Gilmore's Take:Districts

     I am very proud of all 5 wrestlers that competed this weekend at the district tournament.  Each wrestler was put into a situation where they could have quit, but they found the courage to fight through and advance to the next round.  It started off with JJ facing a number 1 seed in the opening round and defeating him.  Zach Getto was injured early in the week and could barely walk.  Despite all of his pain he fought through the tournament with a 2-2 record.  Mike Kopacz opened his district tournament with a loss and battled back to win 2 consecutive matches.  Ryan Hornack found his way to the semi-finals before a couple questionable calls sent him to the consi-semi's.  Ryan was quick to regroup and won his go to match.  Matt Hammer also made his way to the semi-finals were he lost a very tough 4 overtime match.  Things did not get easier for him in his to go match.  Matt found himself losing his consi-semi match by 3 with less than a minute left.  Matt fought to earn an escape, a takedown and back points all within the last 30 seconds to win his match and qualify for the state tournament.        
     Not everyone's goals were met this weekend, but everyone can hold their heads up high and say they left everything on the mat.  In both wins and losses each one of our wrestlers walked off the mat knowing they battled.  In life as well as wrestling it is not always the end result that is important.  The journey often defines us and makes us who we are.  The journey that these young men went through was a tough one, but it is also one that they will remember and hopefully look back on as a meaningful one.

Gilmore's Take: Sectional Tournament

We have talked for many weeks about peaking at the right time, and about reaching goals.  I think that we did a good job of this at the Sectional Tournament.  I feel that for the most part, win or lose, that our guys fought hard the whole tournament.  Not everyone reached their goal, but that wasn't because of lack of effort.  Reflecting back on the season, and looking at the growth that we made this year is pretty remarkable.  I also feel that the Sectional Tournament was also a motivator to many of our underclassmen, that did not reach their goal of moving on.  I could see it in their eyes and in their actions that they were not satisfied.  This unsatisfying feeling will motivate them to work this off-season, so that they have the opportunity to reach their goals next year.   As for our 5 guys that qualified, I feel that they wrestled a great tournament, and have put themselves in a great spot to advance to the State Tournament.  Our goal has been to get better every week.  We will work on that again this week, and see how many wrestlers we can qualify for the State Tournament. 

Gilmore's Take: What Does Tournament Time Really Mean?

     With the conclusion of the NOC Tournament, we closed the door on the 2011-2012 regular season and opened the door to the 2012 tournament series.  Sectionals, Districts and States means something different to every wrestler.  To some it means an end to a long and grueling season.  For others it is a chance to make a name for themselves.  For a few, it is a chance to be mentioned in the talk of Ohio wrestling greats. 
     In the next three weeks there will be a lot of highs and lows.  It is not always the best technical wrestler who advances to the next round.  The wrestler that is able to block out injuries, pressures, nerves and can wrestle to his top ability will be the one who wins those tough close matches.  In the tough matches there is always a breaking point and a breaking out point.  The individuals that make names for themselves are the ones that come face to face with that breaking point and battle through it.  Wrestling is 90% mental, we work all year long to develop mental toughness.  Now is the time to show how mentally tough you are. 
     You should not look at Sectional, Districts, and States as a time to be nervous, and hope you win.  To excell through these three winner takes all tournaments you have to be excited, prepared to battle and most importantly have fun. Now it is time for you to take what you have learned all season, put it together, and enjoy competing.  These fianl three weeks are all about competition, those who step up to the challenge, win or lose, will be able to walk away with their heads held high. 

Gilmore's Take: NOC Tournament

     Tournaments are always an emotional roller coaster.  We knew going into the NOC Tournament that it was going to be close, but we were very capable of winning another NOC Title.  Through out the two days of competition we had some very exciting wins and some very disappointing losses.  It was a very tight race all the way through, and  at the end of the day we just didn't get the job done. We were 5 1/2 points away from our 4th straight conference crown.  Looking back over the tournament there are so many places we could have made up 5 1/2 points, it is literally the difference of one or two more wins in the tournament somewhere. 
     With the disappointment of losing the title we have to find the positive in this event.  We had several wrestlers greatly improve on specific areas of their style.  We also had two wrestlers avenge losses on state ranked opponents. The extra time spent in the room is starting to show for a few of our wrestlers, and they are setting themselves up to peak in the next few weeks. 
  

Gilmore's Take: Cuyahoga Falls

Great win last night!  Overall as a complete team this was the best dual meet that we have wrestled all year. We did a great job of losing small and winning big.  It was great to see that some of last nights biggest heroes were some of the guys who have not had the success and glory throughout the whole season.  That shows me we are growing as a team and as individuals.  Even though not everything went as planned, we did what we had to do to win.  We have corrected a lot of small mistakes that we have been making and our progress showed in each match last night.  We are now entering the part of the season where we have to start peaking.  It is now tournament time, starting next week with the NOC and then moving on to sectionals, districts, and states.  Each week the competition gets better and the pressure builds.  Just like the tournaments we need to get better and more confident each week.  The final stretch is here, we as coaches will help make your final preparations  for the journey and guide you to the path of your goal.  It is up to you to accept those preparation challenges and fight to accomplish those goals.

Gilmore's Take: Josh Hephner Memorial Tournament

Last week we took a long look at our individual weaknesses, and focused on trying to make them our strengths.  It is easy to continue to work on what you are good at, or what comes easy for you, but champions are always trying to improve.  Even though we did not win every match and we still made some of the same mistakes, I saw an improvement in these areas.  I saw that in a lot of the matches that we lost, we are more competitive.  I also saw that we won more of the close matches.  This was a good building block for the last stretch of the season.  Many wrestlers saw some success and how little changes can make the difference.  We need to continue working on our weaknesses and build them into our strengths for the final stretch of the season. 

Gilmore's Take: Hudson

Going into this dual we knew it was going to be a tough match.  On paper it looked like it was going to be 7 wins for each team, with 3 of those matches being swing matches.  Bonus points were going to win this match.  Both teams earned 3 pins, and a tech.   Unfortunately, we lost the swing matches.  We are improving on our technique, but today when push came to shove when we got shoved we folded too many times.  We lost several matches that we were winning.  To truly be able to compete you need to be able to close out the win.   You can't slow down your pace and try to hold on.  If you just try to hold on you will always get beat.  On the opposite hand, we can't panic when we are losing or in a close match.  when you panic in a match you stop wrestling and just try to hold on.  Once again when you just hold, you lose position and it always ends bad.  Some of us are going into matches afraid to lose.  You can't go into matches worried about winning or losing.  You have to go into matches looking to just score points.  If you get scored on, who cares.  Build back into position and start working to score.  If you are always working to score points, you will never be out of a match.  If you are so worried to lose the match that you shut down, you will never win the close matches.  90% of wresting is mental.  If you can change your mindset to focus on the small picture instead of the large picture you will become a better wrestler.