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I did those last year. I hadn't really planned on doing it again this year. Wrestlers are still trying to change weight this time of year for the tournament and someone who has been wrestling at one weight all season may drop down one for the tournament. It's hard to track all those and they impact any preview. If folks have definite info on weight changes for their specific teams that would be helpful.

There are many clubs in TN, GA, etc. that are focusing more on youth wrestling. Is this a trend to grow the sport or simply build established programs? I hope it’s a trend to grow the sport. A rising tide raises all boats. I always hear many say it starts with a good feeder program. Is that really true? Or are there really coaches out there that can develop kids at the Middle School/HS level? There are definitely talented coaches out there who can develop good wrestlers at the high school level, but that doesn’t in any way diminish the importance and benefits of a feeder program. The data demonstrating the benefits of feeders is undeniable. Feeder programs not only make the overall quality of HS wrestling better but they can bring more people into the sport of wrestling than high school programs do. Feeder programs = GOOD! Baseball has become a year round sport, does it take playing year round to be successful? I don't think so, but many parents believe it does, especially baseball. This is the “when to specialize†question, if I understand it right. In my mind the benefits of specializing at an elementary age are marginal and the potential for burnout is always there. I tell kids and their parents that if you want to be part of a team and just enjoy wrestling with its highs, lows, and the occasional dramatic sports moment, then wrestle in-season, maintain a form of strength and conditioning year around, and enjoy other things off season. If you are, however, committed to be the very best on the mat…then specialize as a freshman. I have observed that a lot of kids do this anyway after their freshman year anyway. Why isn't Father Ryan sending a dual team? Do they put that much emphasis into their club program? If not why? Is it because of Div. II, Or simply Ryan truly believes they can coach kids up when they are older? I would not draw too many conclusions about the philosophy/approach of any program based on a snap shot of their schedule. Nashville Catholic has historically been a very strong program. Here is a somewhat rhetorical question: Are there what may be considered elite level youth programs out there that do not have their kids compete at national level events each year?

Assuming Moeller and Elyria were not temporarily diminished by circumstances, (flu breakout, weight issues, ...etc) this is very impressive.

Let's see...starts with F ...ends in CK, I'm guessing. And y'all with dirty minds need not reply.

Thank you, sir!

I saw that Rossview, West Creek, Clarksville, Houston, Arlington, John Overton, and Ft. Campbell will be there according to Trackwrestling.com. Are there other teams attending?

220 Elliott Lee (Archer) over Tripp Storrs (Bradley Central) (Fall 0:37) 285 Jacob Lill (Archer) over David Adams (Bradley Central) (Fall 3:06) 106 Gavin Smith (Archer) over TJ Hicks (Bradley Central) (Dec 4-2) 113 Toribio Navarro (Bradley Central) over Logan Smith (Archer) (Fall 1:48) 120 Vinny Artigues (Archer) over ryan McElhaney (Bradley Central) (TF 15-0 0:00) 126 Knox Fuller (Bradley Central) over Alex Standridge (Archer) (Fall 5:01) 132 Chris Diaz (Archer) over hunter parker (Bradley Central) (Fall 1:50) 138 Grant Aycox (Archer) over Stephen Scott (Bradley Central) (Fall 2:30) 145 donnie Beyer (Bradley Central) over Trey Rinehart (Archer) (Dec 5-0) 152 Sam Bullard (Archer) over caleb adkins (Bradley Central) (Fall 1:02) 160 Thomas Bullard (Archer) over Jack Bandy (Bradley Central) (Fall 0:57) 170 Daniel Bullard (Archer) over Corey Gatlin (Bradley Central) (Fall 1:44) 182 CJ Beasley (Archer) over james Elkins (Bradley Central) (Dec 5-2) 195 Brett Brown (Bradley Central) over Zack Patton (Archer) (MD 12-4)

Just as an FYI: for D2 at 126 Oliver is no longer wrestling in-state. He is back in Illinois.

Bump.

Congratulations to Jonathan Simpson on becoming AHS's new head wrestling coach. Coach Simpson has inherited a veteran team with three returning region champions and a solid crop of incoming freshmen. Looking forward to big things from Arlington in the coming years.

