Alabama individuals state tournament

[best_of_the_west]

If anyone is interested, I found a link to the Alabama individuals results (last weekend).

 

http://www.alabamawrestling.com/Event/Resu...s2004/index.htm

 

Grissom won 6A. Homewood won 5A. Weaver won 1-4A. Here's a big surprise...Seth Garvin won his 4th state title. If any of you remember the Spain Park 130 from Bradley who was so impressive, his name was Matt Bell, and he won the state title. There is also a kid in the small school division named Michael Sutton who won his 6th...that's right...his 6th state title. Check it out. You may see some familiar names. It was interesting to see that Hartselle finished 2nd in 5A. MBA beat them at Kenwood, but there were a lot of good matches.

[WrestleSBA]

Good to see those Grissom kids still having success down there. I hope they keep coming on up to wrestle with us at Black Horse. And could you imagine a 6 time state champion? I know I couldn't. I mean 4 is hard enough. That means he must have won it in seventh grade... that's just scary, I hope he wrestles in college somewhere.

Edited February 5, 2004 by WrestleSBA

[CoachDelgado]

Grissom used a lot of team strength to win their title. They had no champions but were still able to win the championship. Great job Coach Desaro. We look forward to seeing you guys at Houston in December.

[BamaGrappler]

best of the west-

Thanks! I was going to post a link here --- just hadn't done it yet. (Resting from the high school season, I guess. )

 

6A - Grissom won. First time in a looooong time (I can't even remember the last time that happened) that they only had 1 guy to make it into the Championship Finals....and he finished 2nd. Everyone (well, almost everyone....not me or the GrissomNation) thought they were out of the team race when we left the arena Friday night. They won the team title with no individual champs. Vestavia Hills put up a good fight for it. They suffered a couple of surprising losses that made their run at it even more difficult. Spain Park had Matt Bell (now 3x State Champ) and Musa Shunnarah (now 3x State Champ) to help lead a new school to great heights. Defending champion Hoover, with a young team, wrestled without 3 of their starters (one of which was a returning State Champion). Good show. Good tournament.

 

5A - Homewood won. I think everyone except Homewood was surprised (including me). For the 2nd year in a row, they were without a returning State Champion (last year it was Forrest Millsap). This year, Trent Dotson (145) suffered a concussion at Sectionals one week earlier and was not cleared by the doctor to wrestle at State. Seth won his 4th and pinned his opponent in the first period with a 'surfboard' type move (no hands and looking up at the Homewood crowd...smiling because with the pin, he knew the team had won). Everyone thought it would be a 3 team race between Hartselle, Homewood, and Gardendale. All 3 crowds were tracking team points through each round for all 3 teams. No one considered Brookwood until Saturday morning (Brookwood was leading after Friday night). Scottsboro was the real shocker though. They finished in 3rd place (to Hartselle in 2nd) by a half-point. Scottsboro only qualified 8 guys...and only 7 of them scored team points. Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't make excuses, so don't take this as such (just consider it FYI): There was one official who denied Scottsboro's 152 pounder of a pin in the Consolation Finals. (There is at least one pic available online.) Scottsboro guy had his opponent stuck (and I mean STUCK) in a spladle for 40-45 seconds. The official was all over the mat, looking, checking, counting, whatever --- and stops the match. He called it potentially dangerous, awarded 2 td and 2 nf, and started them over in the center. The Sboro kid thought he had called the fall. When he told them to get set, he questioned it. The official told him it was a potentially dangerous hold. Sboro kid (who should have kept his mouth shut) said he could have put the guy's leg behind his head completely and still been legal and there was nothing potentially dangerous about it. The official then promptly deducted a team point for 'arguing'. After the match, the backup official even questioned the calling official on it. He agreed with the rest of the gym, told him it was legal (even named the move as the spladle), and questioned why he stopped it. The official's response was, "Oh, really? I didn't recognize it." (After 45 seconds and bouncing all over the mat looking at the kid's shoulders from every possible angle??) Jeez. Sboro also lost a team point --- oddly enough, from the same official that called the 152 consolation match --- for Michael Cuthbertson (now 4x State Champ) going down to the mat with a Scottsboro Wrestling t-shirt on over his singlet. Keep in mind, he didn't report to the head table to 'check in', and all wrestlers/scorers/officials are instructed to hold all matches until the conclusion of the previous matches on all 3 mats. (They run 3 mats for the 3 classifications simultaneously. All weights progress at the same time.) It happened throughout the tournament with kids reporting to the table still in warm-ups or t-shirts or shorts. Several would even go to the mat, get the ankleband, go to their coaches corner, and put on the ankleband while removing the warm-ups or whatever. The official cited Michael for 'failure to report to the mat in proper attire to wrestle'. Michael waited until the conclusion of the 4A match (last one running). He then shed the shirt/shorts and reported to the table. Before his match, the opponent was awarded 1 match point and the team was deducted of 1 team point. Again, Jeez.

