The Pipeline....

[Xander Zone]

You are right sir...but Cleveland has always had a Great Kids Club program...it took a long long time to get it where it is today...I know I helped coach them and helped form Higher Calling...and what you guys have done since then is a great great thing....for a while that is why you saw the decline in Bradley...but they are getting back on track...Same goes with Stampede Wrestling(Ocoee & Walker Valley) Pretty soon a lot of programs will rise because of it...and you are also correct in the fact that you have to have patience...but then again it could be something in the water in Bradley Co...you have to have knowledgeable coaches as well on all levels to tap into the elite status...Continue Pushing for Greatness Tennessee...As a whole that is the way "WE" can garner respect on the National Level....

[rlwest40]

I dont even consider the private schools when I look at the quality of wrestling in Tennessee because they can all recruit and do actively recruit across the state and within other states (especially the ones that offer dormitories and housing arrangements). As far as public schools, consider the size of the county and if the county requires zoning. Several of the powerhouses in Tennesse are in counties that allow for open enrollment so the better wrestlers in the county can go to a school where other better wrestlers go and that builds the strong team. If a county only has one or two high schools, a stronger team can be assembled as well.  When a county has many highschools and kids are required to go only to their zoned school, that keeps that from happening. That is what you see in Middle Tennessee. Many of the counties have experienced tremendous growth and do not allow students to go to any school they want due to overcrowding issues. Call it an excuse, whining, or whatever you will, but that is the truth.

 

Which counties and powerhouse schools in TN allow open enrollment? Larger metro area schools such as Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville?

 

You suggest that middle TN is hendered because students aren't allowed to attend a school that they are not zoned for. In middle TN Davidson County alone has a population of 648,295 which is much larger than Hamilton and Bradley Counties combined. Neighboring Rutherford County has a population of 274,454 which is 2 1/2 times the size of Bradley County and almost the size of Hamilton County. Davidson and Rutherford Counties collectively have over twice the population of Hamilton and Bradley Counties combined.

 

Bradley County has 3 of the top wrestling high schools in the state and students are zoned for which schools they can attend, there is no open enrollment. BC and WV are the 2 county schools and Cleveland is its city school zoned for city limits only.

 

All 12 of these state powerhouse teams are within a 30 mile radius spanning 2 counties with a combined population of 446,679:

 

D2 #1 Baylor

D2 #3 McCallie

D1 AAA #1 Cleveland

D1 AAA #3 Soddy Daisy

D1 AAA #4 Bradey Central

D1 AAA #6 Walker Valley

D1 A-AA #2 Hixson

D1 A-AA #5 Chattanooga Central

D1 A-AA #6 Signal Mountain

D1 A-AA #7 Notre Dame

D1 A-AA #8 Red Bank

D1 A-AA #10 East Ridge

 

This is just the top ranked teams from these two counties, there are other wrestling programs in this area that have thrived for many years. I don't know of any of these schools allowing open enrollment to students, they are all zoned schools.

[oldwrestlingcoach]

I do agree that it all starts with the youth program and from the days of Future Champions to the AAU programs of today, most of the elite wrestlers in Tennessee started in those programs. I get tired of hearing how superior Chattanooga is to the rest of the state. That is true for now and may be true for the future, but give it time and things will change. Rutherford County had a top notch youth program several years ago until politics ruined it and Williamson County has been very successful with their youth program as well. (For the record, I am not associated with either program). Chattanooga has a better feeder system than the Middle Tennessee schools and we are seeing that in wrestling.

As far as the zoning issues, I was told last year by a Chattanooga area coach%2

[YOUTHCOACH16]

Your right about everything you just stated but I'll do you one better. The depth of Chattanooga wrestling is not good and when they wanted to drop the Chattanooga youth wrestling program I stated then that will help a few but for rural places like Soddy, you will kill our depth. I told this to my good friend MIKE SUTHERLAND.... , and its happening. Poor folks barely got enough money to put food on the table, they cant run all over the state taking their kids to tournaments...all I heard was growth, I said your crazy. It will kill some programs. Soddy Daisy, Red Bank, Hixson all our schools had youth programs that fed our schools wrestlers. Good ones, Red Bank and Soddy Daisy would regularly send 30 to 40 kids to these tournaments. The depth is gone, what I told Mike then is bearing fruit. It was a great tool for Chattanooga wrestling that produced, but they wanted a state group. I wrestled my kids in Chattanooga tournaments and also ran them to Atlanta for 3 years...ive been poor ever since. I helped my kids where I could , but a lot of parents don't have money to run all over the place and some kids don't have parents that give a flip, Chattanooga wrestling program provided a valuable tool for our high school wrestling programs.

