oceansize42

It doesn't matter whether they do or don't (I have no idea). Real life kicks in after sports have ended and then the rubber meets the road. Success in sports, contrary to what many believe, doesn't correlate to success in life. I was a tall skinny nerd (still am) and so were my friends way back when. Within my circle of friends (and my brother) we are to the man financially successful, zero divorces, raised productive children, and do/did so with a high quality of life. Sports teach some lessons very quickly and harshly. Hopefully the kids gain some friends that are long lasting, but believe it or not all of that is attainable outside sports. None of my friends or family were athletes, not even close. I love wrestling, best thing my son ever did. Gosh I loved it, but it was for him and not me (as stated I was terrible in sports, anything he accomplished was more than I did). I'm immensely grateful but sports mean nothing beyond the age of 25. I was going to write 22 or 23 but then I remembered how things are...

I see Seymour beat Gibbs 46-22. Region two will certainly be interesting to watch. Spells trouble for Region 1 teams. I hadn’t looked at Seymour until you mentioned them.

Interesting about PF, I was wondering where they were heading with some of the lineups I've seen. Sounds like PF and Anderson might be the favorites out of region 1 since Anderson beat DC and did so giving up a FF at 132.

I think you are misinterpreting my statements. They deserved to be signed. The next steps, i.e cracking the lineup and winning more than you lose, are infinitely harder.

I'm saying chase it but be aware all is not what it seems. Parents and sometimes coaches have a slightly unrealistic view concerning what it really takes to be successful, and sustain that success, at D1. It is a lot of hard work to get signed but it is incredibly difficult to do more than just be on the team within D1 and we all know it. That is a negative statement. No doubt everything I said is negative with respect to most young men's ability to "make it" once signed, but I stand by it. I've watched the D1 ranks and it isn't pretty. You are wrong however about my statement concerning lesser college divisions, that isn't a put down, that is what most should do.

If the clock on the live stream was in sync with the real clock then Father Ryan's 157 just got robbed big time. The take down was seconds after the period expired. Wow, but I can only assume the two are not in sync. Edit: The announcer said the buzzer is the official time which is "automatic". I guess that is the case.

Keep in mind only two young men in the last five to seven years have had any sustained success at the D1 level. Brayden Palmer and Cody Chittum (granted one season but he is definitely the real deal). Trae McDaniel was just hitting his full stride when he got injured. Hunter Mason appears to be on the path to success. Mason Reiniche at Oregon seems to be having himself a pretty good year as well. I think Jackson Hurst might be the starter at 157 for UTC (well done Jackson). What I've learned is that High School success means absolutely nothing, other than a door may open. I think the vast majority, almost all to be honest, TN wrestlers would be better served going D2, D3, or NAIA if wrestling is something that is really important to them. If the goal is simply to be on the team while getting a good education then that's fine but success within wrestling in D1, as I would define it, is very rare. The next logical question is what defines success. For me, if a wrestler can crack the lineup and start plus have a five hundred or better record then they made it. I'm not going to reel off the long list of names of current TN college wrestlers who currently have a very small chance of cracking their starting lineup as things stand, have sub five hundred records, quit before they ever got started (maybe injured), or don't ever seem to get the opportunity to wrestle. As far as who I think might make an impact at the next level, have sustained success, and actually wrestle more than a handful of times per year on a D1 college team, hmmm, none. I'll believe it when I see it because D1 college wrestling is INSANELY TOUGH. I hope that statement fuels some kids (and not their parents) to prove doubters like me wrong. What I've seen in college wrestling is simply ridiculous. Excellence at the highest level. At levels below D1 I think many could be quite successful.

Crockett over Greeneville tonight by a score of 58-14

Crockett is in far better position than I thought in preseason. Greeneville appears worse than I even suspected, which I didn't think was possible. Gibbs and PF don't seem (at this time) to have complete rosters. If this really is what each team has then the bottom has truly fallen out for PF, Gibbs, and Greeneville.

That chin whip Raney hit was crazy good. Villers was in how he should have been and you're right, anyone else and Villers is getting points. Villers definitely attacked.

I don't know the family and I doubt many here do, but none of us have to. We all understand the depth of despair this brings that immediate and extended family as we all are involved parents, coaches, and admirers of these young athletes. Man I hate this with every fiber of my being. I only hope nobody else played any role in what happened. Picture of the young man on twitter.

Mason wrestled the same kid (Seidel from PA) in the semis that he just wrestled in the finals at the Dobyns Bennett Indian Classic. Funny how stuff like that seems to happen. He lost both but improved greatly at beast of the east against him. Kid is a VT commit.

Man that really really stinks. He was doing so well.

Everyone with any sense knows you don't need to go to private school. Hunter Mason (VT), Kodiak Cannedy (litte rock), Colin Dupill (SDSU), Jackson Hurst (UTC), Trae McDaniel (Army), and Brayden Palmer (UTC) just to name a few. I mean that is quite the list of recent public school wrestlers to put against anyone anywhere in the state. A ton of guys at NAIA and D2 doing ok for themselves as well. Excluding Cody Chittum (he spent time everywhere) the three best performing TN D1 wrestlers currently are Brayden Palmer, Trae McDaniel, and Hunter Mason (early in his career). What do they all have in common? Public school graduates. Speaking of Trae, I was watching him wrestle when he hurt his knee a few weeks ago. Anyone heard how he is? Stinks because he was really looking sharp and coming into his own within the college ranks.

