takedown42

Apprentice School Ron Vecchione, Javon Butler http://www.claywolfsports.com/2002%20results.html Carson Newman Shane Arnold, Nick Berry, Michael Boht, Emanuel Frudger, Chonci Houston, Jarred Houston, Cody Humphrey, Billy James, Koe Knowx, Donte Lawson, Keyonsey Moore, Nate Mooreman, Micah Nelkin, Phillip Owen, Nathan Parker, Chase Pipes, Ernest Turner, Lief Whaley, Andrew Woodward http://news.cn.edu/athletics/Wrestling/home.html Nebraska Matt Keller http://www.huskersnside.com/SportSelect.db..._ID=100&SPID=28 Michigan State University Matt McCarty, Darren McKnight http://msuspartans.ocsn.com/sports/m-wrest...restl-body.html Oklahoma State University Rusty Blackman, Kevin Ward http://okstate.ocsn.com/sports/m-wrestl/ok...restl-body.html Tennessee Chattanooga Brandon Artiles, chris Bird, Josh Craft, Diaz Edwards, Jason Finnell, Jimmy Fredericks, Billy Hayduk, Daniel Jean, Craig Johnson, Quantel Langford, B.J.Malone, Michael Moharreri, Al Morris, Adam Raines, Josh Ward, Jake Yost http://www.gomocs.com/sport_front.asp?sportid=138 United States Military Academy Patrick Simpson, Phillip Simpson http://goarmysports.ocsn.com/sports/m-wres...restl-body.html

I think it would be great if we could post a list of current college wrestlers from the state of Tennessee. Please list the wrestlers name and where there are wrestling. Also, maybe we could get a link to the web page of the college program so we might be able to follow the kids this year. I was so glad to see where there was a kid from the state of Tennessee on the front cover of the USA Wrestling Magazine who won the division III championship. I didn't know he was still wrestling.

Come on guys, where is the love? Why don't DI do as DII has done and let everyone in the state tournament. Then everyone has an equal shot at the state tournament. Nobody is left at home and the TSSAA will have a great gate. This would certainly make the TSSAA happy because there would be more fans coming to see their sons or daughters wrestle. Makes sense to me. Everybody is happy from coach to wrestlers to parents to friends to TSSAA. MORE MONEY!!!!! And we are all state qualifiers. Just makes cents.

cbg, I think an 8 man bracket would be even better. The tssaa used to send only 8 kids per bracket to the state years ago. The Chattanooga area use to be combined with Knoxville, and Nashville would combine with Memphis. Each region would send the top 4 at each weight class to the state tourn. This would certainly make the state tournament a much more competitive tournament in the sense that there would not be any overmatch kids competing. I think this should be done with both DI and DII. Any thoughts on this?

You might start by telling people who you are and what credentials you have. It might also help your cause if you would tell people what club you last had or what club you were involved in. Most people are just simply curious as to who might be coaching their kids, and how you run a club program. I think these things might help you get started. Good luck and I hope you have tremendous success.

Good post BobMarley, I don't think that Gordon Connell of McCallie tells the people of Ryan how to run their tournament as I don't think that Pat Simpson of Ryan tells the McCallie people how to run their Invitational. I think Walkenvol need not throw stones to far because they might break his own Blue Tornado glass home. While our team was at the McCallie tourn this year there seemed to be some problems with the weigh-in procedures this year on Sat. morning with the local kids. I remember quite vividly some out of town teams claiming not to return if this is how they do business. I am not sure what exactly happened but the buzz around the tournament didn't shed good light on the situation what ever it was. Maybe Walkenvol can tell us what happened to cause those coaches to threaten to not return next year.

Walkenvol, You are getting to sound like a daddy who's son must have been beating by one of the Simpson kids. Are you crying sour grapes? If so, why? What have they done to you? You say that you know coaches who refuse to go back to the Ryan Inv. so tell us who they are. I will say that where ever you go to wrestle out of town there is a different style of officiating. We go to Alabama and they call different than the Tenn officials. So are the Alabama officials cheating or calling in favor of the Alabama kids? I don't think so. So it sounds to me that you are making a blanket statement about everyone opinion from Chattanooga about the Nashville officials. I would bet that if you asked the Nashville schools what they think about our Chattanooga officials they would say they aren't as good as their officials in Nashville. They might even say our officials are biased.

Walkenval, I think you may have submitted some false information on your last post about the Simpson kid who was OW at last years state. After reading your post I thought you were wrong so I looked up his bracket on the TSSAA web site. If I read it correctly it said he pinned all four opponents including one of your McCallie kids in the finals. His four matches were pin in 1:32, pin in 2:35, pin in 1:47 and a pin in the finals in 3:45. I would have to say he did have an outstanding tournament. I also thought Fletcher Thompson from Baylor had an outstanding tournament. He had two first period pins, a decision over a staller from Ryan and major decision over the MBA kid who is not to shaby. I personally think the officials have the best interest in heart when they choice a outstanding wrestler.

I believe he is talking about the legal fees the TSSAA will incur if they lose the court case to Brentwood Academy. Somebody must pay for the attorney fees!

