fingers... I'm only telling the truth... that we all are at fault. There is no doubt that this split has affected wrestling more than probably every other high school sport, and that is all the more reason to rise up and fight it! Not to back down. Yeah... I'm done. PS: I was referring to the TSSAA, not Ronnie Carter. He may represent the TSSAA, but I don't think he is an accurate example of their views sometimes. I think he is, however, our hope among the TSSAA ranks, though.

Are you sure that it was only DI coaches? No DII coaches?

Those states do have more than one division... it's just that they keep the individual championship one big tourney, while the duals are split into multiple divisions. I see nothing wrong with this system, and don't understand why we can't do this. I believe that the only thing keeping TN from having a combined indiv. tournament is the TSSAA. Indiana has an individual tournament with no team scores. I think an approach like this one could work. I just think that it takes all of the coaches and athletes coming together for it. I can't think of any reason why anyone would be opposed to such a proposal... DI or DII. A DI Dual Championship, a DII Dual Championship, and a combined individual tournament... I truly think it could work. The question is not whether it would work or not, though. The question is whether or not people will unite to make such a plan come to fruition. If I were 5 years older, I'd be in the thick of things and trying to make it happen, but I'm a college student with too much studying to do before I can even think of doing something like that. My hope is that someone will have the guts to step out from the crowd and be a leader... but my guess is that we are lacking in the "leaders" area at this time. However, I would not be disappointed if someone proved me wrong.

Does anyone here think this is a good thing? I'm not sure how I feel about this whole issue, but I do know one thing, and that is that many northern states have been split for years, and don't even have close to the controversy over it like we do. They are way past that, and competitors from each division don't even think about competing against each other. It is a real shame... I'm afraid that Tennessee will end up that way.

Go to http://aau.tnmat.net and click on the schedule link. If you have not yet signed up for the AAU, you can also do that through the site.

Phillip... you ROCK! I and others are truly blessed to know you. You are an incredible wrestler with much tenacity, heart, and most of all... class. Congratulations on becoming Phillip the all-american. I hope next year we can call you Phillip the NATIONAL CHAMPION!

The Tennessee AAU website is at http://aau.tnmat.net If you go to the schedule link, it won't give you the times, but will give you the necessary contacts to get them. I know it doesn't help now, but I am hoping that posting this will help someone out for future tournaments/events. - TNMAT

Who's chances was he hurting? And How?

nununu, Would you rather the official to continue his job, and end up in a situation where a call must decide a match, but be distracted by his current son's match? I think I'd rather him do the smart thing by going ahead and watching the match, rather than allowing his son's match to go on while trying to do an efficient job officiating. Just my opinion. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I've seen a triple OT before... You can ask my brother about his triple OT match in middle school. Boy, was that (not) exciting. Two middle schoolers who are new to the sports just standing around waiting for the other to shoot because they are both too tired to go on. But hey, it set a middle school record for Metro-Nashville wrestling for the longest recorded match!

The reason why I didn't put any of the Williamson Co. papers in there is because they are run by the Tennessean, which would make them part of the Tennessean... That is why Rob Sherrill has done many of there articles. You are very right about the Clarksville paper. It's the leaf chronicle. It's great... I'd make them #3 on the list As far as the chattanoogan is concerned, I wish they did more coverage. They have done nothing more than post results all season long, and finally gave some coverage of the state tournament. However, I would be overstating it if I said it was thorough in nature.

I'm not sure about cities as a whole, but as far as the newspapers are concerned, I rank them as follows: 1)Cleveland Daily Banner (Cleve) - Simply excellent coverage all around... 2)Nashville City Paper (Nash) - Completely unbiased reporting all the way through the season by Dominic Bonvissuto. 3)Times Free Press (Chatt) - Chattanooga reporting was down a little this year from past years, but I would say that was just coincidence, and they'll probably pick it up in the near future. This is normally the #1 newspaper for high school sports. 4)The Tennessean (Nash) - Our very own Rob Sherrill does a great job with keeping the word out for Middle Tennessee wrestling... he also pulls double and triple duty, reporting for other newspapers as well sometimes. This is fourth mainly because the Tennessean doesn't give him enough to report on (and the typos, lol, but that's the editor's fault)... I kinda wanted to do a whole top 5 report, but I couldn't really think of any others who really stood out. The Knox-News Sentinal and gomemphis.com do a poor job of reporting for their areas. Those wrestlers deserve better. Anyway, there's mine. Any other nominations? [Edited by dom730 on 2-20-03 12:06P]

most nashville public schools are running into a problem with Pedro Garcia (I believe he's the director of schools) and his belief that people schould not be allowed to use their own wrestling facilities outside of the season without paying ridiculous amounts of money.

