AAU State - Some bumps, but overall great experience

[bradley08]

Medal Counts: (keep in mind Region 4 and 5 were combined last year)

 

State Champions:

Region 1= 9

Region 2= 6

Region 3= 20

Region 4= 14

Region 5= 14

 

State Placers:

Region 1= 57

Region 2= 32

Region 3= 92

Region 4= 74

Region 5= 44

Region 3 had 23 champs based on my quick count. I dont think region 1 had that many but I will double check. I will check the ga kids but i only saw two. Im not sure about the Va kids Ill check that as well.

[jcddmoon]

lol, boo hoo. How many out of state guys were there in the whole tournament? maybe 12? Also, you want to combine Memphis and nashville the two largest cities in the state by a huge amount to compare to Chattanoogas 300,000? Ba ha ha. How about this. Go out and create some interest in your sport, create more teams, get more wrestlers out. If chattanooga can do it then surely you can since your population is 10X Chattanoogas. That would be like a high schooler coming home saying he got beat up by a 6th grader. Im am going to nominate Mr Moon as the cry baby of the year award winner. Look back through his posts. You might be the most negative person in the world. Did region 5 win handily last year? Nope I think not.

I am not going to continue to play your childish games Bradley08. As I posted before, you are welcome to call me. Josh Moon 931-217-8483. Additionally as far as drumming up interest in the sport in my area you can ask anyone in Clarksville of my involvement in the area. I started a new club this year, which by the way we took 6 to Region and all placed, additionally we took the same six to State 2 State Champs and 1 Fourth Place finish, not to shabby for the village idiot I'd say.

[mocs2011]

lol, boo hoo. How many out of state guys were there in the whole tournament? maybe 12? Also, you want to combine Memphis and nashville the two largest cities in the state by a huge amount to compare to Chattanoogas 300,000? Ba ha ha. How about this. Go out and create some interest in your sport, create more teams, get more wrestlers out. If chattanooga can do it then surely you can since your population is 10X Chattanoogas. That would be like a high schooler coming home saying he got beat up by a 6th grader. Im am going to nominate Mr Moon as the cry baby of the year award winner. Look back through his posts. You might be the most negative person in the world. Did region 5 win handily last year? Nope I think not.

 

A troll emerges! Go back under your rock until you have something more productive to add.

 

Why were GA teams allowed to participate in an AAU TN State? I can understand why GA wrestlers that regularly participate in a TN AAU club can sign up, but GA has a great state series already...even if they have to drive a bit. Given that the TN AAU state tournament appears to be very large already, I suggest pushing the northern GA team(s) to compete in their own state. That would be one quick way to eliminate some wrestlers that really should not be there anyway.

[bradley08]

A troll emerges! Go back under your rock until you have something more productive to add.

 

Why were GA teams allowed to participate in an AAU TN State? I can understand why GA wrestlers that regularly participate in a TN AAU club can sign up, but GA has a great state series already...even if they have to drive a bit. Given that the TN AAU state tournament appears to be very large already, I suggest pushing the northern GA team(s) to compete in their own state. That would be one quick way to eliminate some wrestlers that really should not be there anyway.

 

Troll? If speaking the truth is being a troll them Im guilty as charged. I think I read somewhere there were 12 out of state kids in the entire tournament. Im assuming that includes Ky and va as well so I dont think that would fix the problem. I for one dont think that too many kids is a problem. I think that is awesome in my opionion. Being on the Tn/ga line I can understand why people would want ga to participate. If you dont live here you wouldnt understand. We are one community. Many of them work here, go to school here, many of us work there and so on. They participate in our tournaments, we participate in their tournaments. They want to wrestle Aau instead of Usa. I think its a great thing. State lines are imaginary and whats wrong with letting them compete with the communities they are most closely associated with? Does it not add wrestlers? Does it not add to the quality and competetiveness of our tournaments? I guess we need to clearly define what our goals are. That being said I can see the other side of the argument. I can see where parents are going to complain when a kid gets beat by a Ga, ky or va wrestler because that means their son didnt win and we all know that a mjority of the people dont care about promoting and growing their sport. They just want their kid to win. Ive probably been guilty of that as well so Im not throwing stones.

