DAL

Way to go Nathan Jones and Cody Humphrey! Both of you guys have worked very hard this season and you both deserve to be All-Americans!

As soon as I get the results I will post them, This will be a USA Sanctioned event. This was Coach Brands idea, it is my understanding, so this is one of their events in Tennessee. This event will take place. I am sure that they have been waiting for info from us so they can post it on their schedule page. Here in East Tennessee, tryouts for the event wil be conducted at a yet to be named site. I will get with Greg Foreman, who is over AAU Freestyle Wrestling, and see what his plans are. Karns had 450 wrestlers and Kingsport had over 350 I believe. I wil know exactly as soon as I get the numbers from them

The AAU Youth Nationals Wrestling Tournament will once again be held in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Wrestlers from Iowa, New York, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alalbama, Virginia, Florida, and Tennessee competed in last years event! Here is some brief infor concerning the event. For a complete tournament flyer, please go to www.aausports.org Click on wrestling and click on National Events. 2006 AAU Youth Nationals Date: March 31 to April 1, 2006 City: Pigeon Forge, Tennessee Site: The Grand Hotel Convention Center Schedule: • Friday, March 31st 4-8 PM Weigh-ins for all Divisions Weigh-ins will take place at the Grand Hotel Wrestlers must weigh-in wearing a singlet and will be given a 2 LB allowance. • Saturday, April 1st 8 AM Doors Open for Wrestlers / Spectators 9 AM Wrestling begins Pre-Registration and Information can be found at: www.seaausports.org • Match Duration: Tot thru Novice 3 – 1 ½ minute periods. Schoolboy 3 – 2 minute periods • Folkstyle Rules • Tournament will Place the TOP 8 in each Weight Class Each Champion will Receive Gold Medal and a Trophy Each Wrestler and Coach will receive an AAU NATIONALS Wrestling Tournament T-shirt Hotel Information Grand Hotel 3171 Parkway Pigeon Forge, TN 37863 1-800-251-4444 www.grandresorthotel.com The Convention Center is a parking lot walk, 300- 400 feet, from the Grand Hotel. If you have any questions or simply need more information concerning this event, please contact: Darrel Lauderdale at darrelllauderdale@sevier.org

Can't leave out Waylon Lowe. Tennessee State Champ and 3X NCAA Div. II Champion.

Not this year but... Nick Breeden 1x 215 lb State Champ, 1x Runner-up played Football, Wrestled, and played Soccer Ian McPherson 125 lb Runner-up played Football, Wrestled, and Played Soccer

Here is the response I received from PA Pennsylvania does not rank or seed wrestlers for the state tournament but we do place wrestlers into brackets based on what place they won at the regional tournaments. The only exception is that in a case where more than one wrestler is a returning state champion, they are placed on opposite sides of the bracket. I attached two files (pdf format) that show the pairings for this year. The brackets are used for different weight classes each year. The system works fairly well except for a few instances where a wrestler will appear to intentionally lose a match in the regional finals in order to get a better draw in the state bracket. Some coaches feel that the brackets should be hidden until after all regional results are in but others fear that this would lead to more problems since the tournament officials would know which wrestlers would be placed in each bracket. There are definitely brackets that favor certain regions and other brackets give the same region a very difficult draw. We have certain regions that are strong every year while others are weak every year. 2006 AA (small schools) 2006 AAA (large schools)

Bruinsdad, I am glad to here that everything went well and I am very glad the Boys from Bradley enjoyed the William Blount Tournament. Marty Carpenter does a very good job at running his events. He also had a very good staff of dedicated helpers who work very hard at running a good event. Thanks to all of the wrestlers, coaches, and parents who attended our AAU Wrestling events this weekend. Also, Congrats to the guys in Nashville and the TWF. I have been getting updates all day from the Fr. and Soph. State Event. It sounded like everything was going well.

BIG JOHN VANDERGRIFF STATE HWT CHAMPION: 3 YEAR STARTER IN FOOTBALL AND WRESTLING Sorry Beale, I too failed to see the 3. I hope Dale (Big E) will forgive because I always notice the 3.

Here is the reply I got from Iowa concerning how they seed for their state tournament: There is no seeding in Iowa. District champs are matched up with District runner-ups. But other than that, the No. 1 ranked kid can meet the No. 2 ranked kid in the first round by luck (or unluck) of the draw. Our State Tournament starts today and we have three matches in the first round where the top two ranked kids at a weight class meet.

I did a little checking around at other states to see how their state tournament was seeded. Here is the reply from Iowa: There is no seeding in Iowa. District champs are matched up with District runner-ups. But other than that, the No. 1 ranked kid can meet the No. 2 ranked kid in the first round by luck (or unluck) of the draw. Our State Tournament starts today and we have three matches in the first round where the top two ranked kids at a weight class meet.

I just received a phone call from a club in South Carolina. The coach said there are a couple of their clubs planning on attending the William Blount Tournament this weekend. It seems this is an open week for them. I had an email from a coach from VA wanting directions to Blountville. The Rebel Classic has committments from several teams from Western VA. This event will be a good one! It wil be good for our Tennessee boys to compete with kids outside the state. Good Luck and have a great weekend guys!

I hope the wrestlers will be OK. My wife and I will keep them in our prayers. My family is from Greeneville and I have allot of respect for Coach Brimer and the Greeneville Program and Community. I hope the guys will be OK!

THE NEW FLYER HAS NOW BEEN POSTED ON THE SEAAUSPORTS WEB SITE.

Goldminer too would like to see a small school division established. There are over 130 Div. I schools, (based on what info is on the TSSAA Web site and there are some schools with programs that are not listed so I am guessing over 130) that have wrestling teams. The decision to draw the dividing line for divisions is based on enrollment. You could divide the 130 plus in half, based on enrollment: 65+teams in Large School and 65+ teams in small. That part is easy. The tough part comes when you look at the geographic lay out of where the small schools are located. How is this: bring all the schools back together, no more public and private. Then establish a Small School and Large School format. I have researched this idea before and I believe the enrollment divide would be somewhere around the 1,000 - 1,050 students. Its been a couple of years since I researched it but I think that is where it would be. I'll go back and update my numbers and see where it would be. Now, as far as the Soddy Hosp. Room goes, since I am not coaching this year, I will base my opinion on my previous years experience. I think they do a wonderful job and I always believed so. Its was always worth every penny and I can see why they need to increase the cost from time to time. Its a tough job for all the Soddy Supporters to take on and they always did an outstanding job. I probably did not thank them enough when I was coaching, so I will do it now. Hey Soddy Daisy Take Down Club: THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ALL THAT YOU DO!

If you are planning on attending the Rebel Classic in Blountville this weekend, I made a mistake, so please be aware that the tournament info has changed. The Directors of the event have been handing/sending out flyers for the last several monthes. That flyer and the one I created and posted it on our seaausports web site are different. Please, if you or anyone you know are planning on attending this event please have them contact Lew at 423-914-2237 or lew4you@aol.com. for the correct tournament info. I have asked the tournament directors to email me a copy of the flyer they were handing out so I could post it on our web site. For info concerning our other TNAAU events please go to www.seaausports.com D. Lauderdale