Wrestler of the week: Zach DeFraine

Zach has had a great start to his freshman year. Zach is now 13-3 heading into the MIT this weekend, including going 3-1 this past week in four dual meets.

Gilmore's Take: Cuyahoga fFa.ls & Westerville North

Two short days after a team mental melt down, we were faced with two big challenges in Falls and North. The big question on my mind was, which Medina team was going to show up. To my pleasant surprise we were fairly aggressive. We still have a long way to go, but it was nice to see so many of our wrestlers step up to the challenge. Even though we did not win the duals we were a lot more competitive in them. Several wrestlers are recognizing that they are more successful when they set the pace. I can tell them all day long, but until they believe, they will never fully commit to the aggressive style. Sometime we are too anxious to score, if we worry about setting the tone of the match, points will come. Force your opponent to wrestle hard for the entire six minutes. Most people are not willing attack for 6 straight minutes. When your opponent relaxes or makes a mistake, that is when the points will be put on the board.

Gilmore's Take: Brunswick & Lakewood

        Wrestling is a sport that gives you constant challenges, and if you are not prepared to meet those challenges then it is very obvious in a match.  Last night we were not ready for the challenge that was set before us.  we pride ourselves on being the more physical team and having the better endurance.  Instead of pushing the pace of the match and working to get our opponent out of position we waited to see what he was going to do to us.  When you wait and see what happens you are always one step behind and trying to play catch up. 
        Wrestling is a very mental sport.  You have to go into every match expecting to win.  It might not always workout in that way, but if you go into a match just hoping to win, chances are you are not going to be the one with your hand raised at the end.  If you have lost mentally before the match has even began, it is very easy to give up on your self during the match.  We gave up 9 pins yesterday in one dual, that is a lot of people giving up on themselves.  There is no shame in losing a match to someone who is better than you, but you should never just give someone a win.  Win or lose, you and your opponent should walk off the mat exhausted because you battled for 6 minutes.  The individual fight is what makes wrestling such a great sport.  There is a reason why wrestlers come across to be arrogant.  People often mistake confidence for arrogance.  To be a good wrestler you have to be confident in yourself
       

Gilmore's Take: Kilted Klassic

    At the completion of the this weekends wrestling, I find myself in the same place I was on Thursday; a little surprised and pleased.  It is hard not to be pleased when you walk away with a team title and 11 out of 12 wrestlers have winning records, but beyond that I am very happy with how our young team is becoming a true team.  This foundation of helping each other out, cheering each other on in the tough match, and teaching after matches is how we will continue to grow for the future. 
     As far as wrestling goes, I truly believe we out wrestled everyone there.  That doesn't mean we were the best wrestlers there, but we out worked everyone.  There were a lot of matches were we were losing at some point in the match or even for most of the match.  With our constant pressure and non-stop movement we were able to pull out victories or even pins.  I see us not panicking when we get scored on.  I see us continuing to wrestle and making things happen.  In this sport it is about who is willing to grind it out for 6 full minutes.  Most people are not willing to put the work in to be able to accomplish this.  This is where we are winning a lot of our close matches. 
      With that being said, we did make a lot of mistakes with our technique.  This is expected for a young team.  We need to focus hard on our technique this week and correct the mistakes that we are making.  We are now entering the tough part of our schedule.  We have a bunch of tough duals coming up and some tournaments where we will see some of the best kids in the state.  We can't be satisfied with a good week of wrestling.  We need to use this success as motivation to work even harder and continue having the goal of getting better every day.  We have a lot of the puzzle pieces in place, but we are a long way from having it completed.  Having the right attitude and mind set everyday will allow you to continue building on your progress.  Never be satisfied with what you have done, always look to improve and prepare for the next challenge that is set in front of you. 

Gilmore's Take: Battle of 18

    Last nights match was a roller coaster of a match.  It started off with a very young team wrestling like a young team.  We were wrestling a fairly experienced North Royalton team.  We let them control us, and put us into situations that we knew they were going to try to do.  We became a reactive team instead of an aggressive team.  At the end of the dual the all of the mistakes added up to a pretty bad loss.

    Things didn't look like they were going to get easier with the Highland match, after we watched Highland beat North Royalton.  To my surprise we came out looking like a new team.  We were still making mistakes, but we were aggressive and had a non-stop attack in every match.  Even matches we lost we fought hard.  We had several matches where our wrestlers stuck to the game plan and pulled out victories in the 3rd period.  My biggest surprise was how our freshman stepped up in this match.  We had 6 freshman in the line-up and won 4 of those 6 matches and 3 by pins.  This was a complete team win, and shows that what we are doing in the room is paying off.  We have to get to the point where we can do that in every match.  I saw a lot of growth in this team last night.  As long as we keep improving day by day and week by week, this team will be an exciting team to watch this year. 

Wrestler of the Week

Austin Provost

Austin had an oustanding week this week going 7-0 and being crowned champion of the Jeremy Ammons Kilted Klassic.  Along with being crowned champion his pin against Highland tied the dual meet and allowed us to secure the win.

Gilmore's Take: Bison Kick-Off Classic

     The Wrestling Bees opened up their season this past weekend at Beachwood High School.  Going into this event I was not sure what to expect, as I reflect now I am very pleased with the effort and results that we accomplished this weekend.  A lot of the technique and wrestling philosophy that we have been teaching was put into action.  With that being said, we are not anywhere near where we need, or want to be.  We did make mistakes and we will continue working on correcting those mistakes to become better wrestlers.
      This was a great tournament to get our feet wet and experience some of the situations that have been discussed in practice.  Now each wrestler can relate to these situations that we have been practicing.  They will have a better understanding on how to improve it in the room.  Our goal this year is to be a relentless wrestler.  When we did this we were very successful.  When we relaxed we were put into situations that we did not want to be in.  James Duke did a great job of this during his Revere match.  James wrestled the Revere heavyweight twice this weekend.  The 1st time they wrestled James kept constant pressure on this head, and made him so tired that he started making mistakes.  James was then able to capitalize on those mistakes and won in overtime.  They then wrestled again for 5th place.  This time the Revere wrestler tried to change his style of wrestling because he did not want to go through another match like the 1st one.  This time the Revere wrestler was more aggressive, but not under control and James was able to secure a pin.
     Over all I am very pleased with our performance this weekend, we wrestled well, we supported each other through every match, and we became better wrestlers as the day went on.