UncleBuck1972;877277 wrote:..... Refs Criteria (old days)

Ref's Criteria, Follow Your Man


District Go-To.......Quick Version. End of 1st I'm up 5-0. End of 2nd I'm up 5-4. Couple seconds left in 3rd, I'm hit with one for stalling. Overtime...no sudden victory/death then, it was 3 one minute periods, 1 neutral, 1top/bottom, and 1 top/bottom. (In case of a tie it went to ref's criteria, one of which was "stall warning"). 1st period, Neutral....no score. 2nd period I'm bottom...no score. 3rd period I'm top...no score, BUT with about 10 seconds left I get a stall warning. *There were no other criteria met to that point, I knew the rule, figured I'd lost. From the referees position, the whistle blows and my opponent attempts a terrible stand-up, brings his inside knee right to his hanging head, I slap on the cradle and take him right to his back, few seconds later the buzzer sounds, ref gives me "two". As a wrestler, that was the happiest I'd ever been.


Next week......1-2.

BTW, I've enjoyed reading all of these posts............particularly yours there Bitter.

Garden35...thanks, I've told that story a few times over the years, but I've never written it down like that. It was kind of cool to think back to how it felt.

Going as a coach is so different then going as a wrestler. I found the experience much more rewarding, but also more nerve wracking and less fun.

Bitter you completely summed up my warm-up before my finals match. I pretended to warm up. I actually pee'd like 10 times before my match. I too lost to a kid I had beaten earlier in the year. Great read my man. I think Westie is curled up in the fetal position rocking back and forth after reading these posts!

Best experiences as a wrestler.

-Simply being a state qualifer for the first time. Being able to walk down the floor of the schott after enying the other state qualifers for being down there the past 2 years.

-Winning my semifinals match. Can't explain the feeling, but at that moment there was nothing that could get me off my "high."

-Partaking in the parade of champions. This was the last year the schott was actually sold out for the finals. I remember getting goosebumps as soon as I walked out of the tunnel.

As a fan:

-Dogget V.S. Deubell match. Non stop action, very exciting match.


-Just watching my first state tournament at the schott in general. We had just moved back to Ohio, I was a freshmen coming off a injury riddled season, and I had never spectated the state tournament in Columbus. As soon as I saw all 10 mats in my sight, I knew I wanted to be down there wrestling. It was a good motivation tool. I think all coaches should try to get their younger wrestlers to go watch the state tournament.

DIP N DOTS

2011 Tyler Heminger avoiding becoming the 1st 4X State Runner-up by pinning Goebel with a left handed head and arm... AWESOME!!!!!!!

...a left-handed head and arm from left field I might add. I was sitting pretty close when it happened. But I blinked.

And in all fairness, he did have some STOUT competition those first three years.

Going 1-2 as a freshman, and then not making it, then going 1-2 again, then finally getting that monkey off of my back by teching the kid in my match to place, only to be teched twice in the semis.

I have a good idea who Dirtyscramble is. Good high school career. If you read this, I'd like to catch up. I'll be in touch.

kansas.

Dorothy and Toto.

Africa.

Rosanna???

Bitterrunner-up;907802 wrote:Rosanna???

YES!!!!!!!!!

Hold the line.

State Tournament week is simply one of my favorite weeks of the year. The tournament, restaurants, hotel, the Arnold (and it's grappling tournament, though it was much better when it was run by NAGA), usually an MMA event, etc all combine to make it an incredibly enjoyable week.

I first realized I wanted to qualify for the state tournament the summer of my freshman year after I watched a minnesota state tournament highlight video on youtube. It got me so pumped up I immediantly went over to my old weight bench and put up like 10 reps of 25 lbs or whatever my rediculously low bench max was. This dream was intensified when I believe it was cruiser-96 who posted a picture of the view from inside the tunnel into the arena. I went absolutely insane over that picture, and had it hanging above my bed for two years.

I qualifed for state in the district consi-semi's and absolutely cried my eyes out. Something like the 2nd guy in 30 years and the 5th in 100(West Opened in 1901). A guy from thisweek wanted an interview but had to come back after i quit balling. Soon after, we were on our way to get something to eat and my downfall began. My best friend asked me what my strategy was for the 3rd and 4th place match and I remember saying "Dude, I'm a state qualifier, I don't care". I got destroyed but didnt much mind. Standing on the district podium and knowing that i was going was a pretty emotional experience. A week passed by pretty quick. Nobody else showed up to our practice besides me, so I didnt wrestle alot. I remember staying awake all night be for just thinking that tomorrow the was going to be the day that I got to walk down that tunnel. I still remember the horrible outfit i wore to school that day. A pink aeropostle shirt, some jeans that were to big in the way and some fuzzy slippers.