Tnmat, Just for the sake of letting us know, why would you scoff at the idea of having this event at Ryan if this is the best place to host this event? I thought the idea of these latest post were to find or identify the best place for the state duals. Let us read your response as to why you have problems with the tourn. at Ryan. I personally think either McCallie or Baylor could host this event but as I stated earlier it just isn't fair to the rest of the state to come here for both tournaments. It only makes more sense to place this tournament in a place that is most accessible to all involved. With the current conditions of most public schools, they are having financial troubles that are effecting most of the athletic teams. My concern is that the TSSAA put the tourn. in a place that is centrally located and especially one that is large enough. And yes I did like Clarksville but as I stated in another post "it is not big enough for 3 mats and the teams that get put on the far mat have no fans close enough to cheer effectively for their teams". Yes, Overton had a good atmosphere but much to small for this event.

I am not posting here to put down Clarksville High School. However, I will state that I don't think Clarksville is a very good site for the fans. The set up is not conducive for the fans to watch. As most of you who saw the event would probably agree that who ever got assigned to that mat on the far side of the gym couldn't get there fans close enough to the action for support. This takes away from the action and most importantly takes much away from the paying fans. I think that the state needs to make sure the gym can hold 3 mats across the gym so the fans can sit on either side of the gym to cheer their teams on. As far as rotating the dual meet tournament goes I don't think so. I would prefer it to stay in the Middle Tennessee area. This is because we already host the individuals and it wouldn't be right for us to host both the duals and the individuals, and make everybody travel to us both times. I believe the tournament could be hosted maybe in the Allen center at Lipscomb. This is a new facility that might fit the needs of the state dual wrestling tournament.

I got this off the army wrestling web site. Phillip Simpson was named the top college 141 pound rookie of the year. What an honor for a Tennesee kid. This is the link to see the article http://goarmysports.fansonly.com/sports/m-.../052802aaa.html

Congratulations to Rob Sherrill. He has done an outstanding job promoting the sport of wrestling here in Tennessee. He has also done a great job promoting the Tennessee wrestlers where ever he can. I don't now him personally but I want to say thank you to Rob Sherrill for his involvement in our state. I will say he is a great choice.

Can anyone give us current information on Matt. I would imagine that cattledontcare could give us an update. How has he done since he went to Michigan State? Did he redshirt this year? When will he get a chance to start? How did he do this year in the open tournaments that he competed in? All information is welcome so we can keep up with Matt. Thanks

OK! Now that we have embarked on some legendary coaches such as the "General" Luke Worsham in some other post, can we come up with a list of great coaches and tell why they should be considered for such a list. This should be fun since we have some of the older wrestlers on this forum who don't mind straigten out the younger generation. I will start off with one such coach by the name of Doug Newman. He molded some great kids, and made takedown machines out of most of them. I recall that some of his teams at Hunters Lane still hold national takedown records. I think he still contributes to the sport even though he is officially retired.

cbg, Excellent points about Thoni and Norfleet. Do you think we can get these two to wrestle today? I know that Thoni is at Ryan on Thursday nights helping with Southside wrestling. He is still a stud. What has happened to Norfleet? Is he still in town? I heard he went to dance for M C Hammer for a while. What is he up to these days?

For the sake of not arguing. I will concede that Matt Keller and Philip Simpson are the two best to have ever come out of the state of Tennessee irregardless of weight class. My next choice will be David Thoni of Ryan, and then Norfleet of Whites Creek, then Ricky Johnson of Chat. Central. These three where very dominant and great wrestlers to boot.

Since the heavy weight discussion caused a great amount of interest, I will start one on the other end of the scales. Who do you think is the best light weight to have wrestled? There are many to choice from. Lets have fun with this one.

I think the best heavy weight was Scot Wells. He wrestled like a light weight and was able to shoot on his opponents. I also liked Bubba Miller. But Bubba did not have the wrestling experience that Scott Wells had. Although they were the two best this state has ever seen, and probably the best offensive centers UT has ever had.

In response to your statement about Scott Wells being the only #1 ranked kid from Tennessee would certainly be a mistake. Wells carried the #1 ranking for a short period of time at the beginning of his senior season. Then he was later dropped to 3rd at best. I think this was because he quit competing in the national tournaments. On the other hand a true Tennessee kid named Phillip Simpson carried a #1 ranking by Amateur Wrestling News at 125 lbs the first half of the season. He was later moved to the 135 lb weight class in which he was competing in. He was then dropped to a #2 ranking if my memory serves me right. He finished Runner-Up in the senior nationals to a kid from California who dropped a weight class to compete at 135 lbs. Phillip, I believe finished ranked in the top 2 of most polls and was ranked #1 at the end of last year by NHSCA. Not bad for a true Tennessee kid. It will be interesting to see where they rank Matt Keller from Bradley. He is in the same league as Phillip Simpson. I have watched these polls with interest over the last couple of years, and I don't think that the ranking people have given Matt Keller his due which is a shame.

I would have to say that Brugal and the Greenville kid don't belong in the same class of heavyweights as the ones we speak of. The Greenville kid is good but not in the same league, and Brugal doesn't know much wrestling, he just muscles his way around and that is not wrestling. My list of best heavyweights would certainly include none other than Shazon Bradley. What an athlete and a wrestler.