best_of_the_west

Haha, if someone had said something like that when Keller was at Bradley, they would have been taken to a psychologist. In my experience, whenever someone makes it a personal goal to beat someone else in a individual competition, it's usually a sign of great respect for that person, because this guy is basing his success on his ability to compete with Keller. However, it is also a sign that he has probably lost to him many times before, so it could be a rather lofty goal considering how much better Keller gets each offseason.

That's true, but I consider it a disadvantage. I mean, he would be a 103 or 112 without it, and think how dominating he would be. I talked to Coach Cottrell over e-mail yesterday. He's still at Heritage. There were a lot of stresses with being head coach at Collierville, and I think he just wants to kick back and enjoy coaching at a small school. Plus, I think he's closer to his family in East Tennessee. Tom is young and hungry (not just at the dinner table). He is a good guy, and he loves the sport. He will be a good coach at Collierville. It's a great opportunity for someone as young as him, and he will put everything he has into the program. You guys are lucky to have him. Little Nicky is down at Florida State trying to make it by. I know this will come as a shock, but he is a bus boy at a bar of all places. Crazy, right? He rarely makes it back to Memphis, but we will probably show up to a couple of wrestling events. It's our own little Christmas tradition. I'm guessing Drew is still with the younger kids at Houston. I just pray that he isn't impeding their natural growth or tainting their youth in any way. Is that a cheap shot? I'm not little, I just have a slender bone structure (plus a steadily growing belly). At least that's what my mom says. Just do what I did when I worked the GIT. Don't offer help. Say you don't know, and they will move down to the next guy at the table. Oh wait...you were the next guy at the table, haha. You should get some kind of tenure for being the MC so that you no longer have to explain complex scientific theories like double-elimination brackets and mat numbers. I'd bring it up at the next meeting.

Getting a compliment about message board rhetoric from usfjim is as good as getting a compliment about wrestling technique from Dan Gable...it's the pinnacle.

Thanks SBA, I actually just found his contact information on the TWF site. I guess he is the head of a club in Maryville, and I also heard that he might be at Heritage. Anyway, I shot him an e-mail to see what he was up to. I don't have a lot of wrestling contacts up here in Knoxville, so I'm hoping to find a way to stay close to the sport. Hopefully, he'll get back to me soon. Good luck this year, by the way. I'm sure I'll see you sometime.

Hey Hammond or Delgado or whoever, does anyone know what Coach Cottrell is doing now? I heard he was in the Knoxville area possibly helping out with a program. Is that way off? Thanks.

I think that the highest compliment I could give to Coach Bray is that whenever I saw him in "coach mode," he had a remarkable passion for both the sport and the kids alike. He never hesitated to spread the sport to as many people as possible from all schools, not just Ridgeway. Also, he was the most animated coach I ever saw. If you hate watching wrestling, it's worth the $5 just to see the guy matside. It's hard to start a wrestling program at a football powerhouse, but Bray has had more success with fewer wrestlers and less funding than anyone else over the past several years. Now that Houston's coaching staff is stacked like pancakes at IHOP, I expect to see big things. Take care of my little bubble-butted state champ so that I can come watch the medal rounds in February.

Those guys are ignorant of the situation. I'm not going to defend Coach Holmes, because anyone who has been around the Memphis wrestling scene long enough knows that his reputation, character, and body of work speak for themselves. You guys should stick to talking about wrestling instead of spreading all that speculative, disrespectful crap on the message boards.

Rule 1 is "make sure that your ears and eyes are open a lot more often than your mouth". The wrestling community is very friendly for the most part, so I'm sure some of the old guys will be happy to encourage the support of a new fan.

Well, I'm a Collierville supporter. If we had won all our matches, we would have won too. There's no excuse, it's just finding out who can score the most points. Soddy did a great job with a better overall group of talent, just as Bradley did a great job at the duals of arranging their several high-caliber wrestlers to best suit a dual match. They are very even teams with different make-ups that allowed each to win a state championship. The season is over, let's congratulate instead of make excuses.

