Division I- Division II Split

[takedown3]

So, to be a "true" state champion, are now imposing a residency requirement? What if you aren't born in Tennessee?

[Guest cole703]

Slingshot,

 

The fans pay their money to attend the state tournament so that they may see the best wrestlers compete against each other. Yes Tennessee does deserve to see everyone together for 1 (one) individual (traditional) state tournament. You have wrestlers placing in the tournament today that would have been hard pressed to place in the district tournament in years past. The competition in both divisions has been diluted and needs a shot in the arm. The parents, coaches and adminstrators are the only people that want two (2) divisions. I assume that they want to go pound their chest and sing to anyone that will lisiten that little Johnny won the state championship. What they don't tell you is that little Johnny lost by tech fall to the 4th place finisher from the other division. All of the wrestlers that I have spoken with want to win a unified state championship and feel that they could do so. It seems that the only thing standing in their way is a group of self centered adults (with which most have never wrestled a match but have lived through some high school wrestler) that are scared to strap it on and take the competition to a new level.

[dblXface]

Kid's (and their parents) are going to gravitate to a successful program - regardless of the DI or II.

I've coached in DI since the 80's, first at a public school and later in a private one (a handfull of these exist -at least for the next two years).

 

Elite wrestlers practice year round in open practice rooms, camps, leagues, etc. They don't refuse to drill or go in live rounds with a partner because of what Division they belong to during the school year. They look for every opportunity to get better. When Rusty Blackmon and Matt Keller went to Senior Nationals, they didn't forfeit matches to competitors from private schools. I once asked the best wrestler I had coached to that point what camps he recommended at the end of his career and his answer was..."the camp where you get the ____ beat out of you. I was always better after one of those".

If you want to get better and be THE best you go where the best are and you wrestle them.

Why does California get to send 8 in each weight class to the Nationals? Because they've got 800 wrestling programs competing for one title.

If you have experienced TN wrestling for at least fifteen years you've seen the quality and participation go up ending with two state championship teams and 28 individual state champions - several of whom are undefeated wrestling guys from multiple states but never meeting the other state champion from Tennessee. There is way too much water under the bridge to bring it back the way it was. In two years I'll be a DII coach for the first time - but the only change in my schedulling will be that the State Championship goes for two days instead of three.

I agree with the previous poster that said if you want the quality and overall strength of TN wrestling to improve then stop typing and get involved with a youth program.

[babybearmom]

So once more we are mired in the same tired arguements and reduced to name calling. Why doesn't someone offer up a unification tournament at the end of the state tourney? It would only mean one more match and I'm sure that the boys would love to prove themselves the "real" state champion, not to mention the money this would bring in.

[PUMMELKING]

One thing parents are not thinking about when they now decide to send their kids-athletes to a DII school is travel time.

If the split happens and a family that is not well to do, in money has sent their children to represent the private schools, how will they be ablt to ever see them compete. It wont be like going across town to see their son wrestle the local rivalry!!!

No-far from it, now they will have to spend alot of their hard earned money to travel across the state or even states to have the privledge of watching them compete. All while their neighbors and friends-families will be going to the school every friday for games and matches during the week to see their loved ones going against the long time rivals and tradition that has been set forth from years past.

Just a thought for some parents before sending kids away to the private sector this day and time.

[dblXface]

Babybearmom,

 

I apologize if you took my mentioning Rusty and Matt as name calling. I've enjoyed following their careers and they represent TN in the best light at Okie St. and Nebraska respectively. What I was trying to convey is that both of them would wrestle anyone, anywhere, anytime (and they still do). Bradley has a policy about their schedulling and that is certainly their option. I would just prefer a unified State Tournament.

[Guest hipyou]

Bad analogy slingshot. The best tennis player in Tennessee goes to a DI school, Hillsboro, and guess what? He hasn't won the state the last two or three years. Know why? Because the competition is so weak (no slight on the players intended, they know) he hasn't competed. He travels for his matches so he can face better players. Usually in Europe during states I believe. Funny how the good ones always search out tough competition.

[mjgIII]

You're close Hip. You are thinking of Brian Baker from Hillwood. Won DI AAA state singles title in 2000. But yes, he would have won it in '01, '02, and '03 (though he might have graduated, I think this is his senior year). You're premise is correct, however. Baker is not only the state, he's the best in the nation. Offered at Stanford or really anywhere he wants to go, he might go pro instead. Hasn't decided last I heard. DI guy, not private school, doesn't compete locally because he wants, and needs, better competition.

[slingshot]

Good grief. It's called an analogy. And it is absolutely accurate for the point being made. Of course there will always be exceptions to any logic. Here, you're using a Tennessee student who is the best in the United States? How often does this happen? (most years, who has the dominant tennis programs, DI or DII?....can we muster a little honesty here?)

 

You're not unlike the smoking advocates who cite the eighty-five year old who has smoked two packs of cigarettes per day for seventy years yet is alive and well. Does this change the fact that cigarettes kill thousands each year? Seat belts save lives, yet every anti-belt wearer can cite the case where the car landed upside down in a creek and if the driver had been wearing a seatbelt, he surely would have drowned.

 

Give me a break. The problem with the DI-DII subject is that we dance around the obvious and ignore the facts of the matter. Did the earlier poster really think that I was suggesting that a person must be born in Tn. to compete for a title? Of course not. Just another poor attempt at mis-direction to avoid having to post anything original.

[babybearmom]

Dblxface, didn't take it that way at all. It wasn't intended toward your comment. It just seems to me that DI and DII are on opposite sides of the Grand Canyon and throwing stones at each other.

I personally would love to see 1 state champ at each weight class.

[cbg]

hipyou,

 

You are wrong on the best tennis player in Tennessee. The best player is Brian Baker and he attends Hillwood High School. You were correct on the other facts!!!

[realsoccer]

The trouble with your "analogy" is that it wasn't. You were attempting to point out that a couple of foreign students are very good and can beat most of Tennessee's public and private (for that matter) tennis players this year.

 

Dalton came to Chattanooga over the weekend and beat everyone but Knox Catholic. All but one of their players is Latino. Do you think we shouldn't let them play because all their players are imported. After all, introducing that level of competition might make us all feel bad about ourselves. Do you think the guys from Tullahoma felt worse getting beat 3-0 by Chattanooga Christian, a private school, or by Dalton 8-0. Of course CCS has no scholarship athletes but might recruit. On the the other hand, Dalton is public but almost the entire team is from south of the border and I don't mean the state line.

 

Maybe we shouldn't let our public school students play soccer players from Latin America. After all, they grew up playing the game and that just wouldn't be fair.

[Edited by realsoccer on 4-14-03 9:40A]