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.

Wow, the top division. I wish them all the best because that is freaking brutal.

Will Taylor wrestle varsity against the better teams? He's my wife's cousin, so I'm curious.

I hear what you're saying. I've even thought they could probably do better myself a few times the last few years, though I certainly never had anything personally against Ryan. When I was there they won about 10 games in 4 years, so at least they've been consistent winners since the Price days. But I see your point. Things always look different on the inside. What I was referring to about ultimatums was a story that was going around the coaching circles around town that Smith told Ryan the day of the McMinn game if he didnt win it that he wouldnt have a job next year , or something to that affect. I honestly dont claim to know if it was true or not. I just hang with a lot of coaches and you hear things, thats all. Some coaches I know belived it, some didnt, so take it with a grain of salt. Later~

If we put together a team with the cream of the crop of this year in TN wrestling we could compete with anyone. I wish the FCI did a better job of promoting this event so that every year we wouldnt have to keep asking the basic questions. This event should be something every state champion wants to be a part of as a matter of pride. IMO, if they made things like who the coaches were and how the teams are selected public earlier people could get behind it more. At least this year it isn't the same weekend as Senior Nationals.

WARDAWG, that is about as fair and accurate assessment as you'll ever hear of the situation. He might not have been fired but he sure wasn't embraced or supported. I wonder how Tom Weathers will react to "win this game or else" type of ultimatums? Probally will be a lot different though for him since they are friends.

Uhh maybe he was referring to Watergate?? Just a hunch And I agree with you about Ryan, for what it's worth.

I hear what you're saying . But how many kids want to come out for a sport that not only is hard but on top of that your team is going to get killed 72-0 or 60-12 3 times a week? Again, I'm talking about the schools where building a wrestling foundation has been a challenge. Danny Gilbert said something on the radio the other night that really rang true with me, about needing to show concern for those programs that are struggling. I agree that we have to try to take care of the little guys or eventually the whole sport will suffer. I'm a SD guy, so I appreciate where that program is right now. But I think the wrestling scene was much healthier around town when RedBank, Hixson, East Ridge, and Notre Dame were stronger programs. Hey, I even remember Tyner was a powerhouse once. Do they even have a team anymore? I think if we don't do something, in 10 years wrestling runs the risk of becoming a "novelty" sport like rowing or diving, practiced by a few elite programs but not part of the "mainstream" of sports. JMO~

I was talking to somone who isn't that familiar with wrestling about the problems that some schools have fielding full rosters due to lack of tradition and interest. This guy is from out West, and he asked me "Why don't they have a division with fewer weights for those smaller schools so they can compete with each other" Where he is from , they have 8 man football, and that allows the schools with only 100-200 kids a chance to field a team and compete in spite of only being able to get 12-15, maybee 20, kids to participate. So I put it to the experts on the board, would an 8 or 10 weight division help small schools get kids interested in wrestling? I tend to think it would. For instance, some of the programs in the Chatt area I could see benifitting would be Brainerd, Howard, Lookout valley, etc. I can see why this might be a good idea, now tell me why not. I'm sure there are complications and roadblocks I'm not thinking of. Help me out here.

I wasn't there but I would have to agree context is the key. If you push a guy who is on his way to an escape, it's just a good idea. But at the SD tournament I witnessed a very prominent wrestler deliberately shove his opponent about 2-3 seconds after the whistle. This was out of bounds near the scorers table. You guys who were there know how close the tables were to the mats, he could have injured the kid. I had never seen this kid wreslte but had heard his name for years. Afer watching that little display when I see his name on a bracket I dont think "good wrestler", think "thug."

"Rumor" is that coach Seals wasn't too interested in that proposition either. It's going to be an interesting couple of months in SD.