[jcddmoon]

Troll? If speaking the truth is being a troll them Im guilty as charged. I think I read somewhere there were 12 out of state kids in the entire tournament. Im assuming that includes Ky and va as well so I dont think that would fix the problem. I for one dont think that too many kids is a problem. I think that is awesome in my opionion. Being on the Tn/ga line I can understand why people would want ga to participate. If you dont live here you wouldnt understand. We are one community. Many of them work here, go to school here, many of us work there and so on. They participate in our tournaments, we participate in their tournaments. They want to wrestle Aau instead of Usa. I think its a great thing. State lines are imaginary and whats wrong with letting them compete with the communities they are most closely associated with? Does it not add wrestlers? Does it not add to the quality and competetiveness of our tournaments? I guess we need to clearly define what our goals are. That being said I can see the other side of the argument. I can see where parents are going to complain when a kid gets beat by a Ga, ky or va wrestler because that means their son didnt win and we all know that a mjority of the people dont care about promoting and growing their sport. They just want their kid to win. Ive probably been guilty of that as well so Im not throwing stones.

 

Here are a few ideas to toss around for the meeting this year.

 

1. Maybe set the Regions as they are in TSSAA. (I think there are 8) Host a State Qualifier in each Region for the entire State and allow the top 4 placers to qulaify for the State tournament. That should give us a 32 man bracket for the state tournament. I know this idea would need some tweeking, but just a thought.

 

2. If you have 8 Regions instead of doing a Region tournament, maybe have 4 Sectional Championship tournaments by combining two Regions. (4 and 5 or 1 and 2 for example) Reason being is that at this point we do not have enough wrestlers to have 8 Region Championships. (we barely have enough for 5... this will eventually change)

 

3. Have a Southeast Regional Tournament and include all surrounding states, make it a two day event with duals on the last day. (we all know Team TN would dominate)

 

In short I think we are very close to where we should be as a State and it is very evident by how our children are doing on a National level. Our top wrestlers are as good as any, anywhere in the Nation. This was evident at Dixie Nationals, Indy Nationals, and the Grind.

[mocs2011]

Troll? If speaking the truth is being a troll them Im guilty as charged. I think I read somewhere there were 12 out of state kids in the entire tournament. Im assuming that includes Ky and va as well so I dont think that would fix the problem. I for one dont think that too many kids is a problem. I think that is awesome in my opionion. Being on the Tn/ga line I can understand why people would want ga to participate. If you dont live here you wouldnt understand. We are one community. Many of them work here, go to school here, many of us work there and so on. They participate in our tournaments, we participate in their tournaments. They want to wrestle Aau instead of Usa. I think its a great thing. State lines are imaginary and whats wrong with letting them compete with the communities they are most closely associated with? Does it not add wrestlers? Does it not add to the quality and competetiveness of our tournaments? I guess we need to clearly define what our goals are. That being said I can see the other side of the argument. I can see where parents are going to complain when a kid gets beat by a Ga, ky or va wrestler because that means their son didnt win and we all know that a mjority of the people dont care about promoting and growing their sport. They just want their kid to win. Ive probably been guilty of that as well so Im not throwing stones.

 

Better post and worth responding to, these are by definition "state" tournaments, many youth wrestlers participate in Dixie "Nationals", Liberty "Nationals", Tulsa "Nationals" as well as the USA SE "region" tournaments. The focus of these tournament is to bring together wrestlers from other states and even regions of the country to find the best of the best. The AAU TN State should be just that a measure of the best in the State of TN, not GA. Similarly, the TSSAA State Individual or Dual tournament is just that and other high schools outside of TN are not invited. The goal should be to provide a similar experience for the youth in TN. Now there are some wrestlers from out of state that attend Baylor and McCallie, they go to those high schools which are located in TN. I understand their participation in the TSSAA state, but not high schools or, in this case, clubs located outside of TN.

