PUMMELKING

Congrats Chris...may be TN first ever GRECO National Champ..hope so....Good Luck

With him having no loses yet and a bye, others will have loses and knock each other out with only 5 dropping it down to 4.

It appears with Murphy drawing the bye, he is now guaranteed AA status. It is in his hands on what place he can earn. Congrats.

Congrats Coach. It was a pleasure working along side of you for years and traveling all over.

Deadline tonight. Last chance to compete and get ready for State tourney next weekend the states qualifier for National Teams.

Coach, Been a pleasure getting to know you over the years. Hate to see you leave the state after all the hard work you have put in while in TN. But we all have to do what is best for us and our families when the opportunites come our way. Hope you still have a chance to be part of the sport you like back home. Maybe we will cross paths on the National Level events in the future. Best of Luck

Reminder to get registered for the states FIRST Freestyle/Greco tourny of the year.

Yes D-1

The States that represent the South at NCAA: VA---7 FL---7 GA---5 NC---4 LA---2 TX---2 AL---1 Ky---1 TN---1

According to: The Tennessean it had the list of the new AAA wrestling regions on USA TODAY HS SPORTS. A very interesting comment was published: "We never have formed regions with the idea of leveling the playing field," TSSAA assistant executive director Mark Reeves said. It seems with the new formation it will do just exactly that. A large amount of state champions have come from the old Region 3 and 4 which had Soddy and Ool seperated from the Bradley and Cleveland schools. It will make for alot of possible upsets early in next years state tournament because you may have several state medalist now who will not win their region. It appears that the playing field is being equalled to other schools and keeping the power area Chattanooga limited on state placers.

Coach Peck, I only have Summitt down for the May 11 tourny.

Not much hope. They state they do not want anything to go beyond a regional for Middle School. Even tho other sports like Basketball can go beyond a Regional...

TENN holds it's first Greco/Freestyle tourny Mar 30 at Pigeon Forge.

Great point of view and approach Coach

The good thing about the split is it will offer the few the opportunity. I mean some schools can not fill a full team both large and small school but mostly small, which means other schools will not want to schedule meets with. No one wants to waste dates and expenses of having a match at your school and the visiting team only come with 3-5 wrestlers, Now with the split maybe programs can get better with more mat time. It is easier to start or build programs when competiting against you own level. Kids may stick around longer for teams due to not being embarrased when meet is held with closer numbers on each bench. Outcomes may be very different but at least they dont feel like they are "Custers Last Stand". You can say what you like but the large schools dont want to wrestle or schedule teams that are never full or even offer a challenge.....they use their JV kids if they have to. Git it time and see if the participation does not increase and by increasing numbers the performance should also increase over the years. Having only one Coach and starting a program is not easy no way no how. And it takes miracles to even get a team started at some schools at HS level, and for MS it is a act of Congress in some places.

Region 3 at State: 179-89 Record Won 23 out of 84 Medals 8 First Place 2 Second Place 6 Third Place 2 Fourth Place 3 Fifth Place 2 Sixth Place Job well Done.

What is the TSSAA gonna do if the top privates drop out and go to the Preps. It will drop their precious revenue for sure then.

Man, do some people get out of wack. The title is Rankings and Predictions. Each is entitled to their own. If you do not like those supplied, then start your own and back it up with all the time that is put into the Rankings. I think those that are created do a fantastic job in research and time with their jobs.

Seems like it is nothing but about $$$. They moved the venue for cheaper costs and still have made the event fan friendly.

I do not trash the mechanisms in place. I do not really see any set specs in PLACE that are here to promote girls wrestling. No Sanctioned State and a deterent to get better. If the girls are only allowed to wrestle girls during the season to qualify for girls state they should have a much larger competitive pool of athletes. It is not present, so wrestle boys until regions and then make choice. I do believe that if it were Freestyle, they would have more chances to grow and excel at the type they will compete in at College. Thus practice year round for competition all over the Nation and World. I do not down clubs at all. So where you come up with that conclusion is unknown. This past weekend at the NWCA Champ at King College. I did talk to a few coaches and was informed more schools are already adding Freestyle Wrestling next year. The steps are also in place for getting letters of Interest as required by NCAA to make it a sanctioned sport as well. You talk about NWCA is ending and NCWA is still going. You are semi right. The team competition is complete for NCWA but they still compete every month through out the year for Individual Honors at Tournys that have National and International Competitors competiting in. Just like most of those who AA this past weekend will go wrestle in the Shultz this weekend. So in reality their season is never over, sum may wrestle for other clubs who sponsor them or compete for their school. Wrestling is wrestling, but if you are able to focus and compete at the style you are striveing to be the best at then it has to be a blessing to not have to change styles.

The schools in College for Womens Wrestling are prodominantly Freestyle. Yes the men have the opportunity to wrestle other styles after four more years of competition and experience. That is the reason to start the women off sooner so they will have many more opportunities to compete in the Freestyle not only in HS but in College and beyond.

For the girls to have success they must have opportunities and not just a limited nuber. They should have same amount of dates of competition in order to compete and get better. The down side is not enough teams or just Schools/Individuals of Girls are present in TN. It is not a good situation for a girl to wrestle a boy. The boy does not gain anything from wrestling a girl and wins, but can be very costly if he does lose. Ridicule and flack from others about not beating a girl can be so bad the boy stops wrestling all together. Now if girls are limited to wrestle girls only in order to compete in a STATE Tourny they need to be able to compete every week and not just here and there, this is not going to happen until more participants/coahes and schools have the programs. The TSSAA needs to allow girls to wrestle druing the season against boys/girls does not matter just an opponent to get mat time and competition and then at STATE time they can to choose wrestle in Girls qualifer or go to Boys Region. Once the numbers are up and TSSAA takes the step to make it a Sanctioned STATE tourny they could possibly add restrictions, but until then, just let them wrestle. They should also look at going ahead and be putting emphasis on the format they compete--make it FREESTYLE. Boys wrestle folkstyle in HS because that is what they do in College, so let the girls compete in the style the will do in College. IT will anable them to be more familiar with the rules and style throught HS and not just learning and competeing in College. Freestyle is what the Women do Internationally and in Olympics. Wrestling Freestyle gives the college coaches a way to see the girls compete in a format they will be doing the next four years and possibly earn a scholarship. The Coaches and TSSAA have an opportunity to set the standards and be a model for other states to copy if they did Freestyle and Sanctioned the Girls State as so.

Not exactly true. The TSSAA could have opted to stay with the old weights. There are a couple of states that did not make the change to accept the new weights that were implemented last year by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

This is a terrible date for TN girls to be wrestling. The Womens College National Championships are being held in Bristol TN at King College that day. It would give the girls who have any desire to wrestle in College an opportunity to watch all the College Teams compete right here inside the state.

You have Ocoee and Bradley listed, do you mean Ocoee and Lake Forrest which is in Bradley County.