Biffmar4

Williamson county hasn’t allowed us on campus since last Monday. Saw some kids getting in work at young guns tho. When our rec center was open in fairview saw a few of our kids in there, the grinders. We sent out at home workouts, but …

There’s too much to unpack here. I would not discourage or recommend a division for any kid. Dream big, relentlessly chase your dreams, and you will grow and learn life along the way. If your dream is to wrestle D1, don’t settle for something different. If your goal is to start your freshman year, find a way to make it happen at whatever division. One thing I know about the best wrestlers in this state past, present, and future is that they aren’t quitters and they don’t settle. They never stop working. Also, Rob Atwood has spent several years wrestling all over the country and I believe has AA at Virginia Beach Nationals. Lastly, my son is wrestling against Duke tomorrow, first dual start as a true freshman, bumping up a weight class to fill in at heavyweight. For a small school kid who lost almost every match when he started in this sport from a traditional non-powerhouse wrestling state to have an opportunity to wrestle at the highest level of competition in folkstyle wrestling, I would call that success already. But I will tell you, for my son, he wasn’t recruited for being a top 20 nationally ranked kid, he was recruited for his work ethic, discipline, and passion to improve - which translates into what he can be when he is surrounded with with top notch talent and coaching. #moreworktodo

I'll take Rob Atwood over the field at whatever weight class he decides to wrestle this year. Great list to start with and will be fun watching some of the guys expected to lead their weight class take on all challengers and watching for relatively unknowns fight their way to recognition. Best sport in the world!

Looked like another well run tournament Coach! Thank you for giving our kids a local option to go get those competitive juices flowing!

Well done to Cleveland wrestling and TNUSA and all who were involved in ideating and manifesting this years WNO. Thankful that kids in our state have the opportunity to compete and to be recognized for the commitment and sacrifice they make to be as good as they are. Great matchups, great effort by the wrestlers and besides the commentators leaving out Coach Kramer’s hospitality room at Wilson Central as one of the best in the state, everything else about the production was just fine for me as a wrestling fan and fan of these kids. Well done and thanks again for the showcase!

After early session today, we have 3 JRs still gunning for the top spot in the Rd of 16 (Hilton, Sturgill, Stacey) and 3 Jrs still fighting back in Consi Rd of 16 #1 (Dupill, Little, Fowler). 16U just kicking off

16U has 8 in RD of 16 and 2 in RD of 32 with 2 fighting back in consis JR have 3 in RD of 16 (Hilton, Sturgill, Stacey) and 9 fighting back in consis Some great matches going on right now

In the FS pool, we lost by 2 to Utah and 1 to NJ and the kids wrestled hard. The wrestlers didn't maximize their opportunities and some of their inexperience in the dual aspect of these two disciplines showed (giving away a caution pt before TF their opponent giving them 1 team point, teching kids instead of pinning them losing another net 1 team point, etc). The jersey kids were in the same room as us waiting hours upon hours to wrestle talking about how they would just plow through us, so was satisfying to have a competitive dual with a chance of winning going into the last two bouts. Saw some of these "soft" TN kids take the NJ kids that showed up to deep water, which was also satisfying. All in all, great tournament for TN and the kids and culture continue to trend up and to the right. Shoot, Heckert was woken up Monday morning with the ask to compete in greco and freestyle, neither of which he'd ever done before, and flew out that night to join the team bc the 195 that had committed never bothered to tell anyone he was injured and wasn't going to show up. Talk about scrappy and fearless. Was fun to watch him throw down. Carson, Jarvis, Sturgill, and Norman wrestled lights out. Jake Stacey is a savage!

Guys like the Uhorchuks, Colin Dupill, Hunter Mason, Cooper Hilton, Omaury Alvarez, and others would have definitely made us more competitive.

Guys like the Uhorchuks, Colin Dupill, Hunter Mason, Cooper Hilton, Omaury Alvarez, and others would have definitely made us more competitive.

Match Summary TN NJ 120 Carson Dupill (Tennessee) over Vincent Paino (New Jersey) Dec 7-0 3.0 0 126 Mikey Bautista (New Jersey) over Hunter Heflin(Tennessee) TF 10-0 0 4.0 132 Jarvis Little (Tennessee) over Sebastian Ortega (New Jersey) TF 11-0 4.0 0 138 Donny Almeyda (New Jersey) over Alex Ropski(Tennessee) TF 10-0 0 4.0 145 August Hibler (New Jersey) over Harlen Hunley(Tennessee) TF 10-0 0 4.0 152 Hunter Sturgill (Tennessee) over Zachary Ballante(New Jersey) TF 10-0 4.0 0 160 Brandon Dean (New Jersey) over Jacob Barlow(Tennessee) TF 17-6 1 4.0 170 Maximus Norman (Tennessee) over John Quinonez(New Jersey) TF 10-0 4.0 0 182 Jake Stacey (Tennessee) over Dan Rella Jr. (New Jersey) TF 18-8 4.0 1 195 Logan Heckert (Tennessee) over Nazareth Pina (New Jersey) Fall 2:06 5.0 0 220 Aidan Schlett (New Jersey) over Kendrick Curtis(Tennessee) TF 13-2 1 4.0 285 Rocco Dellagatta (New Jersey) over Keimel Redford(Tennessee) TF 11-0 0 4.0 100 Jose Cordero (Tennessee) over Ryan Haynes (New Jersey) TF 12-2 4.0 1 106 Kaleb Ambrose (New Jersey) over Locke Sessions(Tennessee) Dec 10-10 1 3.0 113 Anthony DiAndrea (New Jersey) over Sebron Colson(Tennessee) TF 16-5 1 4.0 Dual Meet Score 32.0 33.0

These things don't matter and it doesn't water anything down. It's just showing the general public who placed top four. What does "all state" mean, what does it get you? At least it has objective criteria. There was an article that just came out in the tennessean where we have all mid-state and it's not accurate bc the guy who wrote it doesn't appear to follow wrestling, didn't appear to invest much time researching, and seemed to pander to his largest readership. At the end of the day, what does it even matter? Again, is this so when a 70 year old man and a 50 year old man sitting around the fire can say, I was "all-state" back in 2023? Who the heck cares? No one is getting to the next level with an "All State" on their resume.

I'll also add that there appears to be an obvious love and deeper commitment for this sport from this generation of wrestlers that didn't exist 10-20-30 years ago. We have more than one guy in the state who loves the pursuit of perfecting his craft. With a higher level of commitment from the athletes, better coaching, more opportunities to compete, and better rooms geographically filled with tougher competition we will continue to improve as a state.

But we only need one to tie Japan! Anyways, I love our trajectory as a state and to the point of one versus three divisions, the more recognition a team or individuals get, the more likely others are to get involved in wrestling that otherwise wouldn’t have. I see the sport as more mainstreamed than ever before and maybe just bc I’m more submersed in it at the moment, feels like we have more guys competing and succeeding at the national level from all three divisions and I would say in all age groups, with some great talent and experience coming up from middle school and elementary school. We will never be PA, but this sport has a bright future as it continues to mature in this state IMO.

Cody Chittum, Brayden Palmer, Trae McDaniel and I'm sure there's more that will AA in the next year or so.