Top 10 Head Coaches Power Rankings

[Mason422]

12 hours ago, TotallynotLEO said:

I don't think so. We just run is similar circles. We'll probably see you guys this year at the end of the season though.  

First beer's on me. 

Looking forward to it 

[RMC]

19 hours ago, cbg said:

There is a lot of difference between having a few good individuals and having a great (Top 50) team.  Unless you reside in one of the top 5 wrestling states a team must become road warriors if they want to crack the Top 50 on a consistent basis.  IMO, money helps with travel, technique instruction, college kids that train with the high school kids and coaching.  The annual budget for a Top 50 program would be a minimum of $50K and that would include the youth program and high school team.  It's not free to run a successful wrestling program but kids only get better when they train and compete against the very best kids.  A majority of the teams in the Top 50 that are not in one of the top 5 wrestling states have a "SUGAR DADDY" that fund 80% of the program.  Money will not purchase kids that have a big heart that want to outwork the competition and get better.  

cbg...You are correct.  

We had a team ranked #7....lost to Blair Academy by 3...........initial budget in the early years was $40k and I think at the peak of the run the budget was probably double that.  

We built a large booster club that included parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, elementary, and middle school parents.  One fundraiser we did that was new to me was a "Patrons Walk."  The wrestlers would wear their team shirt and go into the neighborhoods around the school hand out the schedule for the upcoming year and ask for donations.  The simple walk brought in $3K - $5K per year.

Heck the coach even had me email Mr. Jones and ask for a donation....which he replied he didn't donate to private schools.  I introduced myself at the Cleveland Duals and let him know we were a public school.  He asked if he and his son could meet Kyle Maynard and I left that to Coach Ramos.  I have no idea if we ever received a donation.   

Edited June 15, 2023 by RMC

[cobrakid8]

On 6/14/2023 at 2:57 PM, cbg said:

There is a lot of difference between having a few good individuals and having a great (Top 50) team.  Unless you reside in one of the top 5 wrestling states a team must become road warriors if they want to crack the Top 50 on a consistent basis.  IMO, money helps with travel, technique instruction, college kids that train with the high school kids and coaching.  The annual budget for a Top 50 program would be a minimum of $50K and that would include the youth program and high school team.  It's not free to run a successful wrestling program but kids only get better when they train and compete against the very best kids.  A majority of the teams in the Top 50 that are not in one of the top 5 wrestling states have a "SUGAR DADDY" that fund 80% of the program.  Money will not purchase kids that have a big heart that want to outwork the competition and get better.  

I don't think people realize this and the difference it makes, being a 501C The Higher Calling Wrestling club is a non profit organization so their tax postings are available online as are most of the other wrestling clubs. So far for the one's I have seen Higher Calling is around 50K just for Higher calling itself RMC, it's been down since Covid hit of course but that is still a VERY strong youth level commitment. That's a very strong commitment from their local sources, so yeah they have somewhat a sugar daddy who provided a million dollar plus complex for them to train and get better in for both youth and the high school team, but they also have community foundations that also give a good amount of grant money to their program. So when you say top 50 programs would require a min for both youth and high at 50k Cleveland does that with just their youth program. I know Soddy isnt anywhere close to that, heck prob with both their high school and youth programs combined. I know a few of those I found with their tax filings were in 10-20k range at best with youth programs. I mean before Covid hit they were in the 100k range for a year, that was before Covid and I think before Boom Ranch was started with Mr. Chittum. So yes that allows for a good amount of travel, going to the best tournaments and being able to provide the coaches the ability to do so. Also as we have seen with Alabama in football, those that win usually reap the rewards of that because others want to follow suit. The kids and parents see how good higher calling is and want to join them as youth, they see how the high school is and for kids moving from out of state into TN they want to go to Cleveland. They have built an amazing program over there and it's been a site to see from someone that absolutely hated Bradley back in the day for all that they built and usually beat Soddy for a chance to wrestle for the state title, but they have no ratcheted that up a notch. 

