Get ready George Carson has a match tomorrow and Saturday then regionals or something like that in Birmingham ........ watch FB .. and thanks for helping him and Corey out.... a sport we know nothing about.
This is my wrestling experience. In middle school, they held try outs for the wrestling team. As my father can attest to, for some reason, those teachers at Vernon Jr High just hated me. That sounds crazy, but they did. Try outs were mandatory as part of the PE program. They gave us a quick walk through on scoring, holds, escapes etc. Then they just turned us loose. I beat every guy I faced. The coach then put me against guys in higher weight classes and I beat them. I didn't really know what I was doing. The thing is, I've always had a profane level of lower body strength. You know those pictures of 'don't skip leg day!'? Well, I'm the exact opposite of that. I could always escape. I had okay upper body strength, but all I ever needed was to get a hold on you and then use my legs to drive you straight into the mat. It was over. I may not get the pin, but I'd get the take down and you were stuck for the rest of the round. Anyway, my folks will remember David Guillory. He was a heavy weight. I think I may have weighed 150 in middle school.. maybe. Dave weighed 230 at least back then. Anywho, he's an asshole. The coach put me up against him and twice he did this 'flop' kind of thing. It was more of a pounce than anything and it took me a while to catch my wind. When I finally turtled that bastard (statement of fact, not name calling), he started scratching me. I stood up with him latched onto me and slammed him into the mat. The coach warned me that was illegal, but I did it again a second time. I have anger issues. They didn't cut me, but they never took me to any of the matches. I thought that was weird because I never lost (aside from my DQ against the heavyweight David) and all the guys I beat easily were on the team. The high school I went to didn't have wrestling until my senior year. I messed around with them at practice and the Coach was all excited until we realized that I was still ineligible due a disciplinary school thing from the previous quarter. That sucked because I thought it would have been fun. I love watching my son's matches, but it can be frustrating. I would have killed to have his size. Then again, given my temperament, it's probably best for everyone that I didn't. He's really the nicest damned kid I've ever seen. I loved the 2 weeks of wrestling that I got to do. Every shitty kid who had been mean to me, or gang banger that you can't touch because the school will suspend you and then his homies will all jump you... I got to beat that kid's ass into the ground and it was legal. You can leg lock someone and crank them into a half Nelson until you actually hear their joints popping AND IT'S LEGAL! My son has every right in the world to hate everyone and he just doesn't. It's really wonderful to see and I'm absolutely blessed to have such a great child. Still, it's frustrating.. His brother and I joke about it all the time, that we just want him to 'tap into the hate.. just a little bit.' At the same time, we're kind of afraid of what will happen if he does.
I' m not sure how much help I have been but I can advise him from the point of view of a wrestler who was asked to compete and had no serious formal training They say fresh paint covers past sins. In wrestling aggressiveness covers a lack of experience. If I can be of any help until he gets the mat experience he needs I am happy to help. When the going gets tough, don't forget the technique "The Waterboy" used in the movie. I' m not joking. Find your own motivation and use it. There are moments where that is all you got.
last night was a very bad night. The kids wrestled against James Clemens and Austin, both of them are good programs. Austin always has athletes and this is one of the few sports in which they have good instruction. Clemens is the new Madison school with a ton of money and a bunch of kids. The largest HS in the state of Alabama was Bob Jones in Madison. 5 years ago, they split Bob Jones and created James Clemens. Now Bob Jones is still the 5th largest school in the state and Clemens is the 32nd largest. Clemens has all the room for growth though and will probably be larger than Bob Jones in 3 years. Yes, it's growing that fast. Anyway, they have great coaches, great program etc. It was to be a big night for the program, and a good money night at the door. It was standing room only in the seating areas... and Decatur just shat the bed. With the exception of our heavyweight, Ben Berry, we lost in every single classification. We have 4 guys on our team who just never lose, but lost both matches last night. Our coach has been pretty laid back since he knows this is all learning on the go, but I understand the boys had a 'come to Jesus' conditioning practice at 5:30am this morning. Most of our losses were just stupid. That's fine when Carson loses stupid, everyone knows he doesn't know what he's doing... but even in Carson's match, he had the guy and made a bone head mistake that he knows better to pull. Our best wrestler is a kid named Tobias who conceded every escape. He wanted to go for the big take down pin. He gave up 5 escapes for 5 points in a match that he lost 8-7. He did something very similar in his other match losing by 2 in a match in which he just gave away 5 points. It was a very frustrating night. I overheard Coach Mast (their coach) basically calling out the heart of every guy on the team before he admitted 'You obviously were not in good enough shape. That's my fault. We're going to start fixing that first thing in the morning.' Most all the dads have played sports, and we all just hid our faces to hide the laughter because we knew those kids are going to really have a bad morning.
