Day 1 at the Jim King/Orange Invitational
- At December 07, 2013
- By Carl Hoverstad
- In Tournament Recap
- 0
Millbrook wrestlers saw success at the first day of this weekend’s Jim King/Orange Invitational. The tournament starts on Friday evening to allow enough time for completion on Saturday. On Friday night, Millbrook advanced five wrestlers to the semi-finals:
- 106 lbs: Crayton Saby
- 145 lbs: Alexander Janni
- 160 lbs: Jonathan Woodbury
- 195 lbs: Aaron Rehberg
- 285 lbs: Quintavian Baynes
Millbrook is currently in 4th place after Friday night’s action. Check back on Saturday for updates from the second day of the tournament!
Millbrook Squeaks Past Northern Durham
- At December 04, 2013
- By Carl Hoverstad
- In Match Recap
- 0
The Wildcat wrestling team traveled to Northern Durham High School tonight to face the Knights in an out-of-conference dual match. The early season matchup did not disappoint, with Millbrook edging out Northern Durham by a score of 39-30.
Crayton Saby took a forfeit at 106 lbs to start the match and it was up and down from there for the Wildcats. Both Jonathan Medina (113 lbs) and senior Nick Norton (120 lbs) lost close decisions to even the match up at six points. The teams traded wins by pinfall at the next three weight classes, with Robinson Carroll (126 lbs) and Jordan Gailey (132 lbs) dropping their matches only to be redeemed by senior Daniel Powell evening up the match with a win at 138 lbs.
Junior Alexander Janni went the full six minutes at 145 lbs to take the close four-point decision. Millbrook went on a three-match tear from there, with wins by pinfall from Devante Robinson (152 lbs), Peter Neuenschwander (160 lbs) and Jonathan Woodbury (170 lbs). After suffering a couple losses at 182 lbs and 190 lbs, Vincent Ngwu sealed the match for the Wildcats with an exciting reversal and pinfall at 220 lbs.
Millbrook will be in action this weekend at the Jim King/Orange Invitational on Friday, December 6th and Saturday, December 7th.
Full match results: Millbrook 39 – Northern Durham 30
Don’t ever give up!!
- At December 19, 2012
- By Bill Churchwell
- In Wrestling
- 0
“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”
~Rocky Balboa~
We all have seen the “Rocky” movies and all have seen how inspired one can be by watching them (at least by the first 4). If you have not seen these movies I suggest you sit down and watch them, they are worth it! This blog post brings me to the subject of giving up, or as some call it quitting. Wrestling is a very tough sport in which if you aren’t the top guy at a weight class, then you spend most of your season just practicing. At Millbrook we are trying to establish more of a junior varisty wrestling program to get those kids more mat time. In wake county we don’t have the luxury of wrestling at the middle school level, so more often than not, our kids are coming into the program as freshman with no previous wrestling experience at all. It is a tough thing to manage, especially when you are trying to build a program that wants to compete on the state level every year. The subject of establishing middle school wrestling in wake county can be saved for another argument, another time.
Now lets get back to the subject of giving up. In my years of coaching I have seen many wrestlers give up on the sport just because they may have not cracked the line up since they are in a weight class in which they cannot earn the varsity spot. In my opinion, it is very sad to see these kids quit after a year or two (if they even make it one full season), just because they cannot beat the man in front of them. We are losing good athletes to circumstances just like this. I wish kids had more drive in them rather than the mind set, “If I fail then I can just quit.” We need to teach our children that quitting is NOT an option. If they quit at one thing and take the easy road, they will see this as way out of many things in life, not just wrestling. Over the years I have seen many kids wait for their roster spots to finally open up and do tremendous things in the sport.
I will give you a few examples:
Anthony Whetstone, Manhattan, KS – This young man wrestled behind a 2x state champ in high school at HWT. He never had the chance to wrestle on the varsity team until his senior year due to the state champ finally graduating. The result: He won a state championship himself on his first year at the varsity level. He never quit, got better and achieved his goal.
Mickey Humphrey, Ragsdale, NC – This wrestler stood on the depth chart behind 2 state champs from his team. His senior year was his first year at the varisty level and he too won a NC state championship, beating the kid who majored him in the regional finals for the state title.
Here is a great article written by a friend of mine about something that happened when he was coaching. It also includes a former teammate of mine and coach at Millbrook years ago. The article was written about a guy who never really got a chance to wrestle varsity in the post season due to line up changes and getting beat, but he went on to wrestle in college because he never quit, and kept going. It is a great story. Click here for article.
These are just a few specific examples of many I can recall of all my years around this sport. The point is you never know when it will be your shot, so you always need to work hard and never give up, regardless where you are in the depth chart. Hard work pays off! There are also many things a wrestler can do to improve himself outside of our wrestling room. He can make sure he goes to camp over the summer, join a wrestling club and wrestles in the off-season. The way to get better in this sport is to never stop improving, never stop working to better yourself.
And as always, this message doesn’t just apply to wrestling. We need to apply this for our young wrestlers in the classroom and in life in general. We want our young men to be great in the classroom and on the mat, as well as being the best they can be in all aspects of life. So as Rocky said above, when you get hit hard in life, it is more about taking that hit and moving forward rather than just laying down and quitting! Until next time, thank you for reading.
Are you working hard enough?
- At December 10, 2012
- By Bill Churchwell
- In Wrestling
- 0
“If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.”
I have always loved this quote but don’t know exactly where I heard it first. As we enter into the conference schedule I often think of the season we have had up to this point. Have we, as coaches, prepared our kids well enough to be successful? Not only on the mat but in the classroom as well? I know sometimes in sports the aspect of the student-athlete gets turned around. As a coaching staff, we frequently have meetings to discuss ways to make sure we can prepare the wrestlers and how we can improve our program both academically and athletically.
I also want to challenge my wrestlers at this point to similar questions. Are you working hard enough on a daily basis to be the best in the mat room? Are you doing what is necessary outside of the mat room to remain successful in the class room? I do not like when students do only what is necessary to get a passing grade. I want you wrestlers to work harder on your school work than you do on your wrestling technique. For our seniors, are you ready to start a run that will end with a conference championship? I hope you understand that it take a WHOLE team effort to win! You need to take care of your team and yourselves, this means helping to keep things on track during practice as well as leading by example.
I could go on all day with tips and questions about what to be thinking about as the first conference match approaches, but of course no wants to read a book. So I will keep this post short and sweet. But I leave everyone who reads this with the challenge to apply to every aspect of their lives…
“Are you working hard enough?”