Favorite State Tournament Memories

[maggie]

Good match.....thanks

[chucko]

One of my favorite memories took place about 10 years ago.  I pulled my jacket over my head after leaving a burger place downtown just before finals.  My cell phone fell out of my pocket and a young man came RUNNING after me saying, "Sir, you dropped your phone."

[Quack]

I have so many! It is awesome to get to know so many awesome kids that wrestle not he floor every year. Having them stop by my seats to chat and the coaches doing the same, is just awesome to me. Seeing my kids working the floor and hoping to wrestle there someday. It is hard for me to not wish for State to be here already, at this time of the year.

[DKelly28]

One of my favorite memories took place about 10 years ago.  I pulled my jacket over my head after leaving a burger place downtown just before finals.  My cell phone fell out of my pocket and a young man came RUNNING after me saying, "Sir, you dropped your phone."

Where did this take place at and what did the young man look like?

[chucko]

I left the burger joint and was walking back.  I passed the Nitty Gritty when I realized my phone was gone.  The young man caught up with me somewhere in between.  It was a dark red flip phone.  Good young man!...Maybe towards the entrance to the Kohl Center. 

[DKelly28]

I left the burger joint and was walking back.  I passed the Nitty Gritty when I realized my phone was gone.  The young man caught up with me somewhere in between.  It was a dark red flip phone.  Good young man!

Funny as this sounds, I think that was me! Ha I totally forgot about that until your previous post and then you saying you passed the Nitty Gritty when you realized it was gone cemented it for me as I remember now running on Frances St. south towards the Kohl Center with a red flip phone. If I'm remembering correctly, I was walking around downtown during the break before finals and saw the phone fall out, grabbed it and then ran to return it. I guess I blocked it out after watching Mike Lenzendorf win his state championship that night haha. I think I was wearing a maroon letterwinner's jacket, glasses and possibly a white St. Louis Cardinals baseball hat (or a maroon Prairie du Chien baseball hat).

[chucko]

You are a great human being!... I thank you for being so honest.  When I think of wrestling, I think of these types of situations...good people doing the right thing.   (Edit...)I went back and re-read your posts.  It most likely WAS you!  You were just a young whipper-snapper!  I  thank you!  I will pay it forward!....

[DKelly28]

You are a great human being!... Wether or not it was you...however this was before the finals.  Either way, I thank you for being so honest.  When I think of wrestling, I think of these types of situations...good people doing the right thing.  

It is definitely possible that I am mixing this up with something else but I'm almost 100% positive that it was me. I would have been 17 and a high school senior at the time (February 2005) so I was certainly a young man, I was in the general vicinity at the same time and I always try to do the right thing so the pieces definitely fit together. I was just glad to help return the phone. It was a very exciting weekend.

Here is a medium quality screen shot of me taken from my copy of the 04-05 pdc wrestling highlight dvd. from a few weeks prior at the SWAL Conference Tournament in Mineral Point. I'm wearing a white St. Louis baseball cap and a maroon Prairie Wrestling sweatshirt in the left-hand corner https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/p180x540/1620963_10101752712432298_1041494236_n.jpg?oh=887321e56b3527c8c11e6aa996fd8957&oe=558F9F8E&__gda__=1431226340_88b13e9e6e37e7cce13f6c9f5ce69f76

[chucko]

DKelly28... Thank you again!  My wife would have killed me if I lost that phone...I saw Mike L. win that night.  The match with Poehls should have been the finals!  Thanks again!

[DKelly28]

DKelly28... Thank you again!  My wife would have killed me if I lost that phone...I saw Mike L. win that night.  The match with Poehls should have been the finals!  Thanks again!

I was just glad I was able to catch it as it happened and was able to catch up to give it to you. I always try to pay it forward. You're right about that semifinal match between Mike and Joe Poehls of Medford, that was a heck of a match, 2 OTs but Chuck Madden of Abby-Colby also wrestled a great match in the finals against Mike that went 2 OTs as well. Very, very strong 275 pound class in D2 that year.

[WW_1995]

Although i have a pretty limited sample size of watching the state tournament (only been watching since 2010), some of my favorite memories were in the 2012 state tournament watching some of my teammates & best friends wrestle (Wausau West).

106: It was really cool watching Bee Lor make the state tournament and win some matches, especially after starting wrestling as a freshman, and nearly quitting freshman year. I believe he went 2-2 and fell short in the blood round to Leon who he had some battles with throughout his career.

126: I loved watching Joe Umlauf upset Justin Scherkenbach from Muskego in the semi finals.  They had wrestled at the Marty Loy finals earlier in the year and Scherkenbach won pretty handily, and in the first period he took Joe down with relative ease and I remember thinking to myself "Oh boy, Joe is gonna have a tough one here." but he gutted it out and came back tough to win in the OT Rideouts with a cradle and 2 NF. I remember i was going nuts.

120: Also watching Colin Baine upset Izzy Balsiger in the state finals was a pretty amazing experience.  I certainly had Izzy as the favorite, since he had handily defeated Colin 13-6 a week earlier, but Colin wrestled an awesome match and pulled out the win in a crazy SV scramble where I thought Izzy had him dead to rights.

[Brett Favre - R.I.P.]

1979 126 lb state final match between Jay Kidd (Lakeland) and Rucinski (DC Everest) back when there was only 1 division and a 32 man bracket.
The match went into overtime and Kidd won on a referee's decision.
Rucinski had beaten Kidd sophomore year to go to state and Kidd beat him 5 or 6 times since.

[littleguy301]

Not sure if this is a single moment but getting to meet some of the posters at state and then actually seeing and talking to them the next year and the years after.

Now I can say that I may have some friends though it is only once a year but I know each year I will get to see some of the great people of this forum and talk wrestling!!!!!!!

[imnofish]

Back in 1983, my father was still coaching wrestling in Illinois.  They finish their season a week ahead of Wisconsin, so he met me at the "old barn" in Madison and watched the Wisconsin State Tournament with me that year. 

[Jimmy]

Brett farve, I believe they used a twenty four man bracket not thirty two. Eight  sectional champs had first round free pass