Great Day of Wrestling

[South Coach]

I jumped on the forum earlier today to get up to speed with Regional weekend and build some excitement for the tournament series. I was kind of bummed when I started reading threads and they all seemed pretty negative so I thought I'd start one that is hopefully a lot more positive!

We hosted a Regional yesterday at Waukesha South and I thought it was a great day of wrestling. The tournament was run efficiently by our head table and the scorekeepers/timers did a great job all day long. Our parents once again did a great job taking care of the coaches/officials breakfast and lunch. The wrestlers, coaches, and officials were all polite to our tournament staff (one exception - a particular head coach was very rude to our trainer for "not being fast enough" and then later made some rude and unnecessary comments to one of our timekeepers). As was noted in some earlier threads on the forum, hosting a regional is not a money-maker and is often times kind of a thankless task so I thought I'd post on here as another way to say thank you to everyone involved with our program that helped to run a great tournament. We are blessed to have the wrestling community of friends/family/coworkers that we do.

As for the actual wrestling, the brackets were relatively full - 3 with 8 wrestlers, 6 with 7 wrestlers, and 4 with 6 wrestlers. Heavyweight only had 3 wrestlers but featured an amazing final between KM and Pewaukee where the KM wrestler hit an amazing hip-toss as time expired but did not get the points before the buzzer so he had to win it in the third OT.

There were other great finals matches as well as several great semi-final matches that went down to the wire. The 195 bracket featured 4 conference champions (Woodland 195 and 220, Greater Metro 195, and Classic 8 195). There were obviously a lot of upsets throughout the day as evident by the 20 wrestle-backs that needed to be wrestled.

There is my story from yesterday and even though we didn't end up winning the Regional I enjoyed the start of our State Tournament Series. Now let's hear from some others that enjoyed a great day of wrestling!

[imnofish]

Thanks for sharing something positive.  Sounds like your gym was a great place to be!

My wife and I took the long drive up to Ashland, traveling over snow/ice covered roads and braving windchills of approx. -30 degrees.  It was worth the drive, as we had the privilege of watching some hard-fought matches.  Numbers were light, with most weight classes having 4 or 5 wrestlers.  There were some good individuals and some great matches, but this tournament also allowed some inexperienced kids the opportunity to be competitive in at least one match during the day.  The field was pretty evenly matched, teamwise, with Rice Lake coming out on top.  Ashland did a great job of running the tournament, sportsmanship was good, and fans were respectful.  Overall, it was a good day for the sport of wrestling to make gains in the Northland.  We enjoyed it enough that we didn't mind the long drive home, either. 

[Fanoftakedowns]

At the Deerfield regional, something amazing happened during the lunch break. Nearly every wrestler went to a second gym and played about 20 minutes of dodgeball. No coaches, no refs, no sides... Just 40 Young men having a great game of dodgeball.  Wrestling stayed on the mat.  What a great sight it was. 

[South Coach]

Dodgeball - I love it although I probably would've yelled at my guys for fear of them getting hurt

Thanks for sharing, keep the stories coming

[maggie]

Here's a great story about how Wis wrestlings started........http://search.tb.ask.com/search/redirect.jhtml?action=pick&ct=GD&qs=&searchfor=DAN+PERNAT++WRESTLING+COACH&cb=ZX&pg=GGmain&p2=%5EZX%5Exdm427%5ES11870%5Eus&n=780d0d57&qid=6caeff3b9e13474cbd12f7554ee88e4e&pn=1&ss=sub&st=tab&ptb=5AD20935-9831-4619-AA37-96A9A7E70A0A&tpr=sbt&si=CMyt-_r2w8ICFREdaQodfJkACw&redirect=mPWsrdz9heamc8iHEhldEc6Gr8qymT6veOtHyqjcHP8dDyaH3Pk4fnXEIeof4BXPl4tpYHYarYYtXi1KP7cHtevh8GlkDaBspZ32GDzxP3c%3D&ord=6&;

[MarkK]

My favorite quote from that article was this one Maggie.

