TNAAU State Championship

[bradley08]

Very well put Cje. This sport is special in that it breeds warriors. In todays society thats a rare thing. Everything is about me, me ,me. We have to promote this sport and push to make it better and stronger. Nobody is going to do it for us thats for sure! I applaud whoever made the decision to let these people on the borders join our wrestling community. I can understand some parents crying and whining because unfortunately thats in our dna in todays society but if they would take a step back and look at the big picture it is better for the sport and our state. In the long run this move will pay off by making our kids better with the added competition.

[mat73557]

I have no problem with kids from other states competing. I am sure that lots of Tennessee kids, including my own, have travelled to out of state tournaments. The issue I have with this is the fact that most of these out of state kids that I saw before the wrestler lists were removed from track wrestling were not members of Tennessee clubs. As the coach from Cleveland alluded to, I think if a kid from Ringold travels to Cleveland every day for practice, wears the HCWC singlet, wrestles in all the tournaments that the coach signs up for, and the efforts of he and his family contribute to the benefit of the club, then by all means, the border is meaningless. That example grows wrestling in the state of TN.

 

But, from what I understand, that is not the case with the wrestlers that we are mainly talking about. If AAU wants to put on a multi-state tournament, it should not be called the TN State Tournament. It should be called Southeast Regional Tournament or something.

 

As for growing wrestling in Tennessee, allowing kids from other states to compete in the TN state tournament is not the answer. Explain how that helps when it is outside of the example I cited above.

[YOUTHCOACH16]

I have no problem with kids from other states competing. I am sure that lots of Tennessee kids, including my own, have travelled to out of state tournaments. The issue I have with this is the fact that most of these out of state kids that I saw before the wrestler lists were removed from track wrestling were not members of Tennessee clubs. As the coach from Cleveland alluded to, I think if a kid from Ringold travels to Cleveland every day for practice, wears the HCWC singlet, wrestles in all the tournaments that the coach signs up for, and the efforts of he and his family contribute to the benefit of the club, then by all means, the border is meaningless. That example grows wrestling in the state of TN.

 

But, from what I understand, that is not the case with the wrestlers that we are mainly talking about. If AAU wants to put on a multi-state tournament, it should not be called the TN State Tournament. It should be called Southeast Regional Tournament or something.

 

As for growing wrestling in Tennessee, allowing kids from other states to compete in the TN state tournament is not the answer. Explain how that helps when it is outside of the example I cited above.

 

More kids competing in your tournaments raises the numbers and level of competition. It doesnt matter if the kid from Ringgold wrestles for Hcwc or if Ringgold signs up as a Tennessee club. The end result is the same and that is the Ringgold wrestler is wretling in the Tn state tournament and not Georgias. The kids had to chose which state they were going to compete in for post season. The only kids who did not meet the criteria were a couple from ky and they are not being allowed to participate. The 4th place kids from those regions have been notified and will be attending the state tournament. This rule was voted on and approved by every single region in the state of Tn so we are arguing over something that is not going to change for this season anyway. Lets focus our efforts on pre-paring our kids for the tournament and make it as positive of an experience as possible for everyone involved.

Edited March 8, 2012 by YOUTHCOACH16

[jcddmoon]

More kids competing in your tournaments raises the numbers and level of competition. It doesn't matter if the kid from Ringgold wrestles for Hcwc or if Ringgold signs up as a Tennessee club. The end result is the same and that is the Ringgold wrestler is wretling in the Tn state tournament and not Georgias. The kids had to chose which state they were going to compete in for post season. The only kids who did not meet the criteria were a couple from ky and they are not being allowed to participate. The 4th place kids from those regions have been notified and will be attending the state tournament. This rule was voted on and approved by every single region in the state of Tn so we are arguing over something that is not going to change for this season anyway. Lets focus our efforts on pre-paring our kids for the tournament and make it as positive of an experience as possible for everyone involved.

 

 

I agree with YOUTHCOACH16 in this matter, it truly is more or less a wash at this point and not much else can be done. If you don't like the decision that has been made we need to start going to the TNAAU Meetings.

