humorwrestling

Pessimist...

Come on Baller, you're not listing The Hill? We can't make a top 10 without The Hill.

Top 11: Cleveland, Ravenwood, Soddy, Beech, Science Hill, Wilson Central, Heritage, Bradley, Independence, Blackman, Maryville

I wouldn't really worry about anyone from Region I competing on the state level this year. These guys are not putting in any extra work, seems all they want to do is vacation. I know some of them are being forced to go to off season workouts but they just goof off when they go. Their out of state travels to tournaments are really just to trade singlets and to get t-shirts. I really wouldn't worry about the Region I guys. No dark horses there. Spangler, Williams, Blanco, Broyles, English--they're all just buds but their parents won't let them hang out together at home so the only reason you may see them at in state tournaments is for the social gathering. Don't expect anything from East TN this year. The coaches in Region 1 are all mostly focusing on track, baseball, football, soccer, etc. Wrestling season is very far off. They will get back on it and start lifting weights and stuff around November. They all just hope that everyone has a good time, cause in the end, its just about having fun--everyone is a winner.

Agree on the matrix/wrestler list, but am I the only one who thinks its ABSOLUTELY RIDCULOUS that coaches are being charged $25. Can someone please explain why?? I have never, at any tournament I've attended, eat $25 worth of hospitality food.

Bosken--you can't make a comment like that and not explain...you were "watching from the stands (not by choice)?" Whats up with that?

Ask how far in the past the system goes to calculate their ranking? The problem here is we switch divisions every two years, a kid may dominate in their 2nd yr as a novice then be an also ran in middle school, their profile would still show them as a top ranked wrestler especially if they were attending non-track tournaments. Youth wrestling is so varied, you can never compare apples to apples using this system. My team profile shows 3 first year wrestlers who attended 1 tournament and are higher ranked than some who have wrestled for 5+ years. In addition, there are situations like last weeks regions where there were exhibition matches entered in track. A kid from lower weight was bumped up for matches and may have won the match but they were entered as losses so as not to screw up brackets. this kids profile now shows those losses. Issues such as this must be addressed. Maybe the tournament directors want to take this on but I wouldnt.

So if seeding isn't important to you, WHY are we having this discussion? We all know how difficult it is to obtain a gym for a tournament, how do you propose that we schedule around all the national tournaments? Its not feasible. I say we scrap the whole idea of Top 100. Pour the money being spent on those awards into State and make State the crown jewel event. The belts are really nice and I love seeing the kids being rewarded, but the winner is not necessarily the best wrestler, they might just have the best logistics. Its all about priorities, I have kids on my team who could win the belt, but we choose not to chase it. Like you, we travel for competition and our plan is to have it pay off on the high school level and possibly pay for college. Thats more valuable than the belt to us.

I agree with you that it sux to be on the wrong side of those types of brackets and I don't know there is a way to fix it to be perfect, especially in youth. There are over 60 weight classes in our state, there is no possible way to look at subjective seeding criteria and incorporate that into every weight class. It takes high school coaches hours to seed their region tournaments and thats only 14 weight classes and there are still inequitities. I just think that requiring attendance at Top 100 tournaments not the answer. There are too many variables and these Top 100 tournaments are not the cream of the crop anyway. There are other more competitive tournaments in our state. I'm not against a true 2nd, but if we do it at State we should also do it at Region.

So you want to require a kid who can compete on the national level and travels outside of Tennessee to stay in the state and attend a lesser tournament in order to secure their seed at State? If thats the case then lets just let TN AAU make every club's schedule for them. We can do one tournament in the state each weekend and everyone is required to come or you don't get to go to state. Have you ever considered that if every wrestler that has a legit shot at winning their region attends all the Top 100s (in order to secure a state seed) you will see the same 4-5 kids wrestling each other at 7+ tournaments each year. How does this improve our wrestling in Tennessee. My philosophy says that you expand your horizons and attempt to find different/new/better competition to improve your own.

I didn't say it doesn't matter. It matters to me and my kids, my point is that the kid and DAD shouldn't be blaming his kids losses on a "inept bracketing process," they have to learn that there will be obstacles in life and wrestling. They are going to learn a lot about overcoming obstacles in many of these AAU matches because they must beat their opponent and inept referees (thats a whole different discussion). But as I said, in the grand scheme, no one asks on a college application if your child won AAU State. And if you or your child can't get past a loss in AAU wrestling at some point in your life then maybe you are taking the wrong approach. No one is penalizing a kid with a bad bracketing process, its the system in place--teach your kid to work through it.

