CoachDelgado

It has been a while since I have posted here. Everything is great in Texas. Of course, I still keep tabs on Tennessee wrestling. Well, double elimination is the right thing regardless of how it would affect the medals. My hat goes off to the Williamson County crew and others that made this a reality. It was long, long overdue. To answer your question, there are 8 wrestlers that would not have been carried under the old system that are in the consolation semi-finals and will medal. So that is over half of the weigh classes were a change occurred. That is definitely more than a handful and a significant number. Someone fill me in on how the rounds went as far as time is concerned. I would love to hear a report about the event (number of mats, were the time realistic, did it run late or faster than believed).

Congratulations to Coach Blair and the Williamson County Schools for landing this event. Both division in the same building. All the mats in the same room. The building has great vantage points for all the mats, adequate chair back seating, good facilities for those that will need to use them and good proximity to the entire state. As far as the possibility for the individual state tournament to move to this location, I firmly believe this is a winning situation for all Tennessee Division I wrestlers. With a larger arena and more mats, the Division I tournament can finally get out of the stone age and become a true double elimination event. I am certain there will be someone complain, but who in their right mind is going to complain about this being possible? The coaches have over and over and over proposed that the format can be changed. The thing that was holding up this change was time. There were not enough mats to get the extra matches in. The center in Franklin can hold 12 mats if configured properly (can anyone say Dollamur). Chattanooga has done a wonderful job in hosting the state tournament over the last 25 to 30 years. Their organization is top notch. The transition from Maclellan to McKenzie to bring both Divisions back together was seamless. They run a class event With the exception of building issues such as food and beverages, no warm up room in recent years, weigh-ins at the tennis center, all of which Morgan, the Parkers, Henry, the Goss's, TBSGBAG, Soddy-Daisy takedown club, and any other volunteers cannot control, it has been great there. There simply is not enough space to put down more mats to hold true double elimination and this is what everyone has been clamoring for over the years.

All wrestling must start at some point. I am new in Texas this year. Texas has only officially had wrestling as a sport since 1999. Now it is not that the good coaches aren't down here and it is not that there are no good athletes wrestling, but the quality of the wrestling is below the level that I was accustomed to seeing in Tennessee. I have called more falls with a 3/4 nelson with the leg trapped while sucking the head under for a fall this year than I have seen as a competitor, referee and coach the last 23 years in Tennessee. The overall skill set is not there yet. Will it improve? Only time will tell, but more than likely it will with increased emphasis, an increase in kids programs and more schools adopting wrestling and bringing in good coaches. According to those that I have talked to in Texas, the wrestling is far better than it was 10 years ago. What does this have to do with girl's wrestling in Tennessee? Well, everything in my estimation. Right now it is in it's true infancy, the 1st TN state championship. With time the skillset will improve. the technique will improve, the intensity will better and the entertainment value of wrestling will get better for the fans. I saw the Texas Girl's State Championship this past weekend, held alongside the boys, and the medals and finals matches were just as intense and entertaining as watching the boy's medals and finals. The skills they use are different (ask national women's freestyle coach Terry Steiner about different techniques that work on boys do not work on girls), but the matches were fun to watch nevertheless. Most importantly though, the girls that wrestle will have the opportunity to experience the same benefits that we men have gotten from being a part of this great sport. Colleges programs are being added year after year (there are around 16 programs now, only 7 programs 4 years ago). Long term this may be what helps keep college men's programs alive, using the same existing facilities to house a women's program alongside the mens' program.

Nothing major. Voiles wanted to be state champion, and achieved it, so Buchanan was not allowed to be champion.

In Texas there is a separate division for girls and boys. It is absolutely forbidden to have girls wrestling boys in varsity, jv or exhibition type matches. According to those I have talked to about it, this has helped the growth of girls wrestling tremendously. The individual success level is higher and there is no stigma attached to wrestling boys. There are many girls getting college scholarships for wrestling. The college level girls do wrestle freestyle in their events. There are 12 to 15 schools now. The go to the NYAC tournament, Sunkist Kids tournament, tournaments just for the college girls, US Nationals and some duals. Everyone should support a separate girls division in wrestling. It may be what keeps the sport on the college level from losing any more programs.