George believed in competition as a means of stimulating the fullest effort on the part of an individual. He commented to young wrestlers: "It is fine when a team can win; it is perhaps a good thing for all of us to lose on occasion too. But one of the goals of sports participation is to try to win. If a boy is not playing to win, he is missing one of the worthwhile values of participation; he is failing to get the most from the game and he is failing to put the most into it."

[maggie]

yes, a good one for sure, you are aware that our Coach wrestled for him right?, i recall him telling me what an outdoorsman he was and how he always took the team fishing with him...sad deal when he drowned while enjoying life as he did..

[mike]

Hey South Coach, it came full circle for me in your fieldhouse on Saturday.  Lots of great (some not so great  ) memories for me as a North wrestler in that great venue.  Now with our move to D1 I was able to watch my son compete at your place.  Very special day for me.  Fieldhouse looked awesome and you guys were great hosts.  And thanks for keeping Waukesha wrestling alive and strong

[South Coach]

Thanks for the kind words, mike. I had the opportunity to talk with kJohnson on Saturday morning and if you wrestled for him while you were at north I have a pretty good idea who your son might be. Very impressed with his combination of mat sense, quickness, power, etc.  He really has a good overall wrestling presence.

[MarkK]

yes, a good one for sure, you are aware that our Coach wrestled for him right?, i recall him telling me what an outdoorsman he was and how he always took the team fishing with him...sad deal when he drowned while enjoying life as he did..

Yes I knew that Maggie.  Thanks again for the article

[WrestlingCreaper]

The wrestling community as a whole is fantastic. People may lose their heads during matches at times but the scene yesterday left many with tears.

Warms my heart and makes you P R O U D to be part of a sport that comes together off the mat for another wrestling family. 

Nothing against the other sports that are played out there, but I know I'm most proud that my son took interest in the sport of Wrestling in 1st grade and has continued to grow as a person and loves the sport more every day.  And along that journey, making many, many, many friends we have met throughout the state and continue to see and say "HI" to when we see them - great, great sport hands down!

Good luck to all the Sectional Qualifiers in D1, D2 and D3 and hope to see you at State the following week.

[imnofish]

The wrestling community as a whole is fantastic. People may lose their heads during matches at times but the scene yesterday left many with tears.

Warms my heart and makes you P R O U D to be part of a sport that comes together off the mat for another wrestling family. 

Nothing against the other sports that are played out there, but I know I'm most proud that my son took interest in the sport of Wrestling in 1st grade and has continued to grow as a person and loves the sport more every day.  And along that journey, making many, many, many friends we have met throughout the state and continue to see and say "HI" to when we see them - great, great sport hands down!

Good luck to all the Sectional Qualifiers in D1, D2 and D3 and hope to see you at State the following week.

Thanks for a very positive post acknowledging the value of the big picture!  I know that my son still has many friends among his wrestling family, including past competitors (and he's 37).  His sons (ages 3 & 5) are just getting exposed to the sport and are becoming part of the local wrestling community.  I last competed in 1973 and I haven't coached since 1998; yet I still have many positive relationships among the wrestling community.  Some of them go back to my elementary school days in the early 60's and connect me to people in Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, California, Hawaii, and other states.  Wrestling cultivates a unique set of interpersonal connections that should be perpetuated and celebrated. 

[tess5]

let me guess it was the Johnson Creek group that got it started. last week at conference Creek and Dodgeland got the best game of sharks and minnows going ever the entire gym was playing it was awesome to watch

[WrestlingCreaper]

You're welcome IMNOFISH. 

last week at conference Creek and Dodgeland got the best game of sharks and minnows going ever the entire gym was playing it was awesome to watch

Some of those wrestlers, when they have some time on their hands, just like to be a kid again, have fun and let loose.

I heard there has been some "Duck, Duck Wrestler" games going on this year as well.

Nice break for them and then back to the hard work on the mat.

[Quack]

At the WCWA nationals in Missouri last weekend all the girls were out on the floor line dancing.