GREENBACK WINS REGION-2 TOURNAMENT

[hswrestlingmom]

QUOTE(Rebels08 @ Feb 11 2007 - 04:59 PM) 826367535[/snapback]

The wrestling team at Maryville receives almost 0 support. Our matches are not announced to the students, and our AD wears a Maryville BASKETBALL shirt to our home matches, and he only stays as long as he has to. Our wrestling team is more successful than our basketball team, yet we dont get any credit, and our lockeroom is cramped while the basketball team's lockeroom has leather couches and big screen tv's. I can guess the other larger schools in the region hardly receive any support either.

 

 

 

 

Oh, I so agree with you on this one, but how are we supposed to get community support when half the time we can't get our own wrestlers PARENTS to attend?? I have completely lost respect for some people who can't take the time required to support their children in a sport they have chosen to participate in. I don't understand how anyone can NOT want to be there to watch their sons and daughters. I didn't know the first thing about wrestling when my sons started in the 6th and 8th grades, but I learned quickly because I attended almost every practice they had and attended every single meet!! My son wrestled his last match yesterday (he's a senior), and I am so very proud of what he has accomplished over the years. He never gave up on the sport even when I could see the thought was there. I have grown to LOVE the sport of wrestling, and will continue to support my towns team in the years to follow.

 

Congratulations to ALL of the wrestlers who were at the Region 2 tournament this weekend, and every wrestler everywhere who sticks with one of the greatest sports on this earth without much acknowledgement from anyone outside of the wrestling community. I will miss my sons actually being on the mat, but I thank everyone involved who dedicates their time to teach our sons dedication, responsibility, and good sportsmanship.

[noonesfool]

QUOTE(hswrestlingmom @ Feb 11 2007 - 07:29 PM) 826367695[/snapback]

Oh, I so agree with you on this one, but how are we supposed to get community support when half the time we can't get our own wrestlers PARENTS to attend?? I have completely lost respect for some people who can't take the time required to support their children in a sport they have chosen to participate in. I don't understand how anyone can NOT want to be there to watch their sons and daughters. I didn't know the first thing about wrestling when my sons started in the 6th and 8th grades, but I learned quickly because I attended almost every practice they had and attended every single meet!! My son wrestled his last match yesterday (he's a senior), and I am so very proud of what he has accomplished over the years. He never gave up on the sport even when I could see the thought was there. I have grown to LOVE the sport of wrestling, and will continue to support my towns team in the years to follow.

 

Congratulations to ALL of the wrestlers who were at the Region 2 tournament this weekend, and every wrestler everywhere who sticks with one of the greatest sports on this earth without much acknowledgement from anyone outside of the wrestling community. I will miss my sons actually being on the mat, but I thank everyone involved who dedicates their time to teach our sons dedication, responsibility, and good sportsmanship.

 

 

AMEN

[hswrestlingmom]

QUOTE(Jackson @ Feb 11 2007 - 06:31 PM) 826367629[/snapback]

I started a wrestling team with only a year's experience as an assistant coach and no wrestling experience. The Principal lent me 1000.00 from the general atheletic fund to start the program. I paid it back at the end of the first year and from that point on found ways to pay wrestlings own way. By the end of my tme coaching we were traveling to tournamnents in Middle Tennessee, Illinois, Ohio, and Georgia and doing quite well. Granted a blind hog finds an acron every once in a while and I found more than my share.

 

The Administration at my school gave me a master key so they would not have to come to wrestling meets and tournaments. The only support they gave me is that they let me coach and have a team.

 

Very rarely did I have a football player out for wrestling, it would have helped. Those football players who did come out usually did not last long because they could not stand the discipline or the conditioning. I took every one who came out. Many years I had more kids out for wrestling than the football team had.

I got plenty of publicity because I called everyone who could possibly give me some, local shoppers, the original Knoxville Journal, the News Sentinel and every TV station in town. Never failed to call in meets, win or lose. I got to know any reporter, print or TV, who could do a story about our team. As a matter of fact our wrestling program was one of the Journal's top ten stories in 1984. As far as getting publicity in your school, get to know the person who makes the announcements and make sure you write an announcement before a meet and the results after, create your own excitement.

 

You can't worry about the "ifs", you have to work to be a successful wrestling program. You recruit your school. I went to middle school football games, rec league softball games, baseball games, Christmas plays, school plays, band concerts, visited parents, and on ocassion to court, anything to get the kids I needed. You can check out the cross country team, the soccer team, establish a rapport with the football coach, talk to the kids the basketball coach cuts, look at the kids who are behavior problems, talk to kids who are having trouble with grades and find them a tutor, talk to parents, go to middle schools and put on clinics. In other words sell your program to everyone you meet.

 

Don't sit around and whine that you just can't get kids out, get off your backside and go to work. Find out why Seymour and Greenback are successful. Get to know Steve Logsden, Turner Jackson, Jim Morgan, Gordon McConnell, The Simpson brothers, Steve Henry, Chris Vandergriff, Bill Brimer, David Hollowell and the myriad other successful coaches in Tennessee.