[TO338]

I wasnt really reffering to Memphis as much as Nashville. Cry baby said add regions 4 and 5 together and they would win more. My point was, you should win if you have 10 X the population. But in reality they wouldnt just like they didnt last year or the year before or the year before,. Because what cry baby is forgetting is that they got to put 6 people in the state this year with two regions as opposed to Chattanoogas 3. Oh.. forgetting that are we Einstein? . So in essence if Nashville and Memphis were together and you only had 3 kids instead of 6 you would probably win less like all the years in the past. Moon, you seriously need to stop posting. You are embarrassing anybody who even knows you. Population does matter tremendously when looking at a pool of potential wrestlers. Its common sense. If you have 1,000,000 people surely you have a better chance of finding wrestlers than a city of 300,000. I understand Ms and Ark doesnt have wrestling but Im not sure what that has to do with Memphis having a larger population base. Is Chattanooga strong because its next to ga? It has nothing to do with that what so ever. Thats even more reason memphis needs to grow their numbers so that they have more people to compete with and dont have to travel as much. I certainly feel their pain and understand where they are coming from. They are on the right track and will be a powerhouse very soon as some of their kids already are.

 

I was just jerking your chain a bit. Congrats for a strong showing once again!

 

However, while your population theory has some merit and looks good on paper (especially with other sports like football and basketball)...with wrestling, I don't believe it holds as much water. Tradition and opportunity mean so much more!

 

For example, since you brought of Chatt...I could take the best you have to offer from your 300,000 people and travel to any number of small towns of 20,000 in IA, PA, OH, MI, MN and they would have no problem keeping up with you. Now based on your contention, how could that be??? Because they are from parts of the country that are steeped in wrestling tradition with lots of tournaments, coaches, clubs, strong competition, etc.

 

On the flip side, I'll take that same Chatt team against the best the entire state of Mississippi has to offer out of 3 MILLION people, with zero wrestling tradition. Guess who wins easily??? It ain't rocket surgery.

 

Bottom line...if you come from an area that lacks wrestling tradition and opportunity, I don't care how many people you have.

 

With that said, on average, Region 3 had a state champion for every 16.5 wrestlers. New Region 5 had one every 16.78. Looks like our best are competing very well with your best. And, if your population theory is as valid as you contend, you really better look out.

[bradley08]

I was just jerking your chain a bit. Congrats for a strong showing once again!

 

However, while your population theory has some merit and looks good on paper (especially with other sports like football and basketball)...with wrestling, I don't believe it holds as much water. Tradition and opportunity mean so much more!

 

For example, since you brought of Chatt...I could take the best you have to offer from your 300,000 people and travel to any number of small towns of 20,000 in IA, PA, OH, MI, MN and they would have no problem keeping up with you. Now based on your contention, how could that be??? Because they are from parts of the country that are steeped in wrestling tradition with lots of tournaments, coaches, clubs, strong competition, etc.

 

On the flip side, I'll take that same Chatt team against the best the entire state of Mississippi has to offer out of 3 MILLION people, with zero wrestling tradition. Guess who wins easily??? It ain't rocket surgery.

 

Bottom line...if you come from an area that lacks wrestling tradition and opportunity, I don't care how many people you have.

 

With that said, on average, Region 3 had a state champion for every 16.5 wrestlers. New Region 5 had one every 16.78. Looks like our best are competing very well with your best. And, if your population theory is as valid as you contend, you really better look out.

 

 

See we are making progress! Excellent post and observations.I of course will have to check that math. lol

 

I think one factor is that maybe region 5 didnt send as many kids who didnt have a chance to place as areas that are closer. I know if I lived in memphis I wouldnt send my kid just to get matches but somebody an hour or two away might. Regardless, the west is getting better and better and there is no denying that. That is great for our sport and Tennessee!

Edited March 14, 2012 by bradley08

[TO338]

I know opinions are like butts...everybody has one and they all stink. But, as far as out of state wrestlers are concerned, For the record, I do think they should be a part of a TN. club, and should only compete in one state tournament no matter where they reside.