Heres a great random example of why using the Top 100 tournaments is not the best solution. I randomly chose a middle school bracket and looked at all Top 100 and Region results. Middle School 85 Top 100 Region 1 - Adzima, Lay, Nelson, Moultry Region 2 - Moultry, Justice, McCray, Manuel Region 3 - Lay, Justice, Adzima Region 4/5 - Moultry, Adzima, Lay, Manuel Region 1 - Nelson 2 - Justice, Adzima 3 - Lay 4 - Moultry 5 - Dooley, Manuel So based on the Top 100 points Moultry would get the Top seed here with 2 tournament wins. He didn't attend the Region 3 Top 100 and was 4th at Region 1 Top 100. Lay has the more consistent Top 100 record with a win, a 2nd, and 3rd, and he won his region but he placed lower than Adzima and was beat head to head at one of the Top 100s. Adzima has a 1, 2, & 3 in Top 100 but placed 2nd in his region to Justice who took 2nd twice but didn't win a Top 100. Dooley didn't attend the Top 100s but won his region. He beat Adzima earlier in a different tournament. Nelson, the Region 1 Champ, best Top 100 finish was 3rd but he beat Moultry who won the 2 Top 100s where Nelson didn't compete. A true mess. We should revisit this bracket after Saturday to see how it turns out. In my view there are 7 wrestlers who can win the tournament. I could go on and on here but there are so many uncontrollable variables with the Top 100s that it makes no sense to me to include them in state seeding. I agree that Region champions should be paired against 4th from another and 2 vs 3. There may be some manual adjustments based on previous state place/winner but this can get tricky and in my opinion should only be used as seperation criteria, if a previous state placer gets 4th in his region he should wrestle a region champ 1st round. If the top 2 region champs get placed on the same side of the bracket, its unfortunate, but a fact of life that wrestling teaches us. Don't expect your daddy to work it out and clear a path for you, step up and overcome. If not then you were 3rd that day and now you have motivation to come back and try again next year. After all, this is not an Olympic gold we are wrestling for, there are no college scouts, and in the grand scheme no one will every care where my kid placed in AAU State.

Hey Buzz!! You got any picks or you just working as a group with morristown coach, I mean newcoach.

So I'm looking over your brackets and see there are only 2 Seymour kids with losing records. Is Seymour the sleeper here or do they just wrestle a light weight schedule? I've been asking around and consensus seems to be the latter and their coach must be really convincing at the seeding meeting. I noticed a lot of their kids got good seeds. Other than Stooksburry do that have any legit shot at a gold? So wonders humor.

Sommers--please send me some of what you are smoking. Sometimes it seems like the cat walks across your keyboard during your posts. "Dupont/combustion engineering?" And to think, I believed it all went back to feeder programs, hard work, and dedication from coaches, parents, and kids--all along the recipe for success was right in front of me,10th grade science class holds the key to Chattown's wrestling success. Arrrgghh!

Actually DCA, I don't disagree that Greeneville has a shot at top 4. More than anything I just wanted to calm down King--that kid is on a high after The Hill knocked off DB on Monday and his former Green Devils are returning to state!! Rightfully so I guess, just fun to get him fired up.

Don't get carried away King. I'm thinking they would have to be ninja-like to sneak into that top 4, not saying its not possible, but would require some kids to step up big time--I would like to see it. Good luck Gville!

Newcoach--I feel like your keyboard only has the keys available to type "who are your region finals picks" I kinda feel like were all in a bad marriage with you, you never give, just take, take, take. Please feel free to add your own opinion of your "region finals picks"

Sammy--does your mom know you are on here posting?

Billy--I have to hand it to you, you guys travel really well. No doubt other schools would like to have as many fans. Some of the Seymour fans I've been watching lately will rival you all with respect to the obnoxiousness. They are taking red neck to a whole new level, soaring like Eagles.

Wow! I'm really suprised it came down to the last match tonight at DB! I saw some fired up DB wrestlers and some sloppy mistakes on the part of The Hill. Interesting.

I will be at DB tonight watching The Hill scalp those Indians. Who's coming with me? Prediction: DB wins 3, maybe 4 matches. The Hill by at least 24 point margin.

So Buzz, why did you remove your post? And yes we are on to you. Its not hard to figure out, if you are trying to remain anonymous, first of all you shouldn't have used your family number of 19 in your screen name and second, of your 35 posts, at least 32 of them talked about your brother. Come on man! Its cool to come on here anonymously and make predictions and such, but expand your horizons a little, believe it or not there are other wrestlers in the region besides THS's 160 & 170. Now don't be like your father and disappear after someone has called you out, we enjoy beating up on you! haha You can be our go to guy when we need info on THS wrestling, well at least the 160 & 170, you might need to study up on the others a bit.

Baller--let me tell you why he won't make his own list because you can't make a list with just 2 wrestlers! And I tend to agree with your picks at both. Good luck on your sleep tonight.

OMG Sommers, sometimes you need to learn when not to speak!