 

Also being from Murray County, GA originally and wrestling there in my youth, I understand the Ringgold thing. By all means let them participate if they are excepted into the fold as TNAAU clubs. I think if you want to compete in the TNAAU State tournament then you should wrestle for a TNAAU recognized team. This has happened in the past with no problem or conflict over the issue with several kids from HCWC and East Ridge. I think that no one had a problem with them due to the fact that they wrestled for TN teams, and in TN tournaments 90% of the time.

 

Like I stated before, the real issue here is ensuring that this is a true "State" tournament that is won by teams/individuals who are agreed on to be TNAAU teams/individuals. At this point that is a hard thing to determine because there are no clear guidlines, and this potentially sets us up for teams and kids from all over the Southeast wrestling in our "State" tourney.

 

My child wrestles in other states during the year at individual tournaments. We should also bring these out of State teams in to make our State stronger, I can agree with that wholeheartedly.

 

As long as the team the individual wrestles for us recognized as a TNAAU team, (such as Ringgold who does in fact contribute alot to TNAAU) Let them wrestle in the TNAAU State Tournament.

 

The point is that since we do not have clear and specific guidelines that is why the KY kids competed in the first place, and this does not need to happen in any part of the State that borders GA, AL, KY, MS, AR, MO, NC, or VA. Do you now see how many could potentially get in the mix here. Make it special for TNAAU clubs.

Edited March 8, 2012 by jcddmoon

[iwondrwhy]

How is it not fair across the state? The Ky kids have the same opportunity as the North Georgia kids. The Va. kids have the same opportunity as the North Georgia kids and the ms kids if there are any have the same opportunity as the Memphis kids. Sounds like its pretty fair across the state. Is your goal not to increase the numbers in Tennessee and make everyone better? Obviously thats not your goal. Your goal seems to be to make sure little Timmy wins the state. Obviously Tennessee's best interest was looked at and thats why this was evidently voted in. I highly doubt Chattanooga made their own rules. If anything the Chattanooga people should be more mad about it than anyone as some of their kids got knocked out by Georgia kids. Maybe you should make your own league like you suggested. One where little Timmy can always win. Leave the real wrestling up to the parts of the state that arent scared of a little competition. You wonder why Chattanooga always wins? Look no further than at your own fears and attitudes and you will find the answer my friend.

After state why don't you post the team scores and medal counts. Chattanooga does not alway win.

 

Thanks with love

your friend

Timmy

[bradley08]

No they dont always win. There are a lot of weight classes and age groups so that would be impossible to win them all. I will even go as far as to say a lot of areas are catching up to Chattanooga. It would be disrespectful of the coaches who put in all that hard work and have made great strides in improving there areas not to recognize what they are accomplishing. That being said, I will still wager Chattanooga wins more than anyone else. That is with Nashville, Knoxville, and Memphis all having larger populations. I think they keep team standings now so it will be a good gauge to see where everyone stacks up.

[2yankees3]

I'm the coach for the ky team that is in question. The mistake that led to this was mine. I filled the contract out as I was coaching at the tournament on 12-17-2011. I had 14 kids there and unfortunately I didn't read it. As I now know we were allowed to wrestle in only one state tournament and we wrestled in ky. Had I read the contract we would only have wrestled in Tn. We feel as a club that the youth wrestling is better in Tn and that is why we travel to Tn to wrestle. Sorry that some coaches and patents are offended by our presence. Someone also mention "medal hunters", well that is not the case. We have won several but we have also brought kids that haven't won medals much less medals because they are new to the sport. I am truly sadden by the situation and as someone stated in a previous post I not only had to explain it to my 7 yr old, but also his 12 teammates that can not wrestle Saturday. My 7 yr old cried because he wanted one more shot at the 45 from red raider wrestling who has beaten him 3 times this year. He has beaten everyone else he has wrestled there. Again didn't mean to cause problems just wanted my son and his teammates to have fin participating in a great sport.