 

However, let me tell you a story. When my son was young, we went to a "no weigh-in" tournament in Branson, MO. I remember it was a round robin, and every kid was going to place top 6. But, there was this one wrestler who had an obvious size advantage over everyone else. He was just plain BIG, and ended up taking 2nd. At the end when medals were being handed out, all of the parents were complaining about the BIG kid and how unfair it was. Everyone except one set of parents...yep, that's right...the parents of the kid who took first, and beat the big kid. They just grabbed their medal and quietly walked away.

 

So...off the record, I say, "Bring it!" BEAT EM', and you won't care where they're from, or how big they are. You'll just quietly walk away while everyone else does the complaining for you.

[Panther50]

Better post and worth responding to, these are by definition "state" tournaments, many youth wrestlers participate in Dixie "Nationals", Liberty "Nationals", Tulsa "Nationals" as well as the USA SE "region" tournaments. The focus of these tournament is to bring together wrestlers from other states and even regions of the country to find the best of the best. The AAU TN State should be just that a measure of the best in the State of TN, not GA. Similarly, the TSSAA State Individual or Dual tournament is just that and other high schools outside of TN are not invited. The goal should be to provide a similar experience for the youth in TN. Now there are some wrestlers from out of state that attend Baylor and McCallie, they go to those high schools which are located in TN. I understand their participation in the TSSAA state, but not high schools or, in this case, clubs located outside of TN.

 

EXACTLY. The point of state is to find the best wrestler in each weight class in each state. How can you be the best wrestler in TN when you don't even live in TN. I am not scared of my boy wrestling people from other states. That is why we take him to multiple national tournaments each year. I love him wrestling kids from other states. It just shouldn't at region or state.

[bradley08]

EXACTLY. The point of state is to find the best wrestler in each weight class in each state. How can you be the best wrestler in TN when you don't even live in TN. I am not scared of my boy wrestling people from other states. That is why we take him to multiple national tournaments each year. I love him wrestling kids from other states. It just shouldn't at region or state.

valid points and Im sure this would get mixed feelings depending on what part of the state you live in. I think the Chattanooga people are more open to it because they think of this as one community. They do not think of North georgia even being in another state even though technically it is. Im not sure about memphis but I would think they would feel the same if Olive Branch, Southaven and those other communities had wrestling. In bristol you have Virginia wrestling 10 minutes away and those people are part of the Bristol community more so than their Virginia communities. I can see both sides of the argument. I personally like them wrestling as long as they declare themselves to be Tn wrestlers and dont wrestle in ga's states. I do think they should wrestle all year or a minimum number of tournaments with us to eligible. On the other hand I can see the other side of the argument as well. This is going to be a topic that is going to have many mixed feelings and will never fully be agreed upon. Each regional manager should send out an email to each head coach in his are and get a vote on this. Then at their state meeting each region can vote based on what his region wants and then you have a true majority say so in the matter.

[Panther50]

valid points and Im sure this would get mixed feelings depending on what part of the state you live in. I think the Chattanooga people are more open to it because they think of this as one community. They do not think of North georgia even being in another state even though technically it is. Im not sure about memphis but I would think they would feel the same if Olive Branch, Southaven and those other communities had wrestling. In bristol you have Virginia wrestling 10 minutes away and those people are part of the Bristol community more so than their Virginia communities. I can see both sides of the argument. I personally like them wrestling as long as they declare themselves to be Tn wrestlers and dont wrestle in ga's states. I do think they should wrestle all year or a minimum number of tournaments with us to eligible. On the other hand I can see the other side of the argument as well. This is going to be a topic that is going to have many mixed feelings and will never fully be agreed upon. Each regional manager should send out an email to each head coach in his are and get a vote on this. Then at their state meeting each region can vote based on what his region wants and then you have a true majority say so in the matter.

 

I like your idea about each team voting on it. It's one of those things that you will never keep everyone happy. I know all of the region 4 teams were not happy about it, but we are not in the same situation as Chattanooga. I think they should meet in the middle. If the kids are from another state, but wrestle for a TN team they can wrestle in our state. If they wrestle for a team from another state then they can't.