 

4A - Weaver won. There weren't many teams who challenged for 1st...most were fighting for 2nd. Michael Sutton won his 6th title and finished with a career of somewhere around 251 wins and not many losses. I think his last loss was in his 8th grade year. There were good matches here too.

 

Overall, a good tournament. Definitely the most competitive teamwise that I've seen in a long time.

[Sommers]

Sounds exciting!!

 

I wonder how breaking schools up into several classes, based on size and sources of funding, doesn't create even more controversy over who really is the best team in the state? And what wrestlers get the most attention by being recruited by the top schools in the nation? Is it the wresters from the larger schools that gets the big scholarships?

 

soms

Edited February 5, 2004 by Sommers

[pokey]

Why are you looking for a problem all the time? No one says that classifications are a problem in any other sport. Just be happy for the kids that won. Would the Sutton kid have been a 6 time state champ in 5 or 6 A? No, but ask him if he wishes he could give up one or two of his state titles so a bunch of has beens could call him the "true state champ". I doubt it!!! The reason classifications exists is to group teams together that are competing with the same advantages. If the idea of a TRUE champion is so important then why have weight classes? Why? Because it make good sence, that's why! Our sport needs promotion not complaining. Maybe we could channel our energy to help promote our sport.

[BayouBear]

Amen brother

[Sommers]

Amen brother

Amen to what? To controversy? I predict increased controversy once more classes or divisions are added. Adding a runner-up in the dual championships would be neat, but more classes won't fix anything in wrestling. You will never make everyone happy, so why make things more complicated trying?

 

soms

Edited February 5, 2004 by Sommers

[BayouBear]

I'm sorry Sommers but you are completly missing the point.

 

Ask your son if he cares. There are just too many fans who want to find the baddest dog in town without asking the dogs what they think.

 

I'm a fan. I love a great match. But that means nothing when we are discussing LEVEL and FAIR competition.

[Sommers]

I'm sorry Sommers but you are completly missing the point.

 

Ask your son if he cares. There are just too many fans who want to find the baddest dog in town without asking the dogs what they think.

 

I'm a fan. I love a great match. But that means nothing when we are discussing LEVEL and FAIR competition.

BayouBear,

 

How many user names do you have? Do you, by chance, have an interest in rankings and perhaps have any influence on what is reported?

 

I think you're more than just a fan... You're into reporting your opinions to the public which could influence the wrestling community and the wrestlers themselves. Perhaps you should have another user name and identity.

 

But, you're not looking to make your job easier are you? If so, you're in for a rude awakening.

 

And who are you to try to influence the whole landscape of our great sport and what it has become statewide?

 

Wrestling is such an individual sport, let's not make things more complicated and subjective, like who would win if all five or six divisions were combined and all 14 weight classes.

 

I'd back off this subject if I were you. It will be a nightmare trying to keep balance and equity.

 

soms

Edited February 5, 2004 by Sommers

[gofish]

Amen, soms

[mjgIII]

"...without asking the dogs what they think."

 

Hey, I've asked the dogs. Never had one say they are for the split or more classes or complain about unfair competition. You must deal with different dogs. I think I'd sort of be embarrassed if a wrestler said to me that it was unfair for him to have to wrestle another guy because the other guy went to a bigger school. I was part of a middle school conference that was divided into A and AA based on size. My team was always, and will always be, the smallest school. My kids used to hate placing first in A when they knew they could win the whole thing. Thankfully, they have done away with that crap and we are all together.