Obviously I wasn't there, so I went and watched the match on youtube. The angle of the camera does not tell the whole story of what happened, so the judge for yourself mindset does not work in this case. I agree with chscoach about what good are the rules if the the ref does not call them. I have worked with and coached with Tim as the referee and have the utmost respect for what he does. If he sees it, he calls it. I am officiating this year in Texas and have the exact same mentality. At a match at the end of January, I had a wrestler show up to weigh-ins with his hair braided and no hair cover. I told him he needed one. His coach said that no one else had required one all year so why start now. I told him because it is the rule and he will not wrestle without one. They were able to get one from the local sporting goods store and he did wrestle. The point being is if people start deciding that referees can decide which rules will be enforced a certain day and which not, then you have a certain level of chaos within the sport. Imagine if a referee decided to not call full-nelsons and headlocks without an arm during a dual meet. What would the coaches and athletes do and how would they feel about that? Anyway, analyzing what I saw on the video Tim initiated the first, second and fourth penalties on Cleveland for the headgear while the third penalty was initiated by Jack. Two different referees from two different perspectives were seeing the same thing happen in the match. The locked hands call against Cookeville was a momentary overlap, but he was already the top man and that is all that is needed to make that call. I guess my only critique of the match would have been when the Ofori was on his feet, White was hanging onto his ankle, obviously changed directions when it was a lost cause, dragged him out of bounds and even used his leg to help push him out. I would have liked to have seen a fleeing the mat call on White for that one (he used the out of bounds to prevent a score)

I saw something similar at another event, but they had the wrestlers wear them on their ankles. This makes sense since during a match they wear an ankle band anyway.

This facility was looked at a couple of years ago when TWF was trying to secure a national tournament. When set up for duals with a 150 x 300 foot floor, you could set up 5 mats along each side of the venue with 10 feet between mats and 1 mat on each end for a donut configuration (we estimated we could fit 16 mats for a tournament configuration). Seating would be in front of the mats and there would not be any long distance mats that you have to watch through to see your kid's team. The head table area could be set up in the middle of the arena. Also the warm-up room is large enough to accomodate a couple of mats. Great seating (chair back), great viewing angles, ample parking and hotels, more centralized location, no preceived home gym advantage. 3 questions 1. Who is going to run the event? Clarksville has done a great job in the adminstration of the event. (concessions, programs, floor control, hospitality, point person for communication for teams coming in) 2. Along those lines who is going to prepare the bid package to try to get the event? To get something like this event relocated, a team needs to be formed with a leader who is willing to do the work needed to make it a solid proposal to TSSAA. 3. Will the plan to hold the tournament in this venue GUARANTEE that the TSSAA will make more money?

Hello Tennessee. I do still follow the sport in my home state and have seen a different style of wrestling in Texas. The sport here is growing, although overall technique is still lacking (I have seen more kids pinned with a trapped ankle 3/4 nelson this year than I have witnessed in my entire 24 year wrestling career). They are just growing the youth wrestling which will feed the high school wrestling. Anyway, as far as this topic is concerned this is how it is done in TX for comparison. There are 32 districts, some with as few as 6 teams while others with as many as 10 teams) that feed 4 regions. Top 2 in districts qualify for 16 man regional bracket (the 3rd place athlete can challenge for true 2nd if he had not lost to the runner-up but still receives the 3rd place medal and points). Top 4 in region qualify for 16 man state bracket (I don't know if they do a true 4th or not). I believe they medal top 4 in the state. There are around 200 teams in the public division. The private and parochial schools have their own association to which they they belong.

Allen High School will be my new home. It is located in Allen, TX, just outside of Dallas. I have enjoyed the many people I have met through wrestling in the state of Tennessee. Most assuredly they will all be missed. This move feels right for me at the time. Allen is an excellent school, the salaries are great in Texas, I have already met a girl and we plan on going out when I finally move, and the wrestling community is growing constantly in Texas. I officially move on August 7th. Best of luck to all that those that I know. See you down the road sometime.

I met coach Galvan this weekend. He is a nice guy and will be good for the area. As far as we know, Coach Holmes will be staying put at Houston. He has not informed any of us of his intent to leave. Yes, I am seeking jobs in the greater Dallas area. I have always loved the area when my parents lived down there. There are lots of opportunities and I want to look at other areas of the country while I am still single and can do that. When it is official everyone will be informed.

Link please to their videos.

Tournament has gone final with Germantown the team champion. Brackets are available from the prior link.

Brackets are at http://www.houstonwrestling.org/2008regx/2008regxhome.htm

A bracket is a series of competitions used to determine the winner of an event. The winner of 1 match advances to meet the winner of another match. The position of these winners is predetermined so that one always knows which his potential next opponent will be. Anyway, when the brackets are finalized I will post them for all to see. I have been waiting because people freak out when preliminary information is out there and then it changes.