SilentJohn

He reminded me of Craig Long of McCallie as far as body type. His style and footwork was more along the lines of a Sterling Featherstone though. Overall a very high level of wrestling, but I was struck by the sparse crowd. I hope TN never seperates into single divisions for that reason. A kid like a Parker deserves to close out his career in front of thousands of fans, not hundreds, imo.

You could say the say the same for their 189. I know one of thier coaches feels like he is their best shot at a champion, and has thought that for a long time. I've only seen him in person once, but I certainly won't be suprised if he medals.

I think it would too. I think where it would really help is the programs at the smallest level like Boyd Buch, LV etc where coaches in some cases are struggling to keep it together. It might help build interest in some places, then you may have another phenomenon like what's happening at Greenback.

Yeah, that's right. I think that was the 1st time a non-Chattanooga team won it aside from Father Ryan. McCallie had that stacked team the next year, with Vance and the rest, and blew everybody out of McClellan GYm. I think they broke the record for team points in that tournament that year.

\ I see your point, but our coach tought us to win with humility and lose with class, so imo those words weren't just words. It's what was instilled in us from day one, just as it was instilled in him from his coaches before. But honestly, this is one area where there is room for differing opinions amoung reasonable people, imo.

Not only best in state, though I may be mistaken, I think they were also both nationally ranked, which further bolsters your point. When SD won their 1st Duals title in 89, they had to beat a tough as nails Hixson team, which I don't think they had ever defeated at that point in the rivalry, just to win the priviledge of taking on McCallie, who I believe won the Traditional tournament that year. IMO, either of those 2 aforementioned teams would have also won at Hunter's Lane. So I think there's a very long history of this kind of thing.

I agree 100% WalkenVol. Chattanoogans of all people ought to understand what it's like to take something, build it, nurture it, make it a roaring success and then have the mighty RC steal it away with $$ in his eyes. (cough) spring fling (cough) The Clarksville folks do a great job and I for one have no interest in stealing their "baby."

"Good Match" or "Good Job"

Farr??

Good luck with the club. Sorry if the thread got hi-jacked a bit. REf by all means start a new thread if you want to talk more .... back to work now..

Well, it's pretty complicated, but I'll give it a shot. Basically, on one side you have Curtis Adams, county commissioner and head of the county's education committee, which sets the budget for the school board. The other side is the board of education, headed by Sup. Jesse Register. In a nutshell, Adams hates Register. He publically calls for him to resign about once a month, it seems. I don't know where that bad blood comes from but it's real. Last summer we had a budget standoff between the commission and the board. The board declared that if they didnt get x amount of increase, it would be catastrophic for the schools. This meant one thing, a property tax increase. The county commission voted on a 50 cent or so increase and turned it down. A lot of people felt like the board was grandstanding and the commission called their bluff. In any event, they board announced there would be heavy cuts, and Middle School Athletics was one of them. Now, it takes somewhere between 500,000 --700,000 to fully fund the whole Middle Sports program. A group of coaches got together about 4 weeks before school and came up with a plan to try to raise the money themselves. Chattem Inc. pledged to match what they raised up to 250,000, so that was a big boost. SO you have a group of coaches and parents and athletes doing everything they can to raise the money, including standing by the road with buckets by busy intersections. (thus, the panhandling comment). In a way it was nice to see a grass-roots effort come together, but it's just crazy that it had to come to that. And another thing is that like most fund-raisers, you end up with a few people doing most of the work. The coaches from schools out in the county did most of the work. Very few, if any of the inner-city coaches ever bothered to even show up for the meetings. These coaches from Soddy, Hixson, Red Bank, etc, were busting their #### basically so that the inner-city schools could have sports, and the inner-city coaches couldn't even be bothered to help out. My wife, who coaches at Hixson, and other coaches took this as a real slap in the face, since the county schools all have booster clubs, and probally could have come up with the money to support their own programs. Basically, the consensus among the coaches is that this was a one-time deal. Either the board/commission funds sports next year or they don't. Either way, the coaches aren't going to bail them out again. They will have to deal with the reprecussions of their decisions (there's a novel idea). So far the budget talk from both sides as they get ready for the summer budget process is a repeat of last year all over again.. Neither side wants to budge. So unfortnuately, I don't see much of a future for Middle School Sports in Hamilton County. I'm from here, spent my twenties in Middle TN, and moved back a few years ago to take over the family business. If it weren't for that, I'd be back in Middle TN in a heartbeat, because I'm embarrassed that this is how my hometown is run. Well REf, that's it in a nutshell, imo. Sorry about any misspelled words or grammar problems. To my brain, it's still early.

I am concerned about Middle School also, since the handwriting is on the wall that Middle School Sports are on their way out in Hamilton County. The coaches have already agreed that there will be no panhandling and begging for spare change next year, and the Adams / Register blood fued shows no signs of being over. We (The Chattanooga wrestling community) will have to fill that 3 year void between Elementary School and High School somehow. Maybe USAW Folkstyle clubs will finally take hold here?

No, no there isn't. I was at SD when Steve started building a patsy into one of the best programs in the state. Chattanooga was much tougher overall back then because East Ridge, Red bank, Hixson, Tyner and Notre Dame always had good teams and even Brainerd and Howard would have a state place-winner every now and then (there were only 4 medals given). How in the world could he do what he did against those kind of odds? He worked his ###### off and got people excited about the program, that's how. I'd say it worked out pretty well.

If his dad is who I think he is, the kid will be awefully tough.

Danny Gilbert used to have contact info on the Chattanooga Takedown Club web site, I believe.