[cobrakid8]

On 6/14/2023 at 1:36 PM, Mason422 said:

This may be a little long but I will do my best to answer. To answer your question directly I think the average kid can be successful if they are willing to put in the work.  Having said that they will need dedicated parents, decent partners and a very good coach.  
 

I attribute Hunters success to this. We moved to an area that had a super good coach. “Joe Kemmerer”. Hunter held back in 8th grade and a kid from NC did the same and stayed at our house most of the year.  Those two along with Joe did a 3 hr private everyday, took an hour break then did a 2 hr club practice. There were times they was beaten up but they pushed through it and made huge jumps in their wrestling ability. 
 

Hunter starts HS and Randy Shelton and Atlas Fagundes gave him everything he needed and more. Got him into the best HS tournaments in the county and provided a tough room. They always gave him and others the option to leave practice early to go To club.  After Joe left, ”us hammer parents” mostly Rick Jacobs recruited Nahshon Garrett to run club and Hunter made another level jump. So hard work isn’t the only answer in my opinion, you must have good coaching and dedication from the parents and kids. 
 

Most of Hunters HS schedule was as follows. Leave the house at 5am to lift before school, do HS practice, run by the house grab a quick bite then drive an house to Kingsport to practice, return home around 9pm eat do homework and repeat.  Most kids aren’t willing to put that kind of Quality work in. 
 

a lot of people just quote hard work but it has to be quality hard work and Hunter was blessed to have quality coaches that cared about him. 
 

Hunter wasn’t ever naturally gifted as a wrestler. Heck his first year he got pinned almost every match.  It wasn’t until he completely dedicated himself that he started having success. If you ask him today he would still say he wasn’t good enough and he has to get better.  It’s his mindset that has helped him have a little bit of success in wrestling. 
 

we aren’t sure if he will start right away or not.  He’s doing very good in the room and Robie told him to be ready to go straight in. I trust the coaches completely and know they will do what’s best for him and the team.  I think Hunter would like to redshirt, but would also do whatever the coaches ask of him.  Thanks a bunch for keeping up with my boy. 
 

Sid
 

 

Very much need dedicated parents(as proven by you and your family), coaches and even a community as a whole for the kids to be successful. That is what Cleveland does well, they have all of that including a community that comes out in masse to watch them wrestle and support them. 

 

I will say, I grew up with one of the greatest coaches in TN History with Coach Steve Henry, he was great with the little details that helped us to be some really good teams and some really good wrestlers. I've always found it funny that sometimes the best wrestlers though still cannot teach the sport. Henry will tell you himself he was a middling wrestler at best at Red Bank but he just knew how to build a program(and build he did because Soddy had not won a thing before he took over) and he knew how best to get the best out of every kid that wrestled under him. He built Soddy into a name that maybe didnt win the state titles that others did, but you knew when you heard the name and they were coming to your gym to wrestle you had a fight on your hands. He was a good clinician although I've worked with those that were better like Shane Turner, but somehow he always knew how to get the best out of us. 

 

As far as your son not being naturally gifted as a wrestler I would have to say somewhat BS, hard work can only get you so far and I've seen MANY that were naturally gifted that didn't even work that hard absolutely kill those that worked their butts off. I was the same way in which I woke up at 5-5:30 and went and worked out every morning before school, did school and right to practice after that. I would have guys stay after practice and take turns absolutely kicking my butt, as I would stay in the middle and once one of them got tired another would jump on in and do that for hours. I also would go to McCallie at the time and did freestyle and greco(although TN wasnt as well known with anything out of folkstyle back in those days) but I would go to McCallie and roll around with some of the best from TN and north GA. In the end I still pretty much sucked as a wrestler as much as I wanted and worked to be good. I was a better coach than a wrestler and I just liked sports overall and wanted to participate. So I'm pretty sure he was naturally gifted although he was prob just very raw before that hard work kicked in and he became dominate! 

