From Coach Bartram

Character counts. It counts at work, in school, in sports, at home, in life. I believe, more so than any other sport does, or at least most other sports do, that character counts. It has to. Why, because the wrestler steps out onto the mat alone and if life has taught me nothing else it is that character counts most when you are alone or unwatched. When you are asked to count money alone; do your chores unwatched; take an un-proctored closed book test; travel without your family; anytime you are depended upon to do the right thing, unwatched, unnoticed, and unsupervised; character counts most.

Many feel that character forms at an early age and shapes our actions and behaviors forever. Some religion’s doctrine states that at about 8 years old, children unequivocally know right from wrong and should own up to their failures, face repercussions head on, and learn from the lesson. Some might call this character building. Although I agree with character forming early and shaping our behaviors forever, I do not believe that those two things are intrinsically linked forever. That is, learned bad character early in life can be overcome by later teachings. The converse is also true. One thing never changes, we do know right from wrong; we choose to do the right or wrong thing, sometime inexplicably to ourselves and to those that watch.

Read more »

Thank you to everyone that helped out this weekend. Our event was an enormous success thanks to you all! I fear I would forget to mention someone so I will not name anyone specifically, but you all were tremendous! I have said several times this year that our group of parents this year has to be one of the most pleasurable and productive we have ever had.

Thanks to you all many of our and other young men and women were able to have an extremely pleasurable and memorable experience. Three quick highlights that I take away: Our rookie wrestlers getting their first real event experience, Fabian's first mat burn, and Rhinos like Mason Knudtson demonstrating such outstanding sportsmanship.Thanks to you all I will always have these memories and those memories always outlast the short lived memories of the occasional bitchy parent or coach. Thanks again!

Yesterday Andrew Wanovich pinned his way to the finals of the 7^th / 8^th Grade 83 pound Open State Championship finals in Winston Salem, North Carolina. The finals match started as all the others did for Andrew that day, a takedown by him followed by relentless pressure. Not yet out of bounds, Andrew responded to his coach’s direction to keep the opponent in bounds and returned his opponent in a legal manner to the mat in bounds. The opponent, though posting his forearm to the mat, could not adequately protect himself from the force of the return and his jaw bounced off the mat very hard. He cried out and the match was stopped for injury time. During the action the official had blown his whistle. In the official’s judgment, Andrew had continued through the whistle and was charged with unnecessary roughness. The injured wrestler was not able to continue after injury time expired and subsequently, because unnecessary roughness is an illegal action and not a technical violation, Andrew was disqualified.

I do not want to focus on the call made by the official or even the natural feeling of dejection that overcame the Andrew, his teammates, coach and Mother who were all mat side.

The fact of the matter is that while I may have disagreed with the judgment of the official; an official’s judgment is inarguable. It must be. To argue an official’s judgment is to fail to honor the game. In order to honor the game we must respect officials, ourselves, our opponents and our teammates.

I want to focus on the individual that honored the game during and after the match. Andrew Wanovich did not complain about the decision, did not complain about the result, did not fall into the trap of following the example set by some of the adults present, he merely did the right thing and honored the official, his self, his opponent, and his teammates.

Andrew’s behavior is reflective of the character we try to instill in the Herd. The Herd was on the mat Saturday, Sunday, and Monday this past weekend and for the first time in a very long time there was behavior on the mat over the weekend that I was not proud of. My disappointment was erased (but not forgotten) by Andrew’s behavior Monday afternoon.

So Andrew, thank you for honoring the game and thank you for being a Rhino and leading the herd.

As Andrew and I stood in the t-shirt line in an near empty gym waiting for his tournament shirt, I pointed out to him a graphic of a wrestler with his back turned to the viewer. Below the picture was written, “Champions have no reason to look back.”

Don’t look back, Andrew, you were a champion before you ever stepped on the mat Monday. See you at practice tonight.

~Coach B

A week ago today I received a text from Steve Weliver telling me his son, Trey Weliver (Union Pines HS Class of '09 and Rhino Alumni), and Zach Barkett (South View Class of '09) would be meeting in the second round at the Little State Tournament at Trine University.

I replied "figure the odds"

Later that weekend I thought about it and figured that the odds are pretty good. In fact just a few weeks earlier UNC-P freshman Timdarius Thurston (T.W. Andrews HS class of '09) met his brother Tim (Sophomore at Iowa Lakes Community College and ranked 5th nationally) in the center of the mat at the Iowa Duals.

It seems we have more North Carolina high school alumni joining the collegiate ranks every year. That is a great thing for many reasons. First, our kids are going to college. Second, they have the opportunity to continue to competing in a sport that they love. Third, they pave the way for other graduates from the 'Ole North State' to follow and help turn the path into a highway.

Here's to more NC v. NC matchups,  hopefully in the semis or finals...not in the first two rounds.

Video of  Trey and Zach's matches are available here:

match 1: http://www.flowrestling.org/videos/play/226248
match 2: http://www.flowrestling.org/videos/play/226235

You may have to be a "Friend of UIndy Wrestling' on Flo to view them.

Trey (University of Indianapolis) finished seventh at 141 beating Zach 7-5 in the second round and again to place seventh 12-1.
Zach (University of Cumberlands) finished eight with two of his three losses coming from Trey.
Complete Brackets: http://www.trine.edu/trineathletics/wrestling/documents/2009littlestatefullbrackets.pdf