NORWOOD'S BLOG

After not attending last years State Tournament due to not qualifying anyone, I was very excited about returning to it this year in a new venue with the hopes that it would be really great event. However before I begin to complain about how big of bust it was I would like to first congratulate Inigo Hughes for being there.  As well as all the wrestlers from the Big South that competed this past weekend. I would to especially recognize Josh Smith from Ashbrook for becoming a State Champion. Spending all season with that number one ranking is a pressure cooker. I don’t care what anyone says, but Josh took care of business and proved he truly deserved to have the rank he did.

Some other highlights of the weekend…….

Parkland qualifies 14: Love em or hate em, that is an unbelievable feat to accomplish and had previously never been done. Congrats to them for truly being the best team in the state. Possibly ever.

I met Cody and Kurt Stephens big brother.  I remembered him from when he wrestled at Saint but had never officially met him.  He approached me about a comment I made on the NC wrestling forum and wanted to let me know he appreciated it. I thought that was nice, he seems like good people and I’ve really enjoyed watching his brothers wrestle of the last few years.

Mark Harris of Enka has newly dubbed the head and arm the ” Gaston County Lock-up”  lol, I thought that was hilarious, and you’d have to see our local newspaper online section to fully appreciate it. http://local.gastongazette.com/lockup/

Hunter Dunn from South Point: Down 15 to 1 in the second period in the quarter finals and fights back to pin the JM Robinson 103 and advance to the semi’s

Inigo hitting one last lateral before his career was over. In the first round Inigo lost to the eventual State Champion, but in his next match vs a CB Aycock wrestler he got his hooks in one last time and gave somebody a ride.

Chase Warren places 5th: Sophomore Chase Warren of Ashbrook has been no sleeper this year. He’s had quite an impressive sophomore year. I for one however highly doubted his chances in his 5th and 6th place match. The guy he wrestled from South Rowan was an absolute beast. Chase hung in there after going down early and snuck in a banana split that was about as tight as they come to pull of an upset pin as time in the period expired.

Disappointments of the Weekend:

Parade of Champions sucked!!!! This is always one of the most prestigious points of the tournament and it was absolutely crapped on this year. I don’t know why and I really don’t care why but the NCHSAA should be ashamed. Anyone who has ever witnessed the POC before knows how great it is and I really hate it for anyone that participated in it this year who expectations where definitely not met. I only hope that the State and the Greensboro Coliseum can make up for it next season.

Over priced, poor food selection……. 20oz drinks (pepsi products, water, gatorade) 4:00 WOW, and the food was absolutley horrible. At least in the past we knew we were gonna pay out the @$$ for some Bo-Jangles. 

No possible 4 timers.  It’s always something extra special when someone has a chance to pull this off. It’s an elite class of wrestlers that have accomplished this feat and It’s always a privilege to see someone do it.

No East Gaston Placers: I was really pulling for the Grigg Brothers this weekend, and I hate they did’nt have their best weekend. I hope Jesse is Ok from his ankle sprain and I know John will get back to work and come back next season much improved and with a chip on his shoulder. I’d hate to be in his weight class what ever it may be.

Well it’s March 1st and the 2009-10 season is officially over.

Inigo lost his first match this morning. He was trailing 6-2 in the second and was pinned by the Eastern Regional Champion from Orange high school.

1st Round cons.
Inigo made short work of his opponent from CB Aycock with a 1st period pin. We’re going to hang arround and watch the quater finals to see who we’ll be wrestling in the morning.

What a day…..Congratulations to Inigo Hughes for qualifying for the State Tournament next week in Greensboro. Inigo pulled off an overtime win vs. a Tuscola wrestler and finished 4th in the tournament.

I’d also like to congratulate other members of the Big South who will be representing our conference next week at State.

Josh Smith 103 – Regional Champion Ashbrook
Hunter Dunn 103- South Point
Brandon Cagle 119 -South Point
Ash Davis 125 – South Point
Ali Charles 135 – Ashbrook
Darius Stocks 125- Hunter Huss
Josh Clary 140 -Crest
Patrick Houser 145 – Crest
Cody Hendren 160 – Hunter Huss
Chase Warren 189 – Ashbrook
Michael “Mikey” Dotterer 215 – Ashbrook

If I left anyone out I’m truly sorry. I’m just going off what I could remember off the top of my head. Please leave a comment if I forgot someone.

This weekend had it’s share of good, bad, and ugly and one thing is for certain……. It was long, I’m tired as hell, and I’m going to bed.

Check back next Friday during the day for updates on the NCHSAA State Wrestling Championships.

two wrestlers left standing……

Inigo Hughes, and James Freeman remain in the tournament. One win will get Inigo into 3rd and 4th placement match. James needs two.

It was a long night…..
After 3 rounds of wrestling we still have 8 of 9 wrestlers in the tournament. The team scores were only announced one time after the conclusion of the 1st round and we were in 15th place.
Inigo Hughes stands alone in the championships and wrestles in the 1st round against the 189 from Freedom.
Dylan Moses lost in overtime in the quater finals to a St. Stephens wrestler. James Freeman was pinned by a Fred T. Foard wrestler also in the quaters.
In the 1st round of consolations Bret Edwards pinned the Crest 112 with time expiring in the 3rd period. Jordan Galyan won convincingly vs a Forestview wrestler. Aaron Brooks was beaten in overtime by the 145 from North Buncombe. Leonel Martell was losing by 12 and pulled off a defensive pin vs an Enka wrestler, Collin Johnson won 7-1 vs an RS Central wrestler and Cody Willett won vs. a the 215 of Franklin High.