We left pretty early and I still have pictures of pulling up to the schott, which looked even more rediculously awesome than usual because I knew I was wrestling there. After we got there, Ritchie had no idea where to go and we were guided down to the floor by our dear friend lowsingle174. Walking down that tunnel was amazing looking at the pictures of the Jordans, Taylor, the Palmers. And I still remember walking out of the tunnel and into the light. It was crazy. During weigh ins, I was talking to some of the other qualifiers from darby when a balding man who must have been at least 26 and asked which one of us was Jason Russell. I answered him and he just said "Thats Cool". Later found out that he was my first round match, Nick Miller. Awesome. I didnt have any of my friends at state, so I decided to become the token nerdy white guy in the four my group of me, Kwan Bailey(huge black guy), Matt Fergusion(huge black guy), and Filandus Boyd(small, but still huge black guy). Good times. Time flew by and before I knew it I was warming up with Kwan and my match rolled around. Walking out of the tunnel with all the fans in the stands was even sweeter. Walking down to the far corner match, I did some light stretching and did some bouncing before it was time for me to come up. Things went good for the first 30 seconds untill he disapeered on a sweep single. After that a huge portion of the match consisted of him getting really high leg riding and me despite everything I tried not being able to get him off. After watching more of his matches, I didn't feel as bad because he did that to everyone. I lost the state champ 9-2. After this, I went back up to the stands and watched wrestling, not too upset about losing my first match.

My next match was against a huge black guy from maple heights. After a scoreless first, I started off with an escape. I then shot a single leg and was pancaked to my back. In what can be described as a bad call by the ref, and great reaction by me i somehow came off my back and ended up in a wizzer. He dropped to a single where I immediantly locked up a spladle and took him over. As we hit my grip barely broke and he kicked out but I ended up with a takedown. That moment still haunts me, because I could have pinned him. Up 3 to 0 with about 20 seconds left in the second, I gave up a stupid reversal. I looked up at the lights and just thought, stupid stupid stupid. And escape tied it 3-3 in the third. I took a shot and got pancaked to my back. Fought off to be down 8-3, and got cut to make it 8-4. Freaking out, I took a bad shot and once again was pancaked to my back and would go on to lose 13-5. After the match, I hugged both my coaches and took one last walk out of arena. I came back for every session after that and it ended up being in my opinion the greatest tournament of all time with the Wadsworth team run, Logan Stieber, and Ty Mitch vs. Nick Brascetta.

Overall it was a great experience, and inspired me to wrestle in college.

P.S. I gave some shout outs in thisweeknews that were never run, that id like to post on here. Thanks to Scott Nicola for point me in the right direction, all the rides, and coming back to coach me my senior year. Brian Nicola for great encourage ment, workout opportunities, and a monster headlock. Dan Ritchie, for all of his wrestling knowledge and wrestling with me every practice. Bishop Ready Open mats, for being right by my house. Anyone else who helped me along the way. And last but not least, Mike Rodriguez for helping out a kid who he had no connection to accomplish a dream because he is willing to help anyone who will work hard. Sorry for the loooong post, lol.

...lot's of huge black guys there that year.


Westie, that was a great post. Enjoyed reading it.

Westie...Great read. Guys like you are the reason I still work with kids. Whenever some kid tells me they can't, or they'll never get there, I can always point to that skinny West High freshman who went 1-22 (on West's schedule). I can talk about seeing this really awful wrestler show up at open mats week after week and just getting pounded on by the good kids. I can talk about how, even while getting roughed up by the upper level wrestlers, he was always happy to be on the mat and always willing to mix it up. Above all, I can tell them how he was always willing to learn and put in the time. Basically, I can tell them that hard work actually does pay off.

By the end of your junior year you had become a staple in the open mat culture here in Central Ohio. You had grown as a wrestler in a way that few do over their time in high school. As any coach will tell you, guys like you are the easy ones...A hard working kid who puts in the time and listens. Anyone could've coached that guy to the State Tourney...though must say I'm very glad I got to be one of the people who played a part (however small) your success. To tell you the truth, as happens with a select few kids over the years, I probably got more out of our interactions then you did.

BTW, it's far from over. We've still got a couple more off-seasons and at least one All American finish in our future.

You can guarantee that post will be printed and hung inside the Cruiser Wrestling Facility. Great post, Westie. As the bitter one said, a) you make it fun and b) worth every minute of it. Thanks again.

Great post westie, and good luck in collage. Can I ask what collage you are wrestling for?
When you are an AA, you have to create a post on here telling us all about that weekend.

Heidelberg University, maybe sometime ill make a post about the culture shock of coming from west (academicly and wrestling wise) to heidelberg.

Westie101;915813 wrote:Heidelberg University, maybe sometime ill make a post about the culture shock of coming from west (academicly and wrestling wise) to heidelberg.

I was at ONU when Jason Miller was the assistant there. He then moved on to Heidelberg and I believe he's now the AD? Does he still make it into the wrestling room to help you guy's out? Heidelberg has a very strong program, good luck in winning the OAC's.
I wish that collage was more like HS in the selection process for progressing to the next level. In HS we all know the top 4 for each district makes it to state. It may be different now, but when I was in collage(2002), only the OAC champ and 1 wild card selected by the coaches went to nationals. I know I could have beaten a few of the guy's in the national tournament, I did beat Darrell Carr (Manchester) who won nationals that year. And at the National Duals at OSU, I was up 8-0 in the 1st period on Defending National champ Kurth from Luthor who took 2nd at nationals that year but I ended up loosing that match. But I could not beat Mike Markovic from Jon Carol who was an AA and a master of FUNK(his move was the Tree of WOE).

Jason Miller is the assistant AD and he came in a couple of times last year. It's still the same format for OAC's and I hate it but there not much we can do about it.