[jcddmoon]

I'm the coach for the ky team that is in question. The mistake that led to this was mine. I filled the contract out as I was coaching at the tournament on 12-17-2011. I had 14 kids there and unfortunately I didn't read it. As I now know we were allowed to wrestle in only one state tournament and we wrestled in ky. Had I read the contract we would only have wrestled in Tn. We feel as a club that the youth wrestling is better in Tn and that is why we travel to Tn to wrestle. Sorry that some coaches and patents are offended by our presence. Someone also mention "medal hunters", well that is not the case. We have won several but we have also brought kids that haven't won medals much less medals because they are new to the sport. I am truly sadden by the situation and as someone stated in a previous post I not only had to explain it to my 7 yr old, but also his 12 teammates that can not wrestle Saturday. My 7 yr old cried because he wanted one more shot at the 45 from red raider wrestling who has beaten him 3 times this year. He has beaten everyone else he has wrestled there. Again didn't mean to cause problems just wanted my son and his teammates to have fin participating in a great sport.

 

If you are still looking to wrestle somewhere on Saturday the KY Battle for the Belt at North Hardin is supposed to be a great one. From what I understand there are teams from VA and OH signed up.

[cje329]

As I understand it the KY club is a recognized TNAAU club because they are a border county. Now im afraid what your going to have is a group of kids that have worked hard all season, left with a bad taste in their mouth because apparently some do not want them to compete or compete against them. I personally think that those who dont want them to wrestle should have to look these kids in the eye and have to tell them they cant wrestle.

[YOUTHCOACH16]

I'm the coach for the ky team that is in question. The mistake that led to this was mine. I filled the contract out as I was coaching at the tournament on 12-17-2011. I had 14 kids there and unfortunately I didn't read it. As I now know we were allowed to wrestle in only one state tournament and we wrestled in ky. Had I read the contract we would only have wrestled in Tn. We feel as a club that the youth wrestling is better in Tn and that is why we travel to Tn to wrestle. Sorry that some coaches and patents are offended by our presence. Someone also mention "medal hunters", well that is not the case. We have won several but we have also brought kids that haven't won medals much less medals because they are new to the sport. I am truly sadden by the situation and as someone stated in a previous post I not only had to explain it to my 7 yr old, but also his 12 teammates that can not wrestle Saturday. My 7 yr old cried because he wanted one more shot at the 45 from red raider wrestling who has beaten him 3 times this year. He has beaten everyone else he has wrestled there. Again didn't mean to cause problems just wanted my son and his teammates to have fin participating in a great sport.

 

Thanks for posting coach and explaining your side of the argument. I was not involved in your situation as I am from the south (chattanooga). We were trying to be fair to everyone both out of state and in state and that is why we came up with the rules for participation. Hopefully we can get all the bugs worked out of this scenario and you guys can compete with us in the future. The 45 lber you wanted to wrestle again is one of mine. He actually got beat this weekend for the fist time by a Georgia wrestler. My kids parents werent happy about it at first until I explained to them that we are trying to promote the sport, expand the opportunities for our kids in Tn so we arent wrestling the same kids all the time, and in the long run make our wrestlers better by having more tough matches. Even though my wrestler lost to an out of state kid he is better for having had that tougher match.

Edited March 9, 2012 by YOUTHCOACH16

[Panther50]

I understand trying to get better competition for our wrestlers. For regular tournaments it is great when kids from other states show up. This is just not right for any TN wrestler that loses to an out of state wrestler. The point of the STATE tournament is to find the best wrestler in TN. When you allow kids from other states to show up, it is no longer a TN State Championship. If you live in GA, there is a GA state tournament. KY has a KY state tournament. VA has a VA state tournament. They can go win their state. Let the TN kids win their state, and then they can compete against each other for a national championship. You try to help 50 kids from other states, but punish all of the kids that live in TN. We live on TN/KY border but we would never try to wrestle in the KY state tournament. If you live in VA, you don't vote in TN. If you live in KY, you don't get a TN driver's license. If you live in GA, you don't get TN license plates. So why you should you get to compete to become a TN state champion? This is just wrong.

[powerhalf22]

They put the rule in for this years state. I would think AAU wants better wrestling at the state level and more competition; however, mom and dad just want a easier bracket for their little wrestler. They should let anyone wrestle in the tournment as long as they didn't wrestle for state somewhere else. We attended a lot of AAU tournment and most of the brackets were empty. No competition for most weight classes.

 

Sign everyone up and eliminate the competition on the mat!