Harpeth Invitational Results

[In Hoc Signo Vinces]

I have known John Gannon for years his camp he runs every year at Austin Peay is THE BEST camp in the state of TN (past clinicicans have included Dan Gable, John Smith, Duane Goldman, Steve Martin, Zeke Jones, Cael Sanderson, and much more) and has done much to not only improve the quality of wrestling in TN, but also has improved access to that quality wrestling to any kid in the state who wants to put in the work in the summertime to get better. He is a man of integrity and honor and for anyone to come onto this forum and try to prove otherwise is WRONG. John Gannon will always be a friend of mine and to the Father Ryan wrestling family for what he has given to our wrestlers.

 

Also on a side note Mr. Gannon has reffing experience at the highest levels of TN high school wreslting and has reffed multiple time at the Father Ryan Invitational and the state duals and individuals so i feel he is more then qualified for the "great" tournament they hold over at harpeth.

[Wrestlersdad]

First off, I wasn't at the Harpeth tournament as we were at the Ooltawah tournament. Possible bad calls is not an issue for me, as it happens with every sport....football, baseball, basketball, etc. You people crying in your cheerios, should get over it and move on. I find it interesting that almost all the negative comments toward officiating and mostly Mr. Gannon are coming from first time posters. Knuckles1975, jrichards, roxgirl, wrestlefann55 whom just joined Sun 6, 2009 the day after the tournament, and afan2 just joined in sept. of 2009. Your first time posting like you have won't win you many friends here on coacht, and most people will give your comments little credit for making your coacht debut the way you have. Mr. Gannon is a very professional ref. and I will not ever believe he intentionally makes calls based on bias toward a team or individual wrestler. He is a fine ref.

[coachmick]

I, also would like to voice my support for John Gannon. He is a great referee. Does he make a mistake here and there? Yes, probably. All of us make mistakes periodically. Mr. Gannon calls a lot of our matches and I'm very thankful that it is he that shows up instead of a new referee. I think he is one of the better referees in the state. As the Wilson Central coach explained in his post, we as coaches teach our kids to stay off their backs, if they are on their backs, it's their own fault, not the referees. I actually watched that match and can tell you that Belcher didn't have his best match and the Harpeth kid is a very young but good wrestler. He put in a lot of work in the summer and you shouldn't take that away from him. I'm sure Belcher will figure out what mistakes he made and correct them. He is a fine wrestler and I look forward to watching him at state this year. I also can tell you that I watched the match with the Hillsboro kid and he did bring his opponent down to hard. When you do that, you risk being disqualified and I think John made the right call. The Hillsboro parent was more upset that the other kid would not just get up and continue competing, hurt or not. Then he decided that he would voice his OPINION to anyone that would listen and make idle threats as he went into the hallway from the gym. One of the other refs tried to calm him down instead of removing him, which should have been done. There is no room in our sport for this. If he were at my tournament, he wouldn't have been there long enough to make those threats. We have to remember that this is for the kids not the so called grown ups. I know for a fact that John is not affliated with Harpeth also and for as long as I've known him, he has be unbiased. For some of you newer people that post on here, make sure that you watch the match clearly and not one sided. A lot of the mistakes made are by the kids and coaches not the referees.

 

Mick Hambrick

Creek Wood High School Wrestling

[jrichards]

First of all Wretlerdad, I am a Parent and have been to MANY MANY MANY Tournaments over the past 6 years, So please do not come on here and make a comment about some of us who just signed in on Sunday. I have read many comments on Coach T and read many complaints over the years on Ref's and Ranking and School Standing.. We all have the right to come on here and state our minds. In the many years of this sport have never had a whole lot to complain about. As I stated in my recent posts NOT ALL REF'S are BAD!!! I'm not even sure if Mr. Gannon is the one who called the worst matchs. All I know is It was very CLEAR in the HARPETH TOURNAMENT as you can see (there are many not just my self) by the POST'S were very questionable. As a Parent I understand that some things can not be helped and Mistakes are made. I was a Ball player for years and I umpired for years. I was yelled at on some occasion. I applaud all the Wreslter that were at the Tournament and for hanging in there for the 16 hours we sat there waiting. It was a GREAT DAY with the exception of some BAD CALLS, But all and all it was a GREAT DAY an Congrats to all the WRESTLERS!!!!! Congrats to RAVENWOOD who placed 1st overall in School STANDINGS...

