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Quote from Masterblaster ( A Farragut supporter?) ( Maryville-Young and the new king. Lets see if they can beat 7 straight years. Seymour -great feeder program paying off, force in years to come. Kingston Thank god all the middle weight studs are not freshmen. WB Farragut - we need to drop back and punt. This post has been edited by MasterBlaster 1: Feb 11 2006 - 09:52 PM ) Just a thought - but instead of "punting", that last team on your list might want to think about getting a feeder program going. Not much talent coming up in the next few years from the looks of it. Nothing left from the program of the late 90's period that helped win those six straight in high school. They've all graduated. As this year showed, two or three good kids do not make a team. It usually shows up first in duals, but eventually it catches up even in tournaments. In fact, it even makes it hard to develop your good ones to the max when they have so little practice-room competition because there are so few really solid team members to practice with. As an old hand at the sport once said, "Champions usually come in pairs". Those pairs have to be in the practice room together to push each other to get better. Pretty big drop off, from six straight Region Championships to fifth. Seems it might have some correlation to the weakness of the feeder program? Haven't seen any of their kids at the Middle School Season matches for the last 3 months. Based on the work Rusty McCroskey has done for the last 10 years at Seymour, I'd put money on them pulling out a Region 2 Championship some time in the next 2-3 years. Good luck to all at State.

Farragut had 2 champs at KIL - the 171 and 215. This is the Region tournament. You can't go to state if you don't wrestle in this. Their top guys will be there, but they still won't win.

Can someone post the weight classes for the Middle School age group? Many thanks.

I'm not sure what the "broad sociological foundations" might be, but there are certainly a lot of areas up North and in the Midwest, Great Plains and all the way out to California that don't have the Scots Irish influence. But there is one common factor that always seems to be at the heart of an area getting started and then staying tough - that's the development of a great (not good, but Great) feeder program that gets a school or two up and going, then helps them stay up for a while and then just keeps on pouring in new experienced freshman kids each year. As the success builds, then the younger kids look up at the high school success and want to be a part of that. Somebody needs to ask Alan Morris what it was that got him to keep going with the feeder program he ran in Cleveland for 18 years. He certainly pumped a lot of future state champs into the Bradley program. I remember taking a USA Wrestling coaching certification class from Al Miller at Cleveland about 8 years ago. The first question he asked was "What's the most important factor that contributes to a successful high school wrestling program?" The answer was "A successful youth wrestling feeder program". So, if anyone wants to know how to build an area, it's simple - just go out and recruit several former wrestlers who are willing to put in years to build the feeder program, give those kids to a qualified, passionate high school coach and see what happens.

Could someone post when the finals are planned to start?

That statement is probably true in those areas of TN that have really high quality competition to wrestle within their own region. If a kid in the Chattanooga/Cleveland/North GA area gets 35 matches, he's probably wrestled 20 matches against quality opponents if his coach scheduled well. I think that in upper east TN (Regions 1 & 2) and way out west near Memphis, a kid that only has 30 matches may have only gotten a chance for 10-12 really quality opponents and that often shows up when he gets to State and hits the kid with more experience against higher caliber kids. If you hold the match total down to 30-35, just be sure you give your kids a chance to wrestle enough quality opponents to improve and not get caught surprised at State.

Hey KCHS Coach- Who was at the scheduling meeting for FHS? There's a rumor they are going through another Coaching change?

Is Farragut not coming this year? They've been there for the last 6-8?

How many years eligibility will he have? He graduated in 2002 and that means he was at Nebraska for 3 years. Did he redshirt? If not, he only has 1 more year?

Rigger - no, but have heard it's a good one.

Is that only for rising 8th-12th graders ? These are first year (one season experienced) rising 7th graders. If it's ok for them, I'll get them signed up. Thx

I have a couple of parents trying to plan out summer camps for 6th-7th graders for this summer. Any information on dates and times for any (Seymour, Maryville, Webb, Catholic, Carson-Newman, etc.)? Any postings will be appreciated.

No need - I just found it on the www.seaausports.com site.

Could someone please post the schedule (weigh-ins, wrestling times by group, etc.) for the AAU State tournament this next weekend in Cookeville? Thx.

Hey DAL: I have a Grandson in the sixth grade who has taken up wrestling for the first time this year. I'd like to get him some good day camps this summer. Are you doing yours at Seymour ? If so, when ? Do you know of any others ? Thx, Ron