Arlington Community Schools has posted an opening for a Teacher/Head Wrestling Coach. Whoever fills this position will be filling the vacancy left when Coach Cordero steps down at the end of May. https://ats4.searchsoft.net/ats/app_login?COMPANY_ID=IA000063 Any interested applicant can contact Arlington Community Schools.

Would seriously consider going if rescheduled to 17th (the week before SE Regionals) or even after SER. Any chance you may reconsider rescheduling it? FS/GR opportunities aren't growing on trees.

If anyone wants to watch this match you can go to this link: http://new.livestream.com/navy/channel1 Scroll down to the Army Navy dual N-star dual and once you start viewing it just forward the video to the 36:24 mark to watch the match in its entirety. Being a Navy alum located near Memphis, I particularly enjoyed the outcome.

Region 8 finished up it’s tournament on Sunday evening after a one day weather delay. Collierville won handily by 33 points over second place Houston. The Dragons had 8 finalists; the Mustangs had 4; and Arlington, Millington, and Bartlett each had 3. Arlington came in third edging out Bartlett by 3.5 points with 126. The tournament placers and state qualifiers are as follows: 106 1st Place - Nicholas Carter of Cordova 2nd Place - Jeremy Henson of Collierville 3rd Place - Matthew Smolin of Houston 4th Place - Jonathan Abel of Bolton 113 1st Place - Alex Carroll of Bartlett 2nd Place - Dalton Ridling of Bolton 3rd Place - Alex Connell of Collierville 4th Place - Samuel Greenberg of Houston 120 1st Place - Bryce Dodson of Arlington 2nd Place - Mitchell Nguyen of Collierville 3rd Place - Travis Arthur of Houston 4th Place - Tyler Poe of Bartlett 126 1st Place - Grayson Young of Houston 2nd Place - Braun Stephens of Bartlett 3rd Place - William Perez of Kingsbury 4th Place - Bailey Hulley of Arlington 132 1st Place - Andrew Zarshenas of Arlington 2nd Place - Diego Scott-McCabe of Collierville 3rd Place - David Thomas of Bartlett 4th Place - Justin Taylor of Cordova 138 1st Place - Matthew Richardson of Collierville 2nd Place - Alaa Shihadeh of Houston 3rd Place - John Craft of Arlington 4th Place - Marcus Sutton of Kingsbury 145 1st Place - Seth Williams of Collierville 2nd Place - Matthew Dale of Houston 3rd Place - James Costner of Cordova 4th Place - Josiah Miller of Germantown 152 1st Place - Nathan Enzor of Arlington 2nd Place - Jaxon Cook of Millington 3rd Place - Kris Bledsoe of Bartlett 4th Place - Ahmad Richardson of Cordova 160 1st Place - Matthew Mullins of Cordova 2nd Place - Kevin Reeves of Bartlett 3rd Place - Brandon Carmichael of Millington 4th Place - Matt Wideman of Arlington 170 1st Place - Jeffrey Houston of Germantown 2nd Place - Essex Ramsey of Brighton 3rd Place - Graydon Yoder of Collierville 4th Place - Rayveon Hardin of Arlington 182 1st Place - Luke Walker of Millington 2nd Place - Cameron Tarver of Collierville 3rd Place - Cole Young of Houston 4th Place - Ismaeel Bayakly of Cordova 195 1st Place - Tyree Daniels of Cordova 2nd Place - Irana Moore of Memphis East 3rd Place - Ahmad Malawi of Kingsbury 4th Place - Nick Wilson of Bartlett 220 1st Place - Alexander Tekle of Houston 2nd Place - Nathan Hale of Collierville 3rd Place - Kylan Gray of Arlington 4th Place - John McDougal of Southwind 285 1st Place - Tres Ring of Collierville 2nd Place - Quinton Harrison of Millington 3rd Place - Radarius Anderson of Memphis East 4th Place - Justin Jones of Houston

I am not sure but I think Johnson was a senior at 135 when Moseley was still a sophomore 112. Again not 100% certain.

There were a good number of weigh changes like Bledsoe going UP to 152 and some of those pointed out by Longo. I just didn't bother updating the preview to reflect them. So the short answer is that it remains to be seen ( the tournament is but 1/2 way finished as of this morning), but my goal wasn't to predict outcomes so much as to provide a "lay of the land" to anyone mildly interested on who the players were. Cheers!. p.s. I plan to give up day work if that's what you were angling at.