[maybe]

Ok I have sat quiet long enough on this issue. I am a referee and I cannot sit here and let everybody bad mouth my peers and coworkers.

 

For years I sat in the stands watching matches yelling, "Hes pinned, hes pinned" and from the stands it really does look like he is pinned. From the refs standpoint, who is better than yours in the stands, as he is a foot away from the action, he may not be. We dont call what is obvious to everybody else, we call what happens on the mat. They are the ones wrestling, we just tell the story to the fans. What you saw was not someone being unfair, it was the ref telling the story of what was happening on the mat, doesnt matter what YOU saw, that was what was happening.

 

Maybe it was voted best match, by the refs by the way (they are the one who votes best match and ow) because they thought the other kid did a fantastic job fighting off his back. I mean based on what you said he fought off his back for three straight periods, sounds like a heckova match to me! One kid couldnt pin the one, and the other was fighting like crazy off his back. And by the way, you may see his shoulders down but his shoulders have to be down for two seconds non stop. Not just you see his shoulders down.

 

We spent hours and hours of training, and still are training! So maybe before you start to criticize a ref on being bias and not calling a match the way you think you see it, just think that maybe its not the way that it is actually going down. And also think that they are people too, so just think what if someone got on here, on their first post ever, just to say that everything you have done in your job was "appalling, sickening, and unfair to everybody". Not cool, and I wont sit back and read you guys bad mouth all these fantastic gentleman. Go up to them and just talk to them, I bet you'll be surprised that they are actual people.

 

 

So you have been refereeing for a few months now and you immediately go to bat for your "friends" even without actually being there to witness the possible bad calls? Sounds like blind obedience to me.

 

This is a forum for open dialogue. As many of these "first time posters" have put it, "this is the only place they new to come to voice their opinion," as wrong as they may be. To try to discredit them for only having a couple of posts or just joining Sunday shows the arrogance and ignorance of the ones who felt the need to point that out. Apparently your opinion can only matter here if you have been on here for several years and or have built enough post counts to brag about. It is perfectly fine for anyone on here to criticize an official for a possible bad call (from the looks of it this one may have been pretty bad, although it doesn't appear to be from what I have gathered). It is also perfectly acceptable for others to counter the claim and "go to bat" for someone like Mr. Gannon. However, the posturing of those who have been here for a few years is hilariously embarrassing to read. I am assuming that several of you are grown adults and I find that to be like I stated, embarrassing.

[BenAround]

put on a pair of stripes and ref yourself..... most parents do not understand all the rules anyway. Like this past weekend this happened at a different tournament btw but a reversal was given at the edge of the mat, the wrestler who was being revered was completely out of bounds(all supporting parts) however the one that got the reversal was completely in bounds (all supporting parts), the parents of the wrestler being revered were yelling down at the official claiming that they were out of bounds. The rule states that one supporting part of both wrestler has to be out of bounds in order for it to be out of bounds. I say this b/c in the minds of those parents that ref was terrible however he made the right call. Here's a hint for parents if you don't see your coach going to the table to protest its probably the right call. just wanted to give my 2 cents since everyone else is.

[WrestlingGod]

Ok I have sat quiet long enough on this issue. I am a referee and I cannot sit here and let everybody bad mouth my peers and coworkers.

 

For years I sat in the stands watching matches yelling, "Hes pinned, hes pinned" and from the stands it really does look like he is pinned. From the refs standpoint, who is better than yours in the stands, as he is a foot away from the action, he may not be. We dont call what is obvious to everybody else, we call what happens on the mat. They are the ones wrestling, we just tell the story to the fans. What you saw was not someone being unfair, it was the ref telling the story of what was happening on the mat, doesnt matter what YOU saw, that was what was happening.

 

Maybe it was voted best match, by the refs by the way (they are the one who votes best match and ow) because they thought the other kid did a fantastic job fighting off his back. I mean based on what you said he fought off his back for three straight periods, sounds like a heckova match to me! One kid couldnt pin the one, and the other was fighting like crazy off his back. And by the way, you may see his shoulders down but his shoulders have to be down for two seconds non stop. Not just you see his shoulders down.