I'm stickin' to my guns... I still think you guys deserve the Best Match Award, so here it is... I'm officially awarding you with the "Brian Drinkwine's officially unofficial Best Match Award that really means nothing but a compliment" award. Congratulations. You guys showed, in my opinion the most thrilling heavyweight finals match I've ever seen, filled with determination, stamina, heart and guts. Good luck next year. We can't wait to see you here as a Moc. [Edited by tnmat on 2-18-03 12:33A]

Can anyone tell me why the Hwt match between Pennington and Crosby was not selected for the best match award in DI? To me it was an obvious choice, but apparently their was something in the 103 lbs. match I didn't see. Can anyone shed any light on this matter?

Just so everyone knows, the person who has been posting under my screenname is not me... I don't know who it is. They identified themselves as "the flee" in an earlier post, but I don't think most people recognized it. I have had to change my password already... I don't know who it is, but thought that it would be appropriate to let everyone know this since those comments about the ref were not from me. Thanks tnmat

No... not necessarily. Markese Nelson and Charles McTorry were about equal in high school success. Maybe what you are saying is that Nelson beat McTorry. And that is very well tru. However, McTorry was a junior, and I don't think I would be going out on a limb to say that McTorry was better in his senior year than Nelson was in his senior year. But that's just my opinion, and I'm sure there are plenty who would disagree.

I'd say that 135 is the toughest weight... with five returning placewinners, and three wrestlers ranked in the top six are not among those wrestlers (Baker, Drinkwine, and Hodge). Also, unranked wrestlers like Chase Carter, Aaron Walker, Jesse Gainer, and Mario Allen are all possible placewinners. Predicting the placewinners at this weight is harder than any other since the competition is so tight. RETURNING PLACERS: John Lane (SD, 11) - 2nd @ 130, 2002; 5th @ 119, 2001 Max Gessler (Tull, 10) - 6th @ 125, 2002 Matt Morgan (Cleve, 12) - 6th @135, 2002 Chris Sholly (Smy,12) - 4th @125, 2001 Luke Sanders (Mont Ce, 11) - 3rd @ 135, 2002

It seems as if the brackets are being drawn up currently... You can got to http://www.tnmat.net and click on the link for State Tourn. brackets, or go to the tssaa website and click on the link there. Well... any predictions? Let's here 'em.

There is a direct link to the TSSAA brackets from tssaa.org on the http://www.tnmat.net homepage.

Wildcat1, Correct me if I'm wrong, but did Sholly and Gessler wrestle another time other than when Sholly almost majored (15-9) Gessler at the T-Town Rumble? Please inform me... I have not heard about this match.

Hello, As the vast majority of you know, my name is Brian Drinkwine. I am the older brother of Jonathan Drinkwine, and know that he is NOT "overtonrox". I do not know who that person is, but I know that they are not the typical representative of Overton wrestling. I feel that I can speak for most all Overton fans/wrestlers, when I say that the Overton wrestling program does not stand for politics, trash talk, or childish games... but instead, it hopes to represent hard work, determination, and heart. I know that Jonathan could care less about what people say on this board, and would probably be disgusted to here that he is even a topic of discussion. As far as I know, he has never even looked at this board. However, that is not the point. The point is that those who misrepresent Overton, Soddy Daisy, or any other team, can just as soon leave this message board for all I care. I would rather die than listen to their classless, trashy, immature, pointless and unsportsmanlike insinuating remarks about other teams and their wrestlers. To those who are disgusted as much by these people's remarks as I am, I would suggest simply ignoring their statements, for they aren't worth listening to.

I believe you are mistaken on the Mondelli/Jordan thing. Neither Derrick or Eric Jordan ever lost to a Mondelli (though I would not predict either scenario). Mark Mondelli was wrestling Eric Covington at the State Duals when he had a near-side cradle and bit him in the chest. Just a correction, although I do agree that Mondelli was an incredible wrestler, and worthy to be "nominated" as a tough man.

Though very brief, this is my description of what I saw: Gooden came out looking really good. Off the whistle he got in on a single leg, but went for a big clinic move and went to his back. In the second period he went for another big time move by going for a headlock with an inside trip, but again went too hard and got rolled thru to his back. By the time he was down 10-1, I really think he just gave up the match. The fact is that he probably could've won the match, but didn't wrestle a "smart" match. However, I'll give him a lot of credit for guts. He went straight for Lane from the first whistle. Good luck to both at state. [Edited by tnmat on 1-24-03 2:43P]

Yes, Empro, I think you are confusing Erick with Derrick. Even still, I have to correct you on your statement... Erick didn't just take "lung discomfort" timeouts. However, from the outside looking in, it may have seemed that way, so I don't fault you in any way. He had full blown asthma, which would affect him during his matches. Most people don't have asthma to the extent that he had, but those who do (including myself), know that you can't just keep going during an attack. You have to stop to take an inhaler, or you could end up in the hospital within an hour. I've known of people who died because they didn't take treatment when they should have. Believe me, if it was simply a matter of "lung discomfort" I would never in a thousand years say that the person was worthy of "toughman" status.