It's over...Johnson won 7-3 (or 7-4: darn my short term amnesia). Go Bros! Go Navy!

Realize everyone is in tourney mode but just wanted to let everyone know that Alex Johnson (CBHS) and Cole Moseley (FR) are in a tight match right now at 149 as Navy wrestles American tonight.

Up to the quarterfinals were wrestled last night. I think today's rounds have been postponed until tomorrow at noon due to the weather. It is being held at Cordova. Scores as of last night: 1. Houston 44.0 2. Bartlett 41.5 3. Collierville 31.0 4. Arlington 27.0 5. Cordova 25.0 6. Kingsbury 20.0 6. Millington 20.0 8. Memphis East 16.0 9. Brighton 11.5 10.Bolton 10.0 10.Germantown 10.0 12.Southwind 2.0 13.Ridgeway 0.0

These are the seeds for the tournament. If they were to hold, Collierville will likely win the team points title ( assuming bonus points even out between the top teams). There is a enough parity between Collierville, Houston, Arlington, Bartlett, and Cordova to guarantee these seeds won’t hold, however. Should be a very competitive tournament. I think Collierville has to stumble to lose it, but it happens sometimes. Places 2-5 will be hotly contested. 106 1 Carter -Cor 2 Henson - Col 3 Smolin - Hou 4 Olsen - Bart 113 1 Carroll - Bar 2 Ridling - Bol 3 Nason - Kin 4 Connell - col 120 1 Nguyen - Col 2 Dodson - Arl 3 Arthur - Hou 4 Poe - Bar 126 1 Young - Hou 2 Stephens - Bar 3 Ensell - Ger 4 Perez - Kin 132 1 Zarsh - Arl 2 DSM - Col 3 Brown - MEH 4 Taylor - Cor 138 1 Shihadeh - Hou 2 Richardson - Col 3 Craft - Arl 4 Srock - Mil 145 1 Costner = Cor 2 Hall - Bar 3 Dale - Hou 4 Williams - Col 152 1 Enzor - Arl 2 Cook - Mil 3 Richardson - Cor 4 Hall - MEH 160 1 Mullins - Cor 2 Reeves - Bar 3 Wideman - Arl 4 Hampton - MEH 170 1 Ramsey - Bri 2 Houston - Ger 3 Adams - Cor 4 Yoder - Col 182 1 Walker - Mil 2 Tarver - Col 3 Young - Hou 4 Graham - Bar 195 1 Daniels - Cor 2 Malawi - Kin 3 Moore - MEH 4 Williams - SW 220 1 Tekle - Hou 2 Hale - Col 3 Robinson - Mil 4 Wilson - Bar 285 1 Ring - Col 2 Harrison - Mil 3 Barrientos - Bar 4 Anderson – MEH

Admittedly I am an outsider looking in at this issue so forgive me if I don't catch what may be obvious to others but I honestly don't know why "middle school" wrestling is even viable given the prevalence of AAU and USAW programs in the state. I hear the same complaint about the lesser experience of MS wrestling but apparent it still persists. Why hasn't "evolution" done away with it? In the Memphis area the only middle school teams are a handful of privates and they basically operate the same as the clubs. All other 9 or so programs are clubs. I just don't see the overall benefit of having middle schools involved in the sport at the youth level. Duals? We schedule duals amongst the clubs when we want and still have the benefit of a wrestling season from November to March. Some things have been changing out here in Memphis for the better in the last few years and I am glad to say that middle school wrestling is not part of these changes.

To your credit you did preface it by saying it was going to be a bold prediction. Come hard or go home!

If you are a high school wrestling coach, how does recruiting someone to come to your school, (presumably from someone else's feeder program or school), help build a successful feeder program for your school. I think I am misinterpreting something in your post.

Good post, Durdon. As recruiting is the lifeblood of college programs so are feeder programs the lifeblood of high school programs. No big secret there.

I've heard chatter that Braun Stephens is going to stay at 132. That being the case it opens up 126 quite a bit with Tyler Brown, however, still having the inside track. This may end up being one that's up for grabs.