 

We spent hours and hours of training, and still are training! So maybe before you start to criticize a ref on being bias and not calling a match the way you think you see it, just think that maybe its not the way that it is actually going down. And also think that they are people too, so just think what if someone got on here, on their first post ever, just to say that everything you have done in your job was "appalling, sickening, and unfair to everybody". Not cool, and I wont sit back and read you guys bad mouth all these fantastic gentleman. Go up to them and just talk to them, I bet you'll be surprised that they are actual people.

 

 

So you have been refereeing for a few months now and you immediately go to bat for your "friends" even without actually being there to witness the possible bad calls? Sounds like blind obedience to me.

 

This is a forum for open dialogue. As many of these "first time posters" have put it, "this is the only place they new to come to voice their opinion," as wrong as they may be. To try to discredit them for only having a couple of posts or just joining Sunday shows the arrogance and ignorance of the ones who felt the need to point that out. Apparently your opinion can only matter here if you have been on here for several years and or have built enough post counts to brag about. It is perfectly fine for anyone on here to criticize an official for a possible bad call (from the looks of it this one may have been pretty bad, although it doesn't appear to be from what I have gathered). It is also perfectly acceptable for others to counter the claim and "go to bat" for someone like Mr. Gannon. However, the posturing of those who have been here for a few years is hilariously embarrassing to read. I am assuming that several of you are grown adults and I find that to be like I stated, embarrassing.

I could not agree more with you on a couple of those issues. Not trying to discredit what they think they saw, all I was trying to get across is that what they think they saw might not have been what the ref saw, and its his call not theirs. To disagree with a call is fine, no objection to that, Lord knows i have disagreed soo many times its out of style, but to get on and insult the referee who is a friend and co worker, and say there are sickening. I cant sit back and take that silently. mMaybe next time I should just let these newbs walk all over senior officials like Mr Gannon. Sorry I have to much respect for him to not say anything.

[ccalloway]

So, did anyone watch any of the wrestling on Saturday at the Harpeth Tournament? It seems that this thread has only sparked unwarranted comments and statements about our Middle TN officials.

[ccalloway]

Are there brackets anywhere? Congrats to all the champs and a special congrats to Zeno "Z-merkum" and Carlos "Lil C". Both gained alot of weight and are proving they can still compete at whatever weight they go.

 

I appreciate your post. Carlos has really grown. I'm looking for ward to some good match-ups this season.

[Harpeth44]

John Gannon has ref'd many of our matches at Rossview over the years, and I have never seen him purposely call a match unfairly against one of our kids. I don't think he is biased against Rossview at all. The Heavyweight match could've went either way. Mr. Gannon is a professional, and has always treated our kids fairly.

 

 

I was at Harpeth, and I am just wondering what team wasn't as good as the results say, Knuckles? Would that be Ravenwood, Rossview, BA? Harpeth??

I thought Ravenwood looked very good, and BA looked good for a young team. Harpeth has some pretty strong wrestlers, and Rossview has been working very hard in the off season.

Harpeth benifited fom Rossview misfortune all day!!!!!! Harpeth is no way as good as they finished!!!!

You are an idiot. You know nothing about this program. You don't see the hard work and the effort these kids put in everyday at practice. They give up 24 points every match because we forfeit the top 4 classes but they never give up. We have been to the state the last 2 years. We sent 4 kids to state last year. It would have been 5 but we had one get injured while he was leading the match for 3rd. If you want to blame the refs that's fine but don't tell me that the Harpeth wrestlers aren't good enough to finish where they did.

Please be kind enough to tell me which Harpeth wrestler didn't deserve to finish where he did.

 

Austin Orman 4th

Nick Cantrell 4th.... match limit

Dyllon Bass 2nd

Damean Sawyer 1st

Wesely Sovine 2nd injury

Conner Baker 1st

Will Bradshaw 1st

 

Which one of these kids was givin a free ride to the spot they got???? They earned every win...... PERIOD!!! Talk about your own school and stay off mine.

 

Clete Sawyer proud father of a Harpeth wrestler

[wrestlefan55]

Disregard

[hrdcrwrestler]

Are there brackets anywhere? Congrats to all the champs and a special congrats to Zeno "Z-merkum" and Carlos "Lil C". Both gained alot of weight and are proving they can still compete at whatever weight they go.

 

 

I like both of these kids and have watched them wrestle for years. I look foreward to many more matches to watch in the future!