Matt Garrett's new book

I thought I would plug my friend's newest book. Matt Garrett is one of my best friends, my college roommate and the Godfather of my oldest child. He is the Division Chair of the Division of Physical Education and Sports