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Cleveland High School Wrestling- Its Humble Beginning

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bbb

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“If I was a high school football coach, all my linemen would wrestle. What you learn from wrestling - self-discipline, stamina and the ability to protect your legs - can be transferred to football."

 

 

 

-- Bill Emendorfer, Cleveland HS’s first state wrestling champion (1968, heavyweight)

 

From practices held in a junior high science class on used YMCA mats in the mid-1960s to a new millennium state power, the Cleveland Blue Raider mat program has won five state titles (traditional and duals) in three different decades with 20+ individual champs.

 

“We were a new high school in the fall of 1964 and, of course, a new wrestling program and to say we didn’t know much was an understatement,†said Bill Emendorfer with a laugh who was the program’s first state champ in 1968.

 

“Any success we had was due to pure athletic ability and hard work.â€

 

The Blue Raiders have continued the hard work over the years and are in the D-I AAA state duals semis today ...Saturday Semis (2 p.m. EST): Cleveland and Soddy Daisy advanced to Saturday afternoon's semifinals with hopes of meeting in the finals Saturday night.

 

On Friday, Cleveland defeated Cordova (73-0) in the round of 16 and Clarksville (61-12) in the quarters, while Soddy Daisy stopped Science Hill (51-16) in the round of 16 and Maryville (31-30) in the quarters. Soddy Daisy won the state duals and traditional crowns a year ago and Cleveland won the state traditional in 2011.

 

Emendorfer did note that Blue Raider coach Jim Tanara took some of the wrestlers to summer camps at such top college schools as Oklahoma, Iowa and Iowa State.

 

“We (coaches and wrestlers) were learning together and those summer wrestling camps were invaluable to us,†Emendorfer stated.

 

Evidently, the Athens, Tenn. native was a quick learner as he won the aforementioned state, was also a state runner-up in 1969, won two region titles and lost only three matches in three years.

 

Emendorfer’s success has been repeated by such Blue Raider legends as Johnny Lennon, Hank Howard, Carlos Thompson and Danny Coleman.

 

Emendorfer Notes: After Emendorfer’s junior year, coach Tanara became an assistant football coach and head wrestling coach at Alabama … Though heavily recruited to sign with Alabama by coach Tanara, Emendorfer decided to stay in state to and wrestle and play football at Tennessee.

 

“Choosing to sign with Tennessee and having to say no to coach Tanara was such a difficult decision for me since he was a good friend of our family,†stated Emendorfer who was a two-time All-SEC offensive lineman for the Vols under coach Bill Battle and was also chosen for the sophomore All-American team in 1970.

 

Blue Raider Football: Emendorfer played five years on the varsity football team (8th grade year the team played a JV schedule in the school’s first year, 1964-65) … he led them to three bowl game victories and a 10-0 record as a senior in the fall of 1968.

 

Contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net

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FootballFan51 Medalist

FootballFan51

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Cleveland has had a lot of success over the years, but what brought them back to the elite level was hiring Heath Eslinger and just as vital was Heath's hiring of Eric Phillips as the MS coach at CHS, and Heath's formation (along with Coach Al Morris of Walker Valley) of the Higher Calling Wrestling Club as a kids club. Walker Valley has since started their own kids club, but they actually started Higher Calling together. Before that, Bradley had the only kid's club in town and most all the young wrestlers (many who were sons of former Bradley and Cleveland wrestlers) were in the Bradley club and ended up at Bradley. Hiring Heath was the first step, but if he hadn't gotten lucky and found Eric Phillips (which is another story that someone can tell better than me) and started the kids club, they probably aren't where they are today. Also, FWIW, Heath and Eric Phillips are better people than they are wrestlers or wrestling coaches and they are obviously two of the best coaches in the state of TN.

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rlwest40 Challenger

rlwest40

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Lets not forget Hatcher and his days at Cleveland. I agree with all of what you said BUT Cleveland did have a wrestling club before the inception of Higher Calling Wrestling Club. Cleveland Wrestling Club would have annual duals with Bradley's wrestling club and competed in the FCI tournaments around the state, if I remember correctly the state tournament was held in Murfreesboro and hosted by the SSS. As a matter of fact, four of Cleveland's current varsity wrestlers wrestled together in the Cleveland Wrestling Club (#1 Austin Oliver, #1 Haden Hamilton, #4 Aaron Oliver, #1 Ethan West) as well as at least one current varsity wrestler from Walker Valley. Higher Calling played a huge role in the success at Cleveland but Bradley was not the only club in town before HC came along. A lots changed since then huh?