 

I wondered where my big old buddy ran off to. I had to research to figure out who this new screen name belonged to. I will reply with a lot of facts that will completely disprove everything you have just stated because you couldn’t be more wrong. I know you have been drinking the kool-aide and aren’t seeing the whole picture since your kids haven’t been involved at the youth level in a long time. Tennessee wrestling is stronger than ever based on our team Tn results. In fact it has never even been this close. We are now a top 4-7 team in the national duals every year compared to 15-20 th when our kids were coming up. How many Fargo placers have we had lately? I actually had this conversation with a couple of high school coaches last year and I was astonished they were so out of touch with what’s going on not only in their town but within their own programs. The first group of kids from Chattanooga that were involved in the Aau statewide league were just sophomores last year and they were only involved their 5th grade year so you haven’t even seen the fruits of the labor yet. I can assure you its coming in short time. The youth level wrestlers in this state are hands down better than anything we have ever had in the past. What has happened is that the rest of the state now has quality coaching and has worked their butts off to improve their wrestling while some programs in our area have regressed. There is also a HUGE misconception that our local Chattanooga league was producing our top talent. You should know better than anyone that our best kids were wrestling in the Chattanooga league, the Fci league in North Georgia, Usa in Atlanta, AAu in Knoxville, ectt.. Shane Turner, Kevin Emily, Tommy Boone, and many others were taking kids all over the place for a long time before we joined the unified state wide league. The rest of the state banded together and we either had to join or get left behind. I only wish our kids would have gotten to experience what these kids today have . Instead of wrestling at the city championship with two mats they are now wrestling for a true state championship with 18 mats going at once. We had over 5,000 Aau members in Tennessee last year if I remember correctly. We still have just as many local tournaments as before but now we are drawing in outside kids as well. We have a Tour of Tennessee system in place that’s gets the best kids in the state together 4 times per year prior to the state tournament. We have "wrestle fest" practices that rotate from one region to another where the best kids come down to train all day together.  Kind of the same concept we had on Sundays at Coach Emily’s place except now its the best kids in the whole state show up. Chattanooga has one glaring weakness and everybody involved in the sport at the youth level knows what it is. Our public middle school league puts all of those teams you mentioned at an enormous disadvantage. The rest of the state is getting 40-60 matches a year against high level wrestlers and our local middle school league gets 12-15 matches and most of the matches aren’t what we would call high level. Its not rocket science to see where the drop is coming from. We also have a state duals tournament for middle school and the youth level (5th grade and below) that is comprised of  regional all star teams. Basically Chattanooga’s best wrestles Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville and Northern Tn and East Tns best. Our elementary teams have never lost a single match and I don’t think we have had a match within 35 pts but our middle school got beat last year and had very tough matches the year before, Its due to our kids in the public school middle school league in Chatt getting about 20 % of the mat time the rest of the state gets. You take these components and also the fact that we lost several of our best club coaches and of course our schools are going to decline. I set down years ago at a tournament and made a list of the who I thought would win the high school state tournaments in the years to come based on their feeder programs and I have been exactly right not only on the winners but also most of the top 5 as well.  My only surprise was how quickly Wilson Central has risen to the top. Although my youth team is based out of Baylor I have kids form Jasper, Whitwell, Soddy, Hixson, Red Bank, Harrison, North Georgia, Rhea County and many other rural or inner city areas and we make it work just fine. I Where you and I had to travel all over the place for the best competition now we only have to drive to Nashville, Knoxville, and either Cookeville or Crossville 3-4 times per year to get the best competition. In addition to less travel time than what you and I experienced with our own kids we also have satellite weigh ins the night before here in town so you can simply get up and go wrestle the next day.  We have 11 local tournaments in Chattanooga this year. Of those 11, two  are beginners tournaments so our first year kids can compete against other beginners and not get discouraged. Only three are on the same weekend as one of our Tour Of Tennessee Tournaments in another area so you will have the best Chattanooga has to offer  all at one tournament right here in town on 6 weekends plus one weekend when the whole state sends their best to Chattanooga.When the better kids to go out of town to compete it leaves opportunities for the less experienced kids to wrestle here locally and taste some success.  Check out the type of awards the kids are getting now here in Tennessee. Every state champions for all 65 youth age groups and weight classes get a plaque like this where they can insert their bracket, picture and medal. https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=477391288982573&id=233633160025055&set=pb.233633160025055.-2207520000.1391451602.&source=42 . I bet our high schoolers would love to get something this nice for winning the state.