Weigh-ins are at 8:30am and it’s going to be a long day for the boys. I’ll post an update sometime saturday before lunch time.

Through the First round winners are
140- Dylan Moses
171- James Freeman
189- Inigo Hughes

Brett Edwards, Jordan Galyan, Aaron Brooks, Leonel Martell, and Cody Willett in the consolation bracket.

Two more rounds tonight, and no team score available yet.
Next update at the conclusion of the next rounds.

Now that the Conference season and tournament is over with and we will begin to focus individually on the regional tournament and qualifying for the state tournament, I thought I’d take a look back at the last 2 months and share my thoughts on the NEW Big South 3A Conference.

What difference a year makes. Throughout the last decade the Big South was dominated by East Gaston High School, having won 8 of 9 Conference Championships during their tenure in the Conference, basically owning their conference rival…..which was us. North Gaston won only one Conference Championship in that time in the 2007-08 Season.  The previous decade (1990-1999) We were in the old Southwestern 3A Conference and pretty much owned our conference rival of Kings Mountain.

Will anyone own the next decade? Well I certainly hope that put ourselves in a position to do so, but it will indeed be a tall order to fill. The first Conference Champion of the NEW Big South is Crest in 09-10. They went 6-0 but I wouldn’t say they dominated. I think domination is an average margin of victory of about 20 points. However they are the champions and no one can take that away from them. Crest is a  team that hasn’t won a conference championship in 13 years, and they have  a young coach who knows what he’s doing which now makes them a threat again next season. Kings Mountain, Huss, and Ashbrook are all well coached and have phenomenal athletes which allows them to compete at a high level year in and year out, and if the student athletes at South Point and Forestview EVER took wrestling as serious as they did other sports what kind of noise could they make?

Where does that leave us??? Well for this year it leaves us in 3rd place with a lot of work to do, but to be honest I don’t think I’ve ever had as much fun without winning it all as I did this year. I feel we over achieved this year in many ways and our future looks very bright. In a starting  line up of 13 (since we had to forfeit 103 all year) we return 10. Ten guys who saw how exciting it can be to be in the race for a Conference championship and I think those ten have realized what it takes to compete and be successful at that level.  Our season had it’s thrills of victory and its agonies of defeat and we took all of them in stride and kept moving forward, and for that I’m proud.

As for the conference tournament, I don’t think we had our best day. Some of  the guys wrestled really hard and some it really didn’t look like they were there mentally. I really believe if 3 or 4 matches go the other way we would have been right there in the hunt going into the finals. But whats done is done and it is over. Congratulations to Bret Edwards, Jordan Galyan, Dylan Moses, Aaron Brooks, and Inigo Hughes on being All-Conference wrestlers, and thank you to ANYONE who reads this who had something to do with our team this season. Weather you’re a parent, or worked concessions, or kept score, or did a hospitality room, or drove a bus, rolled out a mat, or just came to match and supported us. Thank you very much.

That feeling of satisfaction after a win (especially when you really need one) is really nice. It’s such a release. The tensions that build and the anticipation of the contest are over. The troops fought well and victory is yours. Sounds pretty awesome huh? The let down here is that it only last but for a short time. Losing on the other hand tends to stick with you a little bit longer. It’s like a Chuck Norris round house to the gut and the pain just takes too long to go away.

So here we have two very different feelings, the high of victory and the low of defeat. Some teams experience a little bit of each. Elite teams experience mostly the high, and poor teams experience mostly the low. So what does it take to have more of that good feeling that we are after and stay away from that Chuck Norris round house? Persistence, determination, and self discipline: These are the ingredients to reaching our goals. Do we have goals? Of course, our goal is to win a Conference Championship this season.  To be the best, one must have the persistence, determination, and self discipline to stay on the path we have created or to purposefully change it. Why would you change the path you ask?  To purposefully change your direction is perfectly ok, if you determine that your original direction or actions need to be adjusted in order to attain your goal. Change for a purpose is okay. What is not okay is to drift off from your direction because of lack of persistence, determination and self discipline. Drifting is synonymous with failure.

Now that we know the ingredients to success, how do we use them? The following points can help us on our journey.

·         Be as mentally tough as possible. Have a vision in your head of yourself achieving your goal. Play that vision over and over to yourself in your head every chance you get. Visualize your obstacles and how you will overcome them. Having a strong mental vision of achieving your goal will build a strong foundation for having persistence and self discipline.

·         Make progress every day. This can come in a variety of ways.  First in the classroom, at practice and at home. In the classroom, making good grades and staying eligible is progress.  This is vital, without this you cannot work toward the other goals. If you practice as hard as you can every time you step on the mat, that’s progress. If you do extra training at home and in the off season, that’s progress. Progress must become habit.

·         If you begin to drift on the path, find out why. Assess the situation, perhaps it’s time to change your path, or tweak what you’re doing in order to get the desired results.

·         Place the team first and be a team guy. Your teammates are your most important ally. Work to build this goal with your teammates.  Only with them can we achieve it.

·         When you fail, (and at some point you will) Get up, get back on the path, and stay the course!