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Xander Zone Competitor

Xander Zone

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Thank you Mr. West...

I had the privilege of coaching those young men...I remember vividly talking back in the day about this group of young men...It makes me smile knowing that my coaching staff and myself got to teach these guys the fundamentals of wrestling,..

Thank You once again....

Coach Lee Varnell

Former Head Coach Cleveland Kids Club...

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reftn Challenger

reftn

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Thank you Mr. West...

I had the privilege of coaching those young men...I remember vividly talking back in the day about this group of young men...It makes me smile knowing that my coaching staff and myself got to teach these guys the fundamentals of wrestling,..

Thank You once again....

Coach Lee Varnell

Former Head Coach Cleveland Kids Club...

 

+10

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rlwest40 Challenger

rlwest40

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Heath Eslinger, Eric Phillips, Jake Yost, Josh Bosken, and Mike Hatcher are all to credit for Cleveland's new wrestling dynasty. Lets not forget Al Miller who has continued to be an asset to the Blue Raiders in this new era as well as the contributions made by his son, Pete. Coach Mountain at the MS level with the addition of Bradley Colbaugh have continued Cleveland's success with middle school wrestlers.

 

In this new era's humble beginnings before the reign of High Calling Wrestling Club, Cleveland's youth program was headed by former Cleveland wrestling stand-out Carlos Thompson followed by former TN state champion Ken Oliver who led many of those young Blue Raiders to state and national placements.

 

Definitely a group effort made by all of these outstanding coaches to get Cleveland where they are today.

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JSamson7 Medalist

JSamson7

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Cleveland has had a lot of success over the years, but what brought them back to the elite level was hiring Heath Eslinger and just as vital was Heath's hiring of Eric Phillips as the MS coach at CHS, and Heath's formation (along with Coach Al Morris of Walker Valley) of the Higher Calling Wrestling Club as a kids club. Walker Valley has since started their own kids club, but they actually started Higher Calling together. Before that, Bradley had the only kid's club in town and most all the young wrestlers (many who were sons of former Bradley and Cleveland wrestlers) were in the Bradley club and ended up at Bradley. Hiring Heath was the first step, but if he hadn't gotten lucky and found Eric Phillips (which is another story that someone can tell better than me) and started the kids club, they probably aren't where they are today. Also, FWIW, Heath and Eric Phillips are better people than they are wrestlers or wrestling coaches and they are obviously two of the best coaches in the state of TN.

 

Heath had a previous relationship with Eric before he came to Cleveland. Eric was instrumental in bringing one of our (I wrestled at UTC from 1996-2000) teammates John Sever to Chatt. After John graduated, he went back home to Miami to help Eric coach at Michael J Crop High School. I used to go down in the summer & work with those guys when I was on vacation in South Florida. Eric ran a very successful program down there & John has been leading the Miami wrestling scene ever since.

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slingshot Trainer

slingshot

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Cleveland has had a lot of success over the years, but what brought them back to the elite level was hiring Heath Eslinger and just as vital was Heath's hiring of Eric Phillips as the MS coach at CHS, and Heath's formation (along with Coach Al Morris of Walker Valley) of the Higher Calling Wrestling Club as a kids club. Walker Valley has since started their own kids club, but they actually started Higher Calling together. Before that, Bradley had the only kid's club in town and most all the young wrestlers (many who were sons of former Bradley and Cleveland wrestlers) were in the Bradley club and ended up at Bradley. Hiring Heath was the first step, but if he hadn't gotten lucky and found Eric Phillips (which is another story trasomeone can tell better than me) and started the kids club, they probably aren't where they are today. Also, FWIW, Heath and Eric Phillips are better people than they are wrestlers or wrestling coaches and they are obviously two of the best coaches in the state of TN.

Which "sons of former wrestlers of Cleveland HS "ended up wrestling for Bradley HS ??
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