State Individual wise the 1995-96 team had four finalists 2 champs, 2 RU and a total of eight placers (2,2,2,1,1,0) and won the State tournament on Friday night. You are right they did not show up on that State dual day at Ryan. Snow made several teams no shows and the guys didnt compete to their level and they did lose twice to Ryan in duals that season. Maybe looked ahead to Ryan past Baylor who knows.
State Dual wise the 1996-97 team was 29-0, 14th and 11th ranked in the USA (four placer winners 3 finalists at the Reno Tournament of Champions) at the individual tournament also had 5 finalists 3 Champs, 2 RU and a total of seven placers (3,2,0,1,1,0).
Comparing these two teams is tough. Charles McTorry was the face of the franchise so it's hard to pick a team he wasn't on so I get the difficulty in choosing. They were a pleasure to coach and many of them are still my good friends. The 95-96 team was composed of younger guys with the exception of Radford, Moser, and McTorry. They laid the ground work and set the tone for the next team which as a dual team was more even and seasoned. We are all proud of being the team that won during the time all the teams were together and acknowledge the teams currently wrestling. Those guys back then were on a mission to raise the level of wrestling in TN. We actively travel across the country and wrestled in some of the toughest events and Charles getting recruited to Nebraska helped open the door for others in our state to be considered for colleges outside TN.
In conclusion I won't pick I'll just say thank you to all who remember their wrestling and that I am proud to have been in the ring with them and would do it again if I could. They faced every challenge I gave them and here almost 30 years later we are discussing these high school kids accomplishments. I was proud of them then and I am proud of the men they have become.
