ThisWeekNews is reporting the Westerville Central Head Wrestling coach is retiring.

Program faces an uphill climb with open enrollment feeding Westervill North with the cities best wrestlers. But, at the same time, the place has no where to go but UP.

Maybe the new coach can get "the Drake" out to the mat for his senior year.

Love the Drake!

Cthelites;1441259 wrote:Love the Drake!

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=%22love+the+drake%22+seinfield&view=detail&mid=9C5F100D56E15DDA27329C5F100D56E15DDA2732&first=0&FORM=NVPFVR

Ah yes, I love the Drake too. Unfortunately, The Drake, while being an exceptional wrestler, is also an incredibly good football player and Lacrosse player and on top of his time commitment for those sports, has not expressed interest in continuing wrestling at Central. We would love to have him, believe me. You hit the nail on the head about it being an uphill climb at Central due to North pulling most of the experienced/talented wrestlers as of late with open enrollment. But ultimately, one of the biggest reasons for North's success is the commitment of the parents and the hard work done by the kids. For every one wrestler Central has that wrestles in the off season, North has five. I offer to take kids and bring them back every weekend and there are seldom any takers. Ultimately, Hinz, Disabato, Goldsmith and the rest of the young guys who are excelling are doing so because they work harder in the off season (at wrestling) than anyone Central has. I put that in bold becasue it is true, and rather than bemoaning the lack of success due to open enrollment, which is not constructive, it is imperative that the wrestlers at Central realize that the way to improve is to emulate those guys and the commitment they put forward. Now, last year, we had several young guys who were hard workers, and hopefully they develop a love for the sport that pushes them to compete more than just during the season, and if they do, they have the physical talent and parental support to thrive. I also hope that in the next couple of years, we get some kids who are trailblazers who want to create a name for themselves by turning a program around rather than taking the path often travelled by some wrestlers who open enroll so they can simply wrestle fourth string at North.

Phil Carney

P.S. We do have several wrestlers who are exceptional workers and work very hard at the other sports in which they compete in the summer, I simply meant to emphasize that at the present time, we have few year-round wrestlers, which hurts in the long run.

Your candor and well meant, but honest post is appreciated in times when excuses and blame have become the norm.
Good luck and fare thee well.

MPhillips

Keep up the good work snugglyhippo. Wasn't Barlow a state champ from Westerville Central?

We know that all to well here at south as well. Coaches have shown up to drive kids for free to U.A. open mats and in five weeks of doing so we have had three weeks with no takers and two weeks of one or two wrestlers showing up. They are always full of excuses. )

wildcat87;1442258 wrote:We know that all to well here at south as well. Coaches have shown up to drive kids for free to U.A. open mats and in five weeks of doing so we have had three weeks with no takers and two weeks of one or two wrestlers showing up. They are always full of excuses. )

Why drive to UA when you could have been going to HT?

I have not followed North wrestling since my son left there. however if a significant amount of wrestlers are open rolling at North vs their own schools, that can adversely affect how many kids wil attend open Mats, camps Ect. It's simple, get enough good kids to one school they have success, other kids want to be sucessful because their friends are and they're going to do what those kids doing. kids want to do what there friends are doing. so the first thing to do is start with figuring out why kids would open enroll at North vs not going to their home school and wrestling?

Lou, at first I was going to say coaching but I believe its more parenting. Teach your kid to be a leader and his friends will become leaders also. Their high school coach can only do so much. You know how much more time you have put in with Josh than any other coach (I'm talking about all the open mats, camps and off season tournaments you've spent quality time with him). Only a parent(s) knows the sacrifice each one put in.

Sorry Dust_E_Roads, almost forgot what the thread was about! Any info on applicants?

hang_loose;1443568 wrote:...at first I was going to say coaching but I believe its more parenting. Teach your kid to be a leader and his friends will become leaders also. Their high school coach can only do so much.

