Best TN Wrestler to Never Medal at the TSSAA Tournament

[WrestlingGod]

Thought I'd take the other topic one step further. There are a ton of previous medalists who are very deserving of a state championship who were never able to reach it. But there are even more who were never even able to reach the podium who were deserving.

 

I'll throw out my first name to start. As an Indy guy I nominate Matthew Gabriel.

 

Medal or no medal, he's hands down the best takedown artist I've ever seen live, ever. His senior year, again just missing a medal, the state runner up was from FRA at 140. Matt teched him the same year.

 

The craziest stat. His senior year he finished with 315 takedowns. On average that's around 9 a match.

Edited September 1, 2014 by WrestlingGod

[Sommers]

heard of 100 to 200 take down in a season but 300 is absolutely incredible!

 

shows how important having a complete game is to get on top of the podium or even a medal in d1 big schools with some luck After all you can do, combined with some determination to finish under Any circumstance... I would say 99 percent of the time it involves skill more than anything else though... lots of drilling and lots of desire is what makes that happen

Edited September 1, 2014 by Sommers

[theprophet]

This may be the dumbest thing I've ever read if you can't get atleast one Tennessee medal and you weren't injury plagued you aren't very good.

[WrestlingGod]

This may be the dumbest thing I've ever read if you can't get atleast one Tennessee medal and you weren't injury plagued you aren't very good.

Not true. I know you're just coming on here trying to start drama but just because you don't medal doesn't mean you were bad. I have a personal friend I wrestled with in hs, he was good, never medaled. Now he's a bjj world champion and professional mma fighter. I never medaled, I wrestled in college. I have a brother who never medaled, he wrestled on the Marine Corps team. Tell Matt he sucks cause he never medaled, guarantee he'd put on a takedown clinic.

[GBR]

Not true. I know you're just coming on here trying to start drama but just because you don't medal doesn't mean you were bad. I have a personal friend I wrestled with in hs, he was good, never medaled. Now he's a bjj world champion and professional mma fighter. I never medaled, I wrestled in college. I have a brother who never medaled, he wrestled on the Marine Corps team. Tell Matt he sucks cause he never medaled, guarantee he'd put on a takedown clinic.

Where did you wrestle?

[maj]

This may be the dumbest thing I've ever read if you can't get atleast one Tennessee medal and you weren't injury plagued you aren't very good.

 

In today's format and in D-2 I agree with you. But a few years ago in the D-1 pull through brackets of old, some very good guys stumbled then never got another chance. Once example I remember well was some kid wrestling Jake Young really tough, he loses a close match then Jake has to injury forfeit his next match so a kid who likely could have medaled doesn't get to wrestle again.

[cbg]

In today's format and in D-2 I agree with you. But a few years ago in the D-1 pull through brackets of old, some very good guys stumbled then never got another chance. Once example I remember well was some kid wrestling Jake Young really tough, he loses a close match then Jake has to injury forfeit his next match so a kid who likely could have medaled doesn't get to wrestle again.

Since the public/private split and with each division placing 6 wrestlers and having double elimination I question how good someone is if they are healthy and don't place in the Tennessee State Wrestling Tournament.  Now if you want to go back to the years of a combined state tournament that did not have double elimination, if you lost your opponent had to make to the finals for you to stay alive and only four wrestlers placed I get your point. Let's be honest and say both divisions and now three divisions are watered down and lack any type of depth.  The top two or three wrestlers may be strong but the remaining placers are very modest in ability.  I will say it again, if California can have one state championship for wrestling there is no reason for Tennessee to have three divisions.  Place everyone back together and we will find out who the true studs are in Tennessee. My opinion is that we have some soft people in both D1 & D2 that want nothing to do with having everyone back together because "Little Johnny" not only would not place in the state but would have a difficult time making it to the "Big Show" we call a state tournament. 

Edited September 4, 2014 by cbg

[maj]

Since the public/private split and with each division placing 6 wrestlers and having double elimination I question how good someone is if they are healthy and don't place in the Tennessee State Wrestling Tournament.  Now if you want to go back to the years of a combined state tournament that did not have double elimination and only placed four wrestlers I get your point. Let's be honest and say both divisions and now three divisions are watered down and lack any type of depth.  The top two or three wrestlers may be strong but the remaining placers are very modest in ability.  I will say it again, if California can have one state championship for wrestling there is no reason for Tennessee to have three divisions.  Place everyone back together and we will find out who is a true stud in Tennessee. 

 

We are saying essentially the same thing. I always felt the talent fell off real fast after 2nd place in D-2, and I suspect it will be as bad or worse in the A-AA class. Unequal distribution of talent in D-1 creates situations where some decent guys may not even get to states. Many examples of guys not placing high enough in region 3 or 4 to qualify for states but who would be finalists in some of the other regions. It happens, don't really have any solution , more of an observation.

[WrestlingGod]

Where did you wrestle?

MTSU

[neylandbryant]

I completely agree that Tennessee should have a "masters" tournament en route or in preparation for the high school nationals in Virginia Beach in march. As for the topic at hand I am confused why there is two threads on the same issue...hopefully instead of a debate we would have a celebration of the great wrestling talent that has been born and bred in Tennessee and performed admirably on the mat in high school as well as college. With that being said, there are many deserving candidates that warrant discussion. I think this AND the other thread list some amazing candidates. I am sure there are many more that should also be considered. Great thread topic to start the season....IMHO the best should be the ones who proved themselves on a national stage or a stage that may be considered superior to our high school state tournament so they're not defined by the 2nd or 3rd week in February. Guys like Patton, Crane, Kelsey, Smith, Allen and Boone deserve consideration as well as those who crossed over into other sports and may not have wrestled in college...Great conversation and obviously tons of respect for those who did win a title and made the most of that moment.

[GBR]

MTSU

oh

[shaner10]

I know a guy that had a pretty good run back in the late 80's. He went to Father Ryan and took 2nd twice. His last name was Gobbell. I heard he was decent during his time. I can't say if he is one of the best to never win a title or not because I was to young to know at the time but I've heard he was pretty good.