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Reggie Bush-Helix high(La Mesa, CA) Rashan Salaam-La Jolla Country Day(La Jolla,CA) Kellen Winslow Jr-Scripps Ranch High(San Diego, CA) Tim Dobbins-Glencliff(Nashville, TN) Ingle Martin-MBA(Nashville, TN)

I know coach A is going to put in the wing t but I think that is what will hurt them. There are too many teams running the wing t for it to be any kind of suprise. I think this is where Smyrna gets an advantage over Riverdale because the past 4 or 5 years Smyrna has played numberous wing-t teams and usually win. What happens is they give up 2 easy TDs in the first quarter and then dont give any more the rest of the game.

I think by Riverdale standards it will be a rebuilding year. As in 8 or 9 wins and a loss in the quarter finals of the playoffs. For most teams that is a great year but it just creates inspiration to do better next year.

While I think the LaVergne game will be big this year I dont think it will be bigger than Smyrna vs Riverdale. When I played at Smyrna we truthfully didn't concern ourselves with Lavergne and we won pretty big every year. Now the coach A is at Riverdale I think it will be even bigger seeing as how him and Shad were big Rivals when Smyrna and Hillsboro both played in the same region. I'm sure Shad is still looking to get back at him for that loss in the 2001 playoffs.

One thing I will say is that at least Riverdale started searching to play better talent. They went and played one of the better teams in Ohio last year. They never played D2 but thats another story. Alcoa is the best team Maryville plays all year until the state championship game. Rankin bulit one of the best teams in the southeast at Riverdale. For Maryville to be considered that they'll have to start playing better people.

What's sad is when a coach is so caught up on winning that he isnt willing to give a kid who could provide for his family through football a chance because he has to leave early for work. Football isnt everything. It's a hard thing to understand when you have coaches who were brought up in middle class families coaching kids who arent.

Appearantly not. See the one thing that California has the TN doesn't is coaches that dont whine about private schools all the time. If you want to beat private school then start coaching better. It doesnt matter if they recruit. Every school in the top 5 of their tournament is a public school.

Ohio is 3 divisions(I,II,III). Each has a 16 man double elimination bracket. 8 place winners Oklahoma has 4 divisions(2A,3A, 4A,5A) 8 man double elimination bracket. 4 place winners Oregon 3 divisions(1A/2A,3A,4A) 1A/2A is 16 man double elimination bracket. 6 place winners. 3A & 4A is 32 man double elimination with 8 place winners. South Carolina has 3 divisions(1A/2A, 3A, 4A) all are 8 man double elimination brackets with 4 place winners. South Dakota is 2 divisions(A & both are 16 man carry to the semis. 7 place winners Texas is 2 divisions(boys and girls) 16 person double elimination. 6 place winners Utah is 5 divisions(1A, 2A,3A,4A,5A) 5A and 4A are 32 man double elimination with 6 place winners. 3A and 2A are 16 man double elimination 6 place winners. 1A is an 8 man double elimination with 4 place winners Virginia has 3 divisions(1A,2A,3A) 16 man double elimination bracket. 8 place winners. Washington is 4 divisions(1A/B,2A,3A,4A) 16 man double elimination bracket with 8 place winners. West Virginia is 2 divisions(1A/2A, 3A) 16 man double elimination bracket with 6 place winners. Wisconsin is 3 divisions(I,II,III) Division 1 is a 16 man double elimination for 5th place. Semifinal losers wrestle for 3rd and 4th. Div. 2 and 3 are 12 man double elimination for 5th. Semifinal losers wrestle for 3rd and 4th. div 2 and 3 are 8 man full brackets plus 4 wrestlers receiving byes in the first round. 6 places in all divisions. Wyoming is 3 divisions(2A,3A,4A) 16 man double elimination bracket with 6 place winners.

California gets done in 2 days while TN takes 3 and California is a 40 man ALL-DIVISIONS bracket. One true champion out of something like 850 high schools.

People always make this arguement but what people fail to realize is that being a good high school player does not make you a good college player. College coaches look at way more than stats and size. They look at technique. Also, the level of football played in TN is not as high as some surrounding states. There are plenty of teams in Florida that could easily come to TN and dominate.

The first thing to do would be to stop building so many new high schools. More people at the school means more people at the game. Also it wouldnt hurt if they went back to 1 true champion in 1-5A.

MTSU and their horrible record have nothing to do with recruiting in GA. It has to do with poor coaching. Last years national championship high school team got their offense from MTSU and runs it better than they do.

