I agree as for development Juniors Nationals is a much better option. I am glad that I attended Juniors in the early 90's as a compitor it was a great experience and helped my career greatly. Back then most of the legit kids went to Juniors. We has 25 kids go in '91. Half of that go now. I have been to Juniors 4 times as a competitor and coach and it has always been a good experience. Not just the matches wrestled, but the other competitors that you get watch and observe. Nothing compares to Juniors.

That being said I have a few observations on Juniors.

I think that they need to move it to the begining of June. By the time Mid-July rolls around most kids are wrestled out and or do not have the money to go. How many familes have thousands of dollars to spend on multiple wrestling trips?

Also football and cross country are right around the corner. Unlike wrestling powers like OH, MN, PA, NJ etc that have a much greater population base most NE Kids do multiple sports.

For NE Kids I do not think the college coaches is a big selling point. Most kids here are not DI Level and there are 7 college wrestling programs in NE you could even count Iowa Western as an 8th since it is in the metro. Not to mention the lack of scholarship money at the DI Level. There are much more options at the DII, DIII, NAIA and JUCO Level. Also in my experience a much broader range of coaches go to high school nationals. They have meet and greet session etc. I might be wrong though.

I think it ultimatly comes down to that it seems like NE Coaches are not on board with freestyle and greco. If things are going to change I think it needs to start there. If the coaches are not putting an empahasis on it the participation numbers are going to remain low.

Good Luck to all NE wrestlers going to Fargo. Let's go Dante', Let em fly for 5!

Does anybody have a list of all cadets and juniors that will be competing in Fargo?

quote:

Originally posted by BLASCHKO:


I think it ultimatly comes down to that it seems like NE Coaches are not on board with freestyle and greco. If things are going to change I think it needs to start there. If the coaches are not putting an empahasis on it the participation numbers are going to remain low.

I don't think you can blame the coaches. The kids don't want any part either. Going 2-2 or whatever in Fargo hurts their confidence and it seems they have other distractions during the summer that I won't get into. Back in 96 or 97 we used to fill the roster and Coach Braun ran quite the camp. Once that ended (for whatever reason) it was a sad day in Nebraska wrestling. Those 3/days counting the evening run were men makers...

the '97 junior team might have been our best. Miller, Z Dominguez, and Stalder all won national championships in Greco (albeit that Dominguez for whatever reason wrestled for Team Iowa, he was still from Nebraska). Our cadet team also had three finalists in Greco with Dr. Brad Metzler, Burger, and Williams (poo bear). We had multiple other AA's or future AA's on those teams. Like kasey Kohl, Trevor Hill, Tyrone Martinez, Jake Rucker, Josh Hyack...etc

Braun was never my coach, I was a cadet that year, so I can't talk too intellegently about his camps. I will say that we still had good camps and fuller teams at least through my senior year. We had a lot of fun as Juniors, during camp and probably got away with a lot of stuff that we wouldn't have gotten away with if Braun were our coach.

I don't know why Nebraska doesn't have as full of teams as they used to. I will say that kids are more and more appathetic and entitled each year. But coaches are still part of the problem too. Who can blame them though. they get 3.5-4 k to coach per year, so staying on top of their athletes to open the room or drive them places during their vacation is a tough proposition.

We could have had a really tough junior dual team in 2000, but we didn't even have full committment then. We had Jeff Rutledge, Todd Menely, a multiple fargo AA who was homeschooled, Kasey Kohl, Jake Rucker... But didn't have guys like Jeff Sylvester (did Disney Duals instead), Mitch Mansteadt (I think did Disney Duals instead, our upper weights were weak and we really needed those guys) or Brad Metzler (Maine Exchange that year). We also didn't have guys like Heath McKim (never wrestled for Nebraska USA) or Eli Dominguez (again, wrestled for team Iowa).

I never looked at it like I was paying that much money for a tournament. I paid that much money for a camp where I got to learn from the best coaches like Bauer, Braun, Oliver, Denny, Vering, Dale Hall, Jimmie Foster, even Blaschko (who is the meanest dude I ever drilled with) and learn on the side from teamates who were the best in the state. I also got to work out with the best guys in the state, who all earned the right to be there. At the end of that I got a tournament....that is top value.



P.S. I am sure I mispelled some names, so I appologize for that

cadets greco
Rodriguez, Dante` 98
Monday, Kenny 135
Perkins, JaVaughn 145
junior greco
Galloway, Tyrell 140
Metzler, Alex 152
cadet freestyle
Rodriguez, Dante` 98
Blair, Kraus 105
Adams, Colton 119
Walker, Jake 130
Monday, Kenny 135
Perkins, JaVaughn 145
junior freestyle
Sloboth, Jt 112
Gilman, Thomas 125
Galloway, Tyrell 140
Metzler, Alex 152
White, Chase 160
Wilson, Austin 160
Molina, Logan 171
Gedding, Derek 215

trackwrestling shows kenny monday, is it supposed to be kenny martin?

I do believe high school coaches play a major part in this. I had a high school coach in Tom McCann that was and is very involved in off season wrestling. We had open room twice a week (I think they still do) all summer and he always had tournaments or camps lined up for us to do. I went to Juniors, Grand Nationals and High School Nationals along with with other tournaments and a good dozen wrestling camps and clinics becasue he promoted it. I would have not known about most of these events without him. He creates a lot of opprurtunites for kids to kids to improve. I am out of the mix and I do not know what most high school coaches are doing, but I think this is missing a little bit in NE.

quote:

Originally posted by out2win:

quote:

Originally posted by BLASCHKO:


I think it ultimatly comes down to that it seems like NE Coaches are not on board with freestyle and greco. If things are going to change I think it needs to start there. If the coaches are not putting an empahasis on it the participation numbers are going to remain low.

I don't think you can blame the coaches. The kids don't want any part either. Going 2-2 or whatever in Fargo hurts their confidence and it seems they have other distractions during the summer that I won't get into. Back in 96 or 97 we used to fill the roster and Coach Braun ran quite the camp. Once that ended (for whatever reason) it was a sad day in Nebraska wrestling. Those 3/days counting the evening run were men makers...

quote:

Originally posted by Kearney MatCat:
Camp ends today then 2 days for the Cadet grecorers to mentally prepare themselves and myself for that matter.
I don't remember being this nervous with my older one when he competed at Fargo.

Good luck to all especially Baby D.

Good luck Albert and Dante....It's always a father son team effort.

I think some of the names and weights are messed up. It is Kenny Martin, JaVaughn is not wrestling greco and Chase is wrestling 152.