Sid is correct. My son Adam wrerstled for our local high school at 145. He was ripped and strong for his size. In the weight room he could out do guys weighing 200lbs in a lot of lifts. And he had attitude and lots of it. I could never get my wife to go to the matches because of the violent nature of it. Finally got her to go one Saturday to a quad match. The coach asked Adam to wrestle up to 160 because of matchups. The kid he wrestled looked like he just got out of Attica. He was exactly like my son only bigger, meaner and looked like a Skinhead. They circled each other at the start and eventually locked up. This maniac throws an elbow right at my kids nose and opened him up like a can of soup. He got a misconduct and was relegated to the down position and circled like a lion while they stuffed cotton up my kid's nose. But he made his point. He was willing to give up the penalty points and take the inferior position to intimidate my son and it worked. He mauled my son on his way to a second period pin. My wife never went to another match. By the way, Corey, the local team is doing well ths year too. # 2 in the state. You'll like their nickname too. The Rebels. http://www.app.com/story/sports/high-school/wrestling/2015/01/26/howell-moves-njwwa-top/22379111/
Oh man, that's the risk of wrestling up. See, that's something we don't even do. There's times in which (with the 4 guys I mentioned before), we could have wrestled them up (except Berry) to get points and let the younger guys take a shot. A few of our front line guys rolled up easy wins early against inexperienced wrestlers that could have been handled by other guys. Like I said, it's a learning process. For a baseball fundraiser at Ontario HS, I used to volunteer to run the snack bar during wrestling matches. No one else wanted the job, and as you well know, wrestling is way more exciting when it's good. The coach at Ontario used way more strategy in the lineup than we do. We had an interesting development at practice today. The other freshman who is vying for the alternate 220 spot on the varsity wrestled with Carson today. He's an inch shorter, but comes in right at 220. It looks like the Coach opened all spots up to everyone after conditioning to see who wants to compete on Monday. Anyway, the kid threw an elbow that split Carson's lower lip open. Carson grabbed him under the arm pit, slung him over and slammed him back flat, pro wrestling style. Carson wound up winning and holding onto his spot. The boys are friends and regularly compete in football so there's no animosity. The important development is that Carson finally got angry. It's not something that was lost on the wrestling coach, who is the Varsity OL coach. We've all been talking to him about capturing that feeling when he snapped, and harnessing that energy. It may seem silly, but that's a major development. He's only done that once before during an Oklahoma drill in football after a kid gave him a cheap shot. He wound up dominating the drill against all comers in all grades as the DL (1 DL, 2 OL and 1RB). So why in the world are they called The Rebels?! Is it some sort of West Side Story thing?
Their mascot used to be a guy in a full Confederate army uniform including who would run around waving the Stars and Bars. Sometime in the early 80's it was decided that maybe a new look was needed. But they have kept the name. Wrestling up here is routine. If you have a man who is technically superior and/or strong, you can really mess up the other teams strategy. Today they wrestle two other teams who are ranked highly in the state. This will be classic. I think Howell is 19-0. From last night..... Defending champion Howell rolls into SCT semifinals http://www.app.com/story/sports/hig...hampion-howell-rolls-sct-semifinals/22631439/
Hmm. Wonder where that came from? (Spoken with the utmost respect, Godfather). Roncalli HS in Indy (Remember Pat Kuntz?), where my grandsons attend, is nicknamed the Rebels. George, there was a similar to-do up here back in the 80s about the "racist" implication of the nickname. To boot,, the school is on the south side, which never has been fully integrated, certainly not the fault of the HS, so a lot of knee-jerk liberals made stupid assumptions. It died down, and the name stayed. I won't prolong this post to explain why, but what I saw during my son's HS years embedded within me immense respect for wrestlers. Whenever I meet someone who says he wrestled in HS, I instantly respect him for the physical and mental discipline I know he possesses. I don't even care about his career record.
Corey, Does your son's school have weekly "wrestle-offs" to determine starters or does the coach make the choice? Usually a kid requests to challenge the starter, and the coach determines if the challenger is worthy and also determines if the challengers win is worthy. It serves as a motivation for the starters to work harder and also can give a second stringer at one weight class to move up (or down) to become a starter.
George, 1. Damn, it's like a wrestling factory up there. I really love the coverage they're given. It's not even mentioned here. 2. How in the world did a city outside of NYC in Jersey pick up the name Rebels? That just seems to odd. We don't have a lot of 'Yankees' down in these parts. Not mascots, anyway. KP, It's kind of a mix. The starters are picked by the coach. When it's close, there's a wrestle-off, or they've used those for guys to compete for the #2 spot on the Varsity. That's how Carson held on to the 2 spot for the 220 class. A few weeks back, I think the coach just went with the lineup and stopped the wrestle-offs for Varsity spot. I'm sure the rash of strep after the Athens match didn't help. I know since the losses to Austin and Clemens they had competition though
Well, I jinxed the team they lost their first match of the year yesterday 27-22. http://www.app.com/story/sports/hig...-shore-conference-wrestling-results/22677717/ In Howell we have a very organized youth feeder system called The Predators. Kids start wrestling in the second grade right through the eighth. The high school varsity Rebels coach invites the whole bunch to practice with the varsity once per week. You'll see ten year olds working on their moves with seniors at the high school facility. Every kid in town who wrestles gets a Howell Rebels Wrestling tee shirt and free admission to every varsity match. That's how you build a program my son was on the first predator 7th and 8th grade team that produced six college wrestlers including two All Americans. The Howell Varsity team at home matches even has a choreographed introduction at the start where the gym goes black, "Lunatic Fringe" starts pumping and a laser light show commences; two wrestlers at a time come running straight toward one another from opposite entrances, meeting at mid mat where one hip tosses the other until the entire team is mat side. Pretty big deal up here.
My son, who never watches sports, was introduced to the Big 10 Network by me this weekend. He spent a few hours just watching all of the wrestling. He was blown away by the enormity of it all.