Ok besides Tennis all of these other sports are team sports. You can spout off all you want about wrestling being a team sports but it's not. It's an individual sport. That why we have state duals. I believe the way the duals were this year was terrific. As for Individual state there should be one state. We could do like Georgia and split it up into 5 but then we would be nowhere just like Georgia and every other state in the south in Wrestling. If Tennessee was a bigger state I would agrre that it would be a good idea but the population isnt big enough to split it up. If California can have 1500 schools with wrestling programs and have one state champion there is no reason why Tennessee, who is way behind California in the Talent pool, can't have one state champion. I think the best state for high school wrestling in the country is Ohio and if Im not mistaken they only have two Championships which is understandable because their population is larger. The only states in the US that have one state champion are California, Indiana, New York, and Hawaii.(Maybe not New York) These states are all way ahead of ours. If we want to grow we need the best competition possible. We need a Double elimination, seeded by accomplishments during the current year, one true state championship. The winner can actually say hes the best.

I know that some teams that qualify a lot of wrestlers have a lot more "managers" than they did in the season. I remember when I was a senior Smyrna brought like 5 managers and two of them were senior wrestlers who didnt make it.

Heres an idea. How about we stop crying about the whole public/private debate and put them together and have a real state champion. The top person can truly say they are the best in the state. It will never happen but it's a good idea. Too many public school coaches are whiners.

Im just gonna comment on Coach Gonyea from the perspective of a former Smyrna Wrestler. Coach G is a great coach. He and his staff made practices fun for us while getting work done and the 2 years I was there the success showed. Region Champs and Runner up. I will say that after attending a few practices this year that the desire of the team is way down from when I was there and to be honest I saw a total disrespect for Coach Gonyea not only from new guys but from Veteran Wrestlers. Coach Gonyea is easy going so he sometimes comes off as a pushover but this year I saw very few wrestlers taking it seriously and the ones who graduated this year will regret it for the rest of their lives. Smyrna moves into a new, smaller, and much weaker region next year where they will definitely be the favorites. The middle school program is up and running again and the coaches coming in are all products of the successful Smyrna teams of recent. I give Smyrna 5 years to be in the place that Franklin is in Right now.

Kenny Meredith is probably the best pure athlete in the state. He will win region unless he pulls the biggest choke in the history of the world. WE can hear all these "Well look what happened to Dan Gable," stories but the bottom line is that while Meredith might not even be the best wrestler he is by far the superior athlete in the region and in the state.

The only predictions I will make are that I think Kenny Meredith will win and get OW. Also I predice the best match to be Felix vs Holliman.

I would say to start out around 7 or 8 years old. Its hard because TN is seriously lagging in the off season tournament department. It is getting better though. I would recommend the copperheads for Middle TN as well or maybe even Smyrna Pitbulls. If you live in East TN Soddy Daisy has a good youth program.

Yost placed at junior nationals. He got 6th in freestyle his junior year I believe. Kyle James would have more than likely been a finalist in Junior Nationals. I dont think he could have won cause he is much better in Greco than in Folkstyle. He would have a chance if he got the first takedown.

If you notice those 119 lbers are pretty stout kids. The difference between those kids and Dunning is that in the off season those kids more than likely wrestle at 135 or 140 where Dunning wrestles at 125. The last wrestler to have a chance at senior nationals from TN didnt even wrestle. Im talking about Kyle James. Im willing to bet that Kyle would have placed in the top 3.

How will the small school region 5 be decided. There are a few schools that qualify for small school. Page, Fairview, Friendship Christian, CPA, Forrest, Marshall Co. All of these schools are small enough to be in the small school state duals.

There are so many thing that frustrate me about Tennesse not having a true state champion. First, Tennesse is not as good of a wrestling state as it could be. This is because of multiple state champions. Second, The whole Public/Private split thing drives me crazy. Look at the states with one true state champion. How many times does a private school who can recruit actually win it. Being from California, which is in my opinion the second best wrestling state only to Ohio, I can say that the last private school to win the state team title was Calvary Chapel and that was a few years ago. Public schools dominate the state in every sport except for football which doesnt matter cause California doesnt have state championships. Third. kids today are sissys. The real reason that any state has more than one state championship is because it will make the kids feel better and keep them from getting their feelings hurt. I personally would be happier with a second or third place in state where there is one true champion than a gold where there is 4 or 5 champions because I would know that I faced the best possible competition to get that medal. Tennessee is only holding itself back over one thing and it's the public/private debate. I say this, public school coaches if you cant beat the private schools dont come up with excuses just start coaching better because if it can be done in other states it can be done in Tennessee.

State runner up in TN is not that big of a deal when it comes to National rankings. Tennessee is not in the top 10 and might not be in the top 20 consistently. The guys that are ranked have placed in or at least been competitive in national tournaments. I would say the thing that hurts Tennessee the most is the fact that in a state where competition is not as strong as others the competition is made even weaker by not having one true state champion. As for why Hazlett is recognized and not Brooks it's because Brooks hasnt even placed un the top 3 in state and though it's not his fault Dickson Co. seems to never attend any serious tournaments.

All I have to say is that Whitt Dunning doesnt have a National Championship. I would take Marable.