 

All I ever got from my administration, on rare ocassions, was an "Attaboy". My desire to have the best team possible and the responsibility that I owed to my wrestlers and their parents to do my best, made me work hard. Bottom line, developing successful wrestling program is a 24/7 year round job, not that your are wrestling and coaching all of that time, but you are constantly aware of what you have to do to be successful.

 

 

 

I wish I knew you in person! You hit the nail on the head, buddy! This is EXACTLY what our wrestling coach up north did to recruit his team. In fact, my son tried wrestling because he didn't make the basketball team!!! Our coaches have got to get out to the middle schools and get these kids pumped up about wrestling. Bring some of your high school wrestlers to the school, put on a demonstration and let the kids ask questions. I would be willing to bet you'd find more kids coming out for the sport this way.

 

As far as the media coverage, you still have to find someone who is willing to print articles and pictures. I really don't think for all the coverage that football and basketball gets that it is asking too much for them to come to a wrestling meet. I asked our paper to come to our last home meet, and nobody showed up. I am sick and tired of the lack of coverage. I have tried to get the News Sentinel to get more involved also, only to hear that wrestling just isn't a popular sport. Well, of course, if it's not getting the notoriety that the other sports do, it never will be a popular sport. However, it is important to our kids and we ALL have to start making some noise!!!!

[humphreyssm]

QUOTE(hswrestlingmom @ Feb 11 2007 - 08:29 PM) 826367695[/snapback]

Oh, I so agree with you on this one, but how are we supposed to get community support when half the time we can't get our own wrestlers PARENTS to attend?? I have completely lost respect for some people who can't take the time required to support their children in a sport they have chosen to participate in. I don't understand how anyone can NOT want to be there to watch their sons and daughters. I didn't know the first thing about wrestling when my sons started in the 6th and 8th grades, but I learned quickly because I attended almost every practice they had and attended every single meet!! My son wrestled his last match yesterday (he's a senior), and I am so very proud of what he has accomplished over the years. He never gave up on the sport even when I could see the thought was there. I have grown to LOVE the sport of wrestling, and will continue to support my towns team in the years to follow.

 

Congratulations to ALL of the wrestlers who were at the Region 2 tournament this weekend, and every wrestler everywhere who sticks with one of the greatest sports on this earth without much acknowledgement from anyone outside of the wrestling community. I will miss my sons actually being on the mat, but I thank everyone involved who dedicates their time to teach our sons dedication, responsibility, and good sportsmanship.

 

 

exactly..precisely..well said! i never could understand why parents send their kids off by themselves...

[hswrestlingmom]

QUOTE(humphreyssm @ Feb 11 2007 - 07:38 PM) 826367706[/snapback]

exactly..precisely..well said! i never could understand why parents send their kids off by themselves...

 

 

 

Me neither, if only for the possibility of them getting hurt, let alone supporting your child in something they love!!

[Bulldog Dad]

QUOTE(tke @ Feb 11 2007 - 03:10 PM) 826367380[/snapback]

The problem with schools the size of Maryville, Bearden, and Farragut is NO support from the schools or football coaches.

 

 

That's certainly the case at Bearden; we get virtually no money from the school. We've got one mat, but we had up to 25 out at one time this year. We've been getting progressively better and this year had our best showing ever at regions w/ 4 qualifiers. If we're going to be as good as we should be given our size, the coaches are going to have to get more kids out and keep them out.

 

Re football. The football players rarely last. Three of our starters came from the state champion Bearden soccer team. It helps that our soccer coach wrestled in h.s. He even commented at soccer practice last year that he wished the rest of the team was as tough as the 3 wrestlers.

 

As far as poor publicity. The problem is region-wide and the schools and coaches can take a large part of the blame. The Knox News-Sent will print scores as long as someone turns them in, but there were very few teams that called in scores his year. Not even results for the KIL; I suspect no one turned them in. Besides the story in today's paper, there were no results, nor any mention of who the qualifiers were except for first place. Luckily, the weekly Farragut Press does a great job of covering results for Farr, Brden, Webb, and Catholic.

[humphreyssm]

QUOTE(Bulldog Dad @ Feb 11 2007 - 10:13 PM) 826367827[/snapback]

That's certainly the case at Bearden; we get virtually no money from the school. We've got one mat, but we had up to 25 out at one time this year. We've been getting progressively better and this year had our best showing ever at regions w/ 4 qualifiers. If we're going to be as good as we should be given our size, the coaches are going to have to get more kids out and keep them out.

 

Re football. The football players rarely last. Three of our starters came from the state champion Bearden soccer team. It helps that our soccer coach wrestled in h.s. He even commented at soccer practice last year that he wished the rest of the team was as tough as the 3 wrestlers.

 

As far as poor publicity. The problem is region-wide and the schools and coaches can take a large part of the blame. The Knox News-Sent will print scores as long as someone turns them in, but there were very few teams that called in scores his year. Not even results for the KIL; I suspect no one turned them in. Besides the story in today's paper, there were no results, nor any mention of who the qualifiers were except for first place. Luckily, the weekly Farragut Press does a great job of covering results for Farr, Brden, Webb, and Catholic.

