sx1234

The irony in this.... and @TotallynotLEO can correct me if I am wrong... A LOT of the success A.C. has achieved the last 3-5 years was a result of their kids being a part of the freestyle club(s) Sayne was a part of (Wolfpack, Crossroads, Tennessee Valley)

I hate to hear all of that. What you guys have done out there and the growth of the program in just the last 4 or 5 years has been very impressive!

I'm not trying to bash Cleveland, I have no dog in the fight, but we need to call a spade a spade. What happened is not right. If you are a Cleveland supporter, my heart would hurt for your kids that would have to forfeit in the state title. IMO your girls would have won the title with or without the Oklahoma girls- but that detail does not matter. If TSSAA does their job correctly, then the wins should be forfeited and eligibility for next year's post season should be suspended. That's been the punishment for similar offenses, and only fair for what's happened now. Again, I really would hate that for Cleveland's girls because they have certainly done the hard work to earn a state title for themselves. But sadly, kids are affected when adults make careless mistakes.

I agree with you that it needs to be investigated! I have zero information about the Joe Blair person to have an opinion, but If he was the one that approved the transfers then I agree that he does not need to be on the team (multiple people) that do the deeper investigation. Let blatant cheating in the state championship by our state's current flagship program go? Absolutely not! And please learn how to respond to message boards before spamming with multiple short phrased comments such as this saying the same thing, and yet nothing at the exact same time.

The TSSAA has ruled in the past that they are different sports, not saying we agree with that logic though. Also, that would be a very hard detail to prove under a real investigation. I do agree with your sentiment, though, that even if they were able to say it was a different sport, there are still numerous other details that would make the transfer illegal. Unless someone can breakdown every single infraction and articulate a reasonable justification for each (which I don't see how that's possible) Then arguing over a single detail of the transfer IMO is meaningless. It'd be like committing grand theft auto and robbing a bank and then arguing that you were innocent because someone left their keys in the car and the bank vault was open when you got there.

"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men" -Plato Personally I believe that a coach for Clarksville. West Creek, Maryville, Halls, Riverdale, Blackman, and Riverdale should ALL file a complaint. As well as any team that competed in that Region's Dual Championship to qualify for state duals. And I would go as far as to say it's a shame on them if they chose not to.

There is clearly a laundry list of violations with this transfer. The Cleveland faithful will come in arguing that TSSAA approved their eligibility before state duals- which I do not believe anyone is trying to say they didn't. The issue is that the approval clearly never should have happened, and whoever did approve it should be held responsible for not doing their job. Keep in mind, only 1 of the several possible violations has to be true for the transfer to be ineligible, so please save us the responses of "They enrolled on the 18th school day of the semester, so we are innocent" (conveniently ignoring all the other points. If I was guessing, I think the 2 infractions that are the most undeniable would be bona fide change of address (as the girls clearly moved back to Oklahoma and are living where they used to live) and previous athletic coaching link (as it is apparent common knowledge the girls did do something in the off-season with Cleveland connection involved). If the TSSAA investigates, or chooses not to investigate this issue, and DOES NOT make them forfeit the wins, then it is very clear that there is a level of corruption within the TSSAA. Additionally, because of how TSSAA has responded to similar situations in other sports, Cleveland should be ineligible for the state tournament for the next 1-3 years unless they do the right thing and admit their mistakes and forfeit this years title themselves.

A few years ago a team in Knoxville played an ineligible player in mop-up duty of one of the last games of the season. He was a JV caliber player, and got in when it was a running clock type of 2nd half. Because of this, that team had to forfeit the game AND was ineligible for the playoffs. A similar situation happened a couple of years ago and the the team was suspended from the playoffs for the next 3 seasons. I believe that was initially the punishment with the first team I'm referencing too, but the coaches were able to appeal and pleaded their case and admitted their mistake of just putting in the entire JV at that point in the game.

Bingo!

100% Correct 100% Incorrect It Doesn't matter if the girls won or lost their individual matches at all, or if the girls showed up to Cleveland on their own accord or not.... It is clear that they did not meet the requirements to be eligible to wrestle. Following precedents set by other sports playing ineligible players, the wins should be forfeited and Cleveland girls should be ineligible for post-season competition the next 1-3 seasons. That's always been the consequence for football teams playing ineligible players, why should wrestling be any different?

This would only make sense to do if TSSAA did something crazy like seeded their state tournament solely off of the past year's state tournament placement.

Just a week and a day after the state tournament, let the recruiting season begin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUzgts9utNE Placing 6th in state without fully knowing the rules of Folkstyle is both comical and impressive. I hope this kid gets involved with freestyle and greco this spring.

TSSAA does not put any restrictions on transfers at all. Eligibility to compete in TSSAA sanctioned sports after the transfer is what is restricted. These are not the same thing.

I was told that last week TSSAA sent out a survey to all head coaches of every sport if they were in favor or against a 1 time transfer rule. I highly doubt that they would publish the results, but I would absolutely love to see the results of that survey.