 Sorry for the encyclopedia but I am very passionate about what we are doing here in this state and locally. I have kids from my club either starting for every major high school in this area or they are about to be in high school so I want to see them all succeed. I can tell you this for sure. The teams across the state are working diligently to get better and they are succeeding and our local teams are going to continue to decline based on what Im seeing except for a few. Take a hard look at the teams you are saying are dropping off and you will find a common denominator, they are members of the local middle school league and / or they lost their long time youth coaches.

 

[rlwest40]

Just using an in-state example of how smaller communities are successful without having the luxury of open enrollment. I don't know of any TN powerhouses that have open enrollment to credit their success to so I'm not sure how it has hindered middle TN as you suggested.

 

Most agree that success comes from the pipeline and not from kids moving to the same school and loading a team, that might happen occassionally on a small scale but will only provide temporary success. To claim that middle TN isn't a powerhouse because the kids can't go to school where they want and load a team is an excuse.

 

There was an excellent point made about the relationship between the success of the feeder program and the high school program. Chattanooga has historically been more superior than the rest of the state because there have been more dedicated individuals/coaches devoting time and effort toward the development of youth wrestling. Long before the AAU these guys were getting lots of kids on the mat in this area through the FCI and Chattanooga leagues. It continues today with clubs like the Red Raiders and Higher Calling who are both taking it to the next level. The efforts and dedication of those involved with developing our feeders over the years is the reason why Chattanooga is the heart of wrestling in the state.

[Sommers]

Pipeline for wrestlers, coaches & more... I'm proud of what the Chattanooga tradition is. Hey, even Officials are impressive, and have been mentored well since Johnny Farr, Mara, Gilbert, and now today one of the patriarchs in stripes, Mike Craft... Who gets in position to see & make the call as anyone. (Obviously others are right there too of all shapes and sizes there, mostly fit and some balding )

 

Now as for a model (Peaking your wrestlers, included for those naysayers)

 

“Many wrestlers throughout the nation typically wrestle from mid-November to early March. This time period is known as the normal high school and middle school wrestling season. Most wrestlers at the end of this time period pack away their wrestling gear until the next winter. Wrestling is a sport that requires a lot of commitment, hard work, and trying to surpass your competition. Many wrestlers feel the normal season is enough time to improve and succeed, but reaching new goals and successes in wrestling requires some off-season training. Whether this training be freestyle wrestling, greco roman wrestling, or lifting weights, all of these things can help put you ahead of the game. Freestyle and greco roman wrestling have personally helped me improve drastically from year to year, and have helped me reach some of my short term goals. Freestyle and greco roman open many doors in the wrestling world. These styles give wrestlers the chance to work on new techniques, explore different parts of the country, improve on being more confident in yourself, and most of all have fun! By being a 2x member of the Pennsylvania national freestyle team, I have more confidence on and off the wrestling mat , I am constantly looking to improve , and have had the opportunity to wrestle with some of the best wrestlers across the nation. If you are a wrestler looking improve and reach your personal goals, then freestyle, greco roman, and other off season training will help guide you to becoming the best wrestler you can possibly be!â€

-Bryan Israel, PIAA 6th Place finisher

 

http://www.peakwc.com

 

Where they seek out the best competition, adjust, maintain proper conditioning and skill development, while techniques are not forgotten…they are drilled and constantly reinforced. This from those who's name they embrace in an area of dependence on pipelines,,, You Think?

[YOUTHCOACH16]

Wow, not sure exactly what you are alluding to here but you are off base on a lot of levels.  The first and foremost being that cbg is a very staunch supporter of one of the Nashville area private schools.

 

Its rare that I will band together with my heated rival from the west but I am going to have to back up Ghouse on this one.. The powerhouse Cbros team from the past few years was built from their Wave club. People always assume because you are a private school you "recruited" all your kids. Ghouse and Mr Baucke built that team from scratch and took them all over the midwest for years. Those involved in the sport knew what Cbros had coming way before they burst onto the high school scene.      

[YOUTHCOACH16]

I do agree that it all starts with the youth program and from the days of Future Champions to the AAU programs of today, most of the elite wrestlers in Tennessee started in those programs. I get tired of hearing how superior Chattanooga is to the rest of the state. That is true for now and may be true for the future, but give it time and things will change. Rutherford County had a top notch youth program several years ago until politics ruined it and Williamson County has been very successful with their youth program as well. (For the record, I am not associated with either program). Chattanooga has a better feeder system than the Middle Tennessee schools and we are seeing that in wrestling.