 

 

try talking to your football coaches...tell them to watch the schools that have wrestlers on them..give them a list of kids to watch..they WILL see a difference in the kids that compete in both sports..it has worked for seymour..we even have football coaches doing wrestling drills at football practice

[ArtusCimber]

I feel you Jackson. I started without a ton of support at Jefferson County. When I got there in 1992 the uniforms were worse than I had in high school in the seventies.

I recruited kids, we raised our money for stuff, and everybody just left me alone and let me work.

 

As we had success, things got better as people realized that we were fun to watch. We did have a great sportswriter, the late Richard Hayworth, and he covered our program like it was the only one in town.

 

When I left I was promised that the work I'd done would be preserved and that they would bring in someone who would keep things going. Of course that was a Jeff County thing. They really didn't mean it. They were more concerned with their own insular, esoteric Jefferson County stuff than they were with quality.

 

Still, I worked hard to make Jeff County wrestling the best it could be. Early on, I also had great parental support. Later, it dwindled some, but that was a key as well.

 

I'm fortunate at Science Hill to have both administrative and parental support. But ultimate responsibility for the program fell to me. It was an exercise of personal will.

 

A coach has to take charge to realize his vision.

[rigger101]

QUOTE(cbg @ Feb 11 2007 - 08:28 AM) 826367132[/snapback]

What is the deal with Farragut, Maryville & Bearden? Those schools are large enough and have the financial resources to compete with any team in Tennessee but I never see them doing much of anything. Yes they have a few good individuals but their teams are on the bottom and they don't seem to be getting beter.

 

 

cbg- U must not have been keeping track of faragut over the last 10 years. They are down this year but have a new young coach.

 

Farragut had a good run in large part due to parents like the Fergusons, Knoxs and Dix's that stayed involved with our kids from AAU through HS.

 

Farragut has had 8 individual stated champs in 10 years two 2nd placers, four 3rd placers, three 4th placers, two 5th placers and four 6th placers.

 

As a team Farragut won 7 region titles. In the state tournament Farragut placed 4th in 2003 and 6th in 2004. Obviously no Bradley Central but very respectable considering very little if any school support and 5 coaches in 10 yrs. Also during this timeframe while Farragut had 8 state champs while the rest of region 2 had approx 11 total during the same time period.

 

So be nice to the Admirals. They will be back!

[gun816]

QUOTE(tke @ Feb 11 2007 - 03:10 PM) 826367380[/snapback]

The problem with schools the size of Maryville, Bearden, and Farragut is NO support from the schools or football coaches. Football coaches have this fantasy that lifting in the winter will makes these kids big and powerful like a D1 athlete. NOT going to happen because they are KIDS! Wrestling is perfect for football. Any athlete in the NFL will tell you that.

 

 

 

 

The thing is you do not have to sacrifice lifting in the winter for wrestling, you can do them both. Especially now due to the new weight certification rules. You can look at the wrestlers/ football players in our region like Reveiz and Landon Hall. I could almost gurantee you that those two workout during wrestling season.

 

What football coaches need to understand is that wrestling is good for all of their athletes. In wrestling linemen can work on foot work and balance. I believe that wrestling teaches good tackling techniques because you have to stay low to get a take down. Backs gain quickness and gain toughness which is important for a back that carries the ball 25-30 times a game.

 

I got into wrestling because I wanted to stay in shape for football. I ended up falling in love with the sport and I learned from first hand experience on how wrestling can improve a footballl player. I lifted year round and was one of the strongest players on the team because of the extra conditioning I got from wrestling.

[slowstart]

QUOTE(gun816 @ Feb 12 2007 - 12:26 AM) 826368190[/snapback]

The thing is you do not have to sacrifice lifting in the winter for wrestling, you can do them both. Especially now due to the new weight certification rules. You can look at the wrestlers/ football players in our region like Reveiz and Landon Hall. I could almost gurantee you that those two workout during wrestling season.

 

What football coaches need to understand is that wrestling is good for all of their athletes. In wrestling linemen can work on foot work and balance. I believe that wrestling teaches good tackling techniques because you have to stay low to get a take down. Backs gain quickness and gain toughness which is important for a back that carries the ball 25-30 times a game.

 

I got into wrestling because I wanted to stay in shape for football. I ended up falling in love with the sport and I learned from first hand experience on how wrestling can improve a footballl player. I lifted year round and was one of the strongest players on the team because of the extra conditioning I got from wrestling.

 

 

You are exactly right..absolutely shouldn't stop lifting during wrestling season, you might only get two work-outs per week due to matches but the time spent wrestling is also building muscle..you mentioned Reviez and Hall, I don't think Frankie Morgan has missed any work-outs lately but I don't know if he plays football.

[Cretinfromthesticks]

I want to again add congratulations to the Greenback team from Seymour. We enjoy the competition and it was nice to see those two small public schools sitting atop the board Saturday night. Good luck to both schools this week.