I agree. Parents play a large part, both in getting kids to commit (open gyms, etc.) and in the open-enrollment part. The coaches only have them so many hours a day and so many days out of the year.

In an obtuse way, I have a great deal of respect for the kids who do wrestle at programs like Central, which lack a great tradition like North. They've got a partial line-up and know they're going to lose virtually every dual, but they wrestle to compete. I sometimes think open-enrolling to North would be the easy way out. Sort of mercenary-like.

As much as I'd like my kids to be part of a successful 'program', I don't think I'd ever open-enroll them to another school for sports alone. Especially not in wrestling, which is essentially a year-round sport. There is more fortitude to develop and important life lessons to be learned when one faces adversity.

All that being said, I think the Westerville situation is generally a mess, in my personal opinion. I think community spirit suffers when they essentially dissolved geographic attendance areas. They've almost become AAU like in their approach to certain sports. All the good wrestlers go to North, so South and Central stink. All of the best football players go to South and Central, so North stinks. There are other examples too. I'm not a Westerville resident, so I've got no dog in the fight, but I'd hate for my district to go that route.

Hard to disagree with any of that. There is no way to say anything other than we stank last year, I agree. However, In the past five years, one year Central scored more points than North in sectionals, one year we split 7 to 7 in matches at the dual, and one year we placed higher in the OCC tournament. The past two years have been another story. I only note this as evidence that it is at least possible for Central to compete with North and South under the current system. North is very good and only getting better, and really, this should make Central better as we have something to aspire to... Ultimately, I would just like to see good kids get a chance to compete.

Wondering when they might post this position?

snugglyhippo;1443894 wrote:Hard to disagree with any of that. There is no way to say anything other than we stank last year.

Please understand that I was speaking in short hand, and meant it in terms of W's and L's. Not coaching, kids' effort, etc. Central had some good wrestlers and some tough kids, just not enough of them to fill a line-up and win duals with any regularity.

snugglyhippo;1443894 wrote: North is very good and only getting better

I think they could hit a saturation/tipping point eventually. When kids start to realize that the could be the 138 at Central or be one of 5 138's at North, things will turn. This is the curse of self-selecting to successful programs, others can do it too and then you face them in tough wrestle-offs. I have wonder if this very issue is what was behind McHugh leaving Liberty and 'returning' to Scioto. There's no Penzone at Scioto standing between him and the varsity spot at 126. IN the long run, in my opinion, it helps "right" both ships. As a side note, it will be nice to Scioto getting (much of) the band back together from the talented MS team they had of a few years ago. They took a beating last year, but should be a solid, experienced lot in the coming years.

snugglyhippo;1443894 wrote: Ultimately, I would just like to see good kids get a chance to compete.

100% agree.

csmit42;1444454 wrote:Wondering when they might post this position?

From what I was hearing they had some people in mind to replace him (assistants I assume) then post from there.

Would be a great coaching job... Anyone care to list the State Champs and placers from Westerville, Ohio?

Regardless of what the administration decides, right now it's business as usual...open mats Mon at 3:30 and lifting when school ends Mon/Wed/Fri at 3. We can't wait for a coach to be named to plan our offseason. I obviously would love to do it, as I teach there and have been in westerville my whole life, but whatever they decide there will still absolutely need to be a couple aditional coaches hired as the retirements will leave us with maybe two total...and maybe one, me. If you know anyone who is qualified let me know. Barlow (last year) and Dong just graduated, maybe they are free!

hang_loose;1444815 wrote: Anyone care to list the State Champs and placers from Westerville, Ohio?

Barlow, Dong, and Demas (2x) are three I can name off of the top of my head.

Kline.

Uh, yeah he's good too!

anthony ciraky

Troy Bowers

I know they didn't go to high school in in Westerville, but I believe the Schlatters(sp) lived there early in their career.

Did Luke Fickel live in Westerville?

Westie101;1444841 wrote:anthony ciraky

Nice call Westie101, Ciraky was a good one! Never seen anyone who could hit a firemans as easily as he could.