As far as the zoning issues, I was told last year by a Chattanooga area coach%2

 

You are exacltly right, The Sharpshooters from Rutherford county was one of  the top 1-2 programs in the state for many years. Had that whole situation not imploded you would see Blackman in the state finals without question. Now those kids are at three different schools. You are also correct in that other areas will catch Chattanooga, its already happening and will only continue to do so. Williamson county has an excellent feeder program and in fact its one of the top 4 in the state. You have a collegiate national champion and a former coach at either St Eds or  Blair Academy coaching. You also have Bean, Salter, Rippy ,Kramer  and Williams among others with great programs in the Nashville area.  The Knoxville area has Pittman, Jones, Sayne, and Foreman among others. East Tennesse is getting better with such individauls as Marshall, Frye, Harrison and Myers among others who are putting in a lot of hard work to better their areas and it will pay off,  For years Chattanooga had the best coaches and feeder clubs but its not the case anymore. Wrestling will continue to balance out . I still think Chattanooga will produce the majority of the team champions for a while but the top 10 will be filled with teams from other areas as well.    

Edited February 3, 2014 by YOUTHCOACH16

[Tronado]

I suppose your probably right Mike, you have your finger on the pulse of it. I still believe there is a place for a Chattanooga program like we had, people don't have the money to travel all over the place and im talking depth. Something I mentioned to Coach Henry over the last couple of years was that sometimes it may not be good to have such dominate classes of kids back to back, your taking 8 years where Soddy had some of the top talent in the state. We had kids that could start for most other programs sitting on the sides and some eventually quit the sport. Now I look and the depth is gone and I don't see where the next batch is going to fill those shoes. Maybe they are there, and im way out of the loop. I was keeping up with you guys on one page on track and flipping to mine on another......over 25 matches this year and ive only got to watch on video feed.....im hurting:) You need me to show your kids a headthrow...LOL

[YOUTHCOACH16]

I suppose your probably right Mike, you have your finger on the pulse of it. I still believe there is a place for a Chattanooga program like we had, people don't have the money to travel all over the place and im talking depth. Something I mentioned to Coach Henry over the last couple of years was that sometimes it may not be good to have such dominate classes of kids back to back, your taking 8 years where Soddy had some of the top talent in the state. We had kids that could start for most other programs sitting on the sides and some eventually quit the sport. Now I look and the depth is gone and I don't see where the next batch is going to fill those shoes. Maybe they are there, and im way out of the loop. I was keeping up with you guys on one page on track and flipping to mine on another......over 25 matches this year and ive only got to watch on video feed.....im hurting:) You need me to show your kids a headthrow...LOL

 

Thats what Im saying, we still have the same number of local tournaments we always had. They are better now as we get more out of town kids. We also have beginners tournaments. The ones that do want to travel have it much easier than we did. You look at all the top wrestlers out of the last 15 years , all of them were traveling even way back then. The problem is some programs are slipping for various reasons and the rest of the state is getting better. We use to have the only game in town at the youth level and thats not the case anymore.  Our local teams that have to follow those middle school rules are under a huge disadvantage and will continue to suffer. There are a lot of new teams coming up the pipeline across the state that are going to be placing higher than the tradional Chattanooga powers in short time. Call me and we can discuss in more detail. You can come show a headthrow but you are NOT demonstarting on me! Im too old for broken ribs again! 

Edited February 3, 2014 by YOUTHCOACH16

[GBR]

Mike Sutherland and Josh Bosken run the best wrestling clubs in the state hands down. Baylor can not keep all of Sutherland's studs but if they could they would be unstoppable. Bosken does an incredible job in Cleveland and it has shown. Club wrestling creates great highschool teams. Baylor is lucky with their boarding situation but if it did not exist those kids would just move like they do for every other school in the state. Baylor is actually really challenged because of the cost of attendance and how difficult it is to get all the kids in that they would like to have on their HS team.

[Sommers]

Losing Dendy must have hurt, but gaining Murphy was a nice swap,  Clements didnt work out so well with injuries and all, but i suppose Manley did.  I have always been amused how many wrestlers have went from RB, to SD to Hixson to McCallie to Baylor and elsewhere.  Cleveland I know has had a few move-ins from McMinn, Gordon Co. Ga and a few others in recent years.  

 

Ryan and CBHS seems to try very hard to develop their talent as stated and it appears, BC, Cleveland, WV and Baylor are too. Losing Sutherland, Bosken and Bauke/House would be as significant as BC losing Al Morris a few years ago,,, We know the rest of the Story there, but again, not for long with a fighter like Ben Smith!!