Really good wrestlers are really good wrestlers but the "true" freshman thing is particularly funny at the collegiate level. In High School it doesn't matter one bit about being held back. Kids that are elite stomp everyone else's pie hole in and do so at every age level with few exceptions (the exceptions certainly exist). There is a really good wrestler from TN at a certain big name college. Phenomenal wrestler, seems like a nice young man, hope he beats the tar out of everyone everywhere. I really enjoy watching him wrestle, truly, root for him. He is a twenty one year old true freshman The term "true" freshman is correct but I think it would be better clarified by stating their age rather than undergraduate title. I mean, that's quite a spread. David Taylor started his freshman year at 17 years old. It isn't the kids fault that the press, or whomever, doesn't know the details of what they are witnessing and simply report what they know. I know of two instances where kids won wrestling titles as eighth graders, but were very very far removed from anything resembling an eighth grader with respect to age. If everyone knew their true age the shine gets a little hazy. The old cliché applies, it is what it is. Does any of this matter in the end? No. As I said, really good wrestlers typically start that way and end that way (99% of the time).

Crockett over Gibbs 39-33 on 12-12-2023. Gibbs had FFs at 157 and 175, see if that remains the case as the season goes along. It does appear looking at Track Gibbs could be light at those weight classes.

Lakeway might be there but look at their dual schedule last year with TN teams, it was and always has been virtually non-existent. Really hard to get a feel for where they are with respect to the entire state. Personally I've never understood why they seem to wrestle so little. Perhaps their inability to put together a full squad has played a role, don't know.

Early in the season so you never know what coaches are doing with lineups, but Crockett was the best small school TN team that day. Again it is early, so take that with a grain of salt. Crockett and TN High have the raw numbers to sustain a complete lineup through the season unless something really wrong happens. Elizabethton and Sullivan East likely don't have the raw numbers to sustain a really productive season. DB took their key guys to the southern slam. So nothing to see at border duals where they are concerned.

During the 20-21 and 21-22 seasons I saw Cocke county early in the season with well over twenty kids on their team. By the end of the season they were down to seven or eight. Hopefully that doesn't happen this time around, but for whatever reason there has been an inability to keep kids invested, but I think this is relatively common amongst small schools. I was at the Border duals this weekend which was largely small school participation. The numbers are always huge in middle school and then come high school everyone vanishes. I don't know why. One thing I do know is there are a good number of kids who think, quite wrongly, they're going to be a football, baseball, or basketball star. Parents are stoking that belief as well. Something I managed to miss or perhaps they just started, but Providence Academy now has a MS wrestling team.

Ahhh, I wondered.

Not bad guys. If you plan on doing this for a while I would invest in some decent microphones.

Cleveland and Baylor wrestled against each other at least twice in the last five years. December 2018 Baylor defeated Cleveland 33-32 (Al Miller Duals) December 2021 Cleveland defeated Baylor 33-31 (Lake Norman Duals) Now I'll wait for the all injury reports that dictated why the duals were so close. FYI: Cleveland and McCallie wrestle tonight.

And Tennessee titles, whether individual or team, aren't as valuable as PA, NJ, OH, or Iowa team titles. Whatever. There is a relative degree of difficulty and that is all that matters. I'm not sure that some can grasp the theory of relativity even when applied outside of physics. Small schools have less kids to pull athletes from. In some cases, way way less kids. The degree of difficulty in winning a title is relative and is for all practical purposes the same even if the talent pools are vastly different. Is the big school champ going to beat the small school champ in a dual? The answer is yes 95% of the time, but that is irrelevant. The degree of difficulty being relative is all that matters. Cleveland has roughly 1700 students. Greeneville has roughly 800 students. DB and SH have what, 2500 hundred students roughly? Pair all the small schools together, as we do, and their route to a title is just as difficult precisely because each small school in that final eight has roughly the same ratio of talent to average as all their peers. I don't agree at all that a big school title is more "valuable". If it is then a Tennessee title in big school is really invaluable when compared to the very best a state like PA has to offer. But again, relativity comes into play.

Brayden Palmer (UTC) dominated the field at the Clarion open. This man might be the stingiest 125er in the country and he put on an absolute master class with respect to top and bottom position. He beat HS phenom Marcus Blaze (6-4) in the finals who had just beat the number 1 ranked Matt Ramos out of Perdue in the semi-finals. He ran into Baylor alum Nick Corday along the way and delivered a strong message to the 125 pound weight class with this performance. Hunter Mason (VT) won the Freshman/Sophomore division in his debut college tournament (The Southeast Open). He won by major, fall, major, fall, and in the finals yet another fall at just 1 minute and 44 second mark. Congrats to Ethan Lipsey for taking fourth in the freshmen/sophomore division as well.