 

Wish him all the luck in the world and congrats to you and family for pushing him to be his best as having parents that are willing to put that work in can be hard to find and truly you have given your son the best of you and that has allowed him to succeed.  Coached quite a few kids in a sport other than wrestling that if they had parents like you they could have also done some very good things with their sport, but the parent's actually sadly held them back and thus they missed practices, sometimes games and it wasnt because they working sacrificing themselves with 2 jobs or so to provide, they literally didnt care for the sport and thus didnt put the time and energy into their kids to get the best out of them. Congrats to Hunter and you and cannot wait to see what he has in store for him in life!

[Mason422]

On 6/16/2023 at 11:14 AM, cobrakid8 said:

Very much need dedicated parents(as proven by you and your family), coaches and even a community as a whole for the kids to be successful. That is what Cleveland does well, they have all of that including a community that comes out in masse to watch them wrestle and support them. 

 

I will say, I grew up with one of the greatest coaches in TN History with Coach Steve Henry, he was great with the little details that helped us to be some really good teams and some really good wrestlers. I've always found it funny that sometimes the best wrestlers though still cannot teach the sport. Henry will tell you himself he was a middling wrestler at best at Red Bank but he just knew how to build a program(and build he did because Soddy had not won a thing before he took over) and he knew how best to get the best out of every kid that wrestled under him. He built Soddy into a name that maybe didnt win the state titles that others did, but you knew when you heard the name and they were coming to your gym to wrestle you had a fight on your hands. He was a good clinician although I've worked with those that were better like Shane Turner, but somehow he always knew how to get the best out of us. 

 

As far as your son not being naturally gifted as a wrestler I would have to say somewhat BS, hard work can only get you so far and I've seen MANY that were naturally gifted that didn't even work that hard absolutely kill those that worked their butts off. I was the same way in which I woke up at 5-5:30 and went and worked out every morning before school, did school and right to practice after that. I would have guys stay after practice and take turns absolutely kicking my butt, as I would stay in the middle and once one of them got tired another would jump on in and do that for hours. I also would go to McCallie at the time and did freestyle and greco(although TN wasnt as well known with anything out of folkstyle back in those days) but I would go to McCallie and roll around with some of the best from TN and north GA. In the end I still pretty much sucked as a wrestler as much as I wanted and worked to be good. I was a better coach than a wrestler and I just liked sports overall and wanted to participate. So I'm pretty sure he was naturally gifted although he was prob just very raw before that hard work kicked in and he became dominate! 

 

Wish him all the luck in the world and congrats to you and family for pushing him to be his best as having parents that are willing to put that work in can be hard to find and truly you have given your son the best of you and that has allowed him to succeed.  Coached quite a few kids in a sport other than wrestling that if they had parents like you they could have also done some very good things with their sport, but the parent's actually sadly held them back and thus they missed practices, sometimes games and it wasnt because they working sacrificing themselves with 2 jobs or so to provide, they literally didnt care for the sport and thus didnt put the time and energy into their kids to get the best out of them. Congrats to Hunter and you and cannot wait to see what he has in store for him in life!

Thanks for the kind words and keeping up with him.  Hoping he does TN proud in college and beyond.  

[cbg]

Allow me to add to my previous comments about having a minimum budget of $50K to become a Top 50 program.  If the school has the influence within the community to get the club coach a job in the school system it allows for the dollars to be stretched.  If the head club coach is a teacher at an elementary school where they get off work at 3pm everyday and have both weekends, holidays and summer off it really helps.  The starting salaries for teachers in most areas is around 45K plus you have medical, dental, vision and retirement.  With this the club only needs to pay a coaching stipend and not the entire salary for the club coach.  It also affords the club coach to make substantially more money by doing camps and private lessons.  In many instances the club coach would have the opportunity to double their salary (tax free because we know that most do not pay income tax on side gigs) which in the end has them doing very well.

[cobrakid8]

On 6/17/2023 at 6:11 PM, Mason422 said:

Thanks for the kind words and keeping up with him.  Hoping he does TN proud in college and beyond.  

We don't have to agree for me to wish the best for your son and that us TN wrestling fans are proud of him!