Yea probably Bradley vs. private schools debate, or more broadly, D1 vs. D2 for who has the better wrestlers, anything where there is no right answer will be brought up every year. As we are replying to this thread, they are being brought up again. Also, whether or not Nashville and Memphis are catching up to Chattanooga is always a big topic. But my favorite thing year after year (although not a topic) is that one new crazy guy (i won't name names, but most of you know) that just gets on here and wreaks havoc, and year after year we all try to reason with him but we just end up getting annoyed. It's as consistent as the state tournaments themselves. There has to be some conspiracy or some kind of torch passing that goes on there. They probably have a hall of fame somewhere. I love it.

Ahh, the good ole days. Those were two wierd matches.

Haha, I seriously doubt you will find many who agree with that, especially if you witnessed the infamous Scooter Houston incident a few years ago.

Hmm...I wonder when the last time was that there were two Shelby Co. kids at the top of the D1 rankings, especially in the lighter weights. (see 112) Anyone know?

Didn't Wright beat Spain 3-2 or something? I don't think that's a gimme, and I know that Brandon doesn't either. Spain is a great wrestler, and this one has to be handicapped around 50/50. Now Felix is close to a lock, but Bradley kids do show up at state every single year, so you might want to watch that 152 final.

Great side note. I will venture to say that if you watch the heavyweights at the state tournament, you will see some great sportsmanship. These guys have to exert the most energy to get the job done in a 6+ minute match, and they know that because of the significant size and strength, a match can swing from win to loss in a matter of seconds. Coming from out West, some of you know about guys like Stewart Allen, James Lindow, and Carl Taylor showing this attitude when they were wrestling, but it was best displayed on the state-wide level in the great Crosby/Pennington matches of a few years ago. Although Crosby came out on top, both men were always respectful, sportsmanlike, and even friendly after the matches. It was a great example of what wrestling should be about.

Haha, I will reinforce that Jonas, in my opinion, is the most prepared for postseason wrestling. He has been there before in even more pressured situations (see state tournament), and we have seen many wrestlers crack under the pressure of expectation (especially me). I think that the more you downplay his ability, the less pressure he feels, plus any pressure he has, he is the one that is most capable of dealing with it. As far as talent, I put Jonas, Tisdale, and Bucak on pretty even planes, but I think Jonas has the technical edge, which usually proves to be the deciding factor when it comes to the 3rd period of regions. I would put my money (if I wasn't a poor college student) on Jonas to win, but the similar skill levels and hype of this weight class should make it interesting.

Looks good for the Memphis guys. I think Borneman is one of the most consistent wrestlers on his team, even as a freshman. It will be interesting to see how he progresses. I read somewhere that they have a match coming up soon in Maryville or something. That might be interesting to see.

Clarksville/Collierville?

Yea, I had those, have they been updating TSSAA frequently? I didn't know if they would just update everything at the end of the day or if they will be updating after each round.

Hey Sommers, I'm assuming that you are going back and forth from the duals. If that's the case, could you post the semi-final scores this afternoon when you can? I checked the results this morning, and to my complete and utter shock, my alma mater has made it to the semi-finals. Thank you.

Pair has been a little shaky at state in previous years.

Coach Bray is right, Jonas has been wrestling varsity for a long time, and has performed well (especially last year) in the post-season tournaments. Don't make the mistake of underestimating that experience. He will wrestle better than a 3 seed. But as Coach Bray said, it will all wash out anyway, you have to perform no matter what seed you get.

Haha, I knew that was Mr. Abbott's fault in some way. I actually found out that Abe Lincoln was one of the first "freestyle" wrestlers. Before his generation, everyone wrestled British-style, which was very formal. Sometime around Lincoln's generation, they decided to loosen up the rules...just a little tid bit of information for y'all.

Doesn't the McCallie program date back to like the early 50s or so?

Well yea, but I figured that would be the best place to start. When did high school programs start competing, the 40s or so?