Biffmar4

We've got a really strong team headed up to Virginia Beach in a few weeks to wrestle in the HS National Duals. Great mix of hammers from big school, small school, and private school. Here's the lineup with state placement in (): 106 Aiden Chavez (FA Michigan) 113 Jojo Uhorchuk (2) 120 Ethan Uhorchuk (1) 126 Caleb Uhorchuk (1) 132 Casen Roark (1) 138 Steven Dindl (4) 145 Chancery Dean (3) 152 Dalen Kimble(1) 160 Logan Heckert(1) 170 Matt Oberlander (3) 182 Jake Stacey(3) 195 Thomas Stadel (3) 220 Miles Workman (6) HWT Keimel Redford These young men will represent our state well!

LOL, the kids that would be representing each division don't generally stop wrestling, some do, most don't, so the weight thing wouldn't be a huge hurdle. That's why I brought Shane up. He did a fantastic job with the Border Brawl and might have a gift as a promoter. And the implications for the wrestlers are that you get more regional exposure with college coaches on Rokfin, SEWrestle, etc. Not only that, but you get quality mat time in most cases. Oh yeah, and it would be fun. If I did the work, I would ban you from watching!

If someone put it together, I’d pay to watch it, just like I did the border brawl. I like what some of these guys are doing for wrestling in the state of TN.

Don't forget Morgan Lowery as a key returner for Greeneville. He was injured much of last season, but if he's healthy, he will provide additional depth for that Greeneville squad. Best thing for Division I A competition in traditional was the realignment. I think you will find coaches express the sentiment that perennial small school powerhouses found it harder to place as many kids in years past and I think you will find perennial big school powerhouses found it easier to place more kids last year. Nice balance, again IMO. The programs with kids putting in the spring and summer work will surely outshine the others come February and it takes more than 2-3 kids that are committed. One program that appears to have a higher level of spring and summer commitment than other squads is Signal. On another note maybe Shane can put together a televised D1A, D1AA and DII All Star dual the week after Individual States (yes I said states).

Have a team of studs (mostly state champs and all high placers) going to HS National Duals in VA Beach 5/28-5/31. Need a 106+3. This is folkstyle and I know a lot of guys are in FS/GR rn, but so are a lot of the guys on this team. They are just taking that weekend to go get in front of college coaches. Every young man on the team so far has goals of wrestling at the next level and this team should make it to the gold bracket on day 3, which would put them against some of the best kids in the country and in front of LOTS of college coaches. The kid can be a stud MS 100 or 105 too. [email protected] 615-627-8708 Uniform orders going out today. Call or text for more info. Biff Curtis

We took the long way around to get there. Regardless who the coach is, the challenges remain. In this day and age you can’t just be a good technique coach, you have to be a marketer and a salesman. Someone that can cast a wider net and create a vision of the program that will get more higher level talent in the room. I have no idea if the current coach is that guy or some other guy is that guy.

But the perspective remains the same. Wrestling is much bigger and a more mature sport in the NE, Midwest, and some western states than it is in TN. I think some solid goals for UTC would be: 1. Win SoCon every year 2. Create a culture in the room of commitment and dedication to the program to keep kids all 4-7 years 3. Capture all elite talent from TN and throughout the SE by being more involved in youth and HS wrestling (camps, clinics, social media) 4. Consistently produce AAs I think by establishing themselves as the premier D1 school in the SE for wrestling, they can create a higher level room which will in turn create more SoCon Championships and more AAs, especially if the culture changes to where kids who start at UTC and become good enough to transfer to a higher level D1 school stay for the room and for the team believing the room they help elevate will also help elevate them.

There are 150 in Division 1 that have wrestling programs and roughly 30 in Division II. Classification (tssaa.org)

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Also perspective, PIAA has 1,250 schools and TSSAA has maybe 200.

Just some perspective, pulled from recent article on Flo by Andrew Spey. Unless the UTC coaches can pull some top talent from PA, I think they have some tough sledding. If you guys were coaches at UTC, what would you do to elevate the program? What would you define as success? You won’t be getting top PA talent, so would you recruit top talent in TN and try to manifest them into NCAA AAs knowing that if you find a diamond in the rough and worked them for two years til they were ready to compete at the national level, they would transfer to a bigger school with a tougher room? We also have some great talent in TN rn whose home state is not TN. I think we are maturing as a state, but have a ways to go. Worthwhile journey though. ”Next, everyone's favorite, National Qualifiers (NQs), All-Americans (AAs) and champs by Home State.” State NQs AAs 1st PA 45 12 1 IL 32 8 NJ 30 7 1 OH 22 7 MI 17 4 1 CA 17 4 NY 15 4 1 MN 14 5 1 IA 13 1 CO 11 4 1 IN 11 3 1 FL 11 2 OK 9 2 MO 8 2 VA 8 0 WI 7 4 1 KS 7 1 GA 7 0 NC 5 2 AZ 4 2 1 MD 3 1 1 WV 3 1 WA 3 1 ND 3 0 MT 3 0 UT 2 0 TN 2 0 NE 2 0 MA 2 0 CT 2 0 AK 2 0 NM 1 1 ID 1 1 WY 1 0 RUS 1 0 OR 1 0 NH 1 0 KY 1 0 HI 1 0 AL

I think UTC is headed in the right direction. It's difficult to compete with the bigger programs on so many levels, but if St. Peters can do it in Basketball, UTC can do it in wrestling. I'm sure the mindset of the coaches is to perform, evaluate, refine, perform, evaluate, refine over and over until they put out a program that everyone on Coach T can be proud of.

Agree that Gervacio is the cream of the crop at 182 rn. Chew has really impressed me how he came through sections and states, almost like he figured something out about himself that just makes him really hard to score on and he just picks up a point or two along the way. Omaury is a beast too. I've known him and watched him wrestle since he came to a Fairview tournament when he was probably in the 3rd/4th grade. He was built like a linebacker back then and just looks like a bigger version of that same kid I met way back when. Fun to watch all these kids and the sport of wrestling mature and evolve in TN.

I would like to see Chew and Gervacio wrestle. The way Chew finished his season, he might give Gonzalez a very close match or even pull out a 1-pt win. He's def gained my respect with his grit the last 1/3 of the season and finding a way to win several close matches.

The pendulum swings both ways. There is a FR kid on the dream team that my son pinned head to head. Is what it is. At the end of the day he doesn’t hang his hat on other coach’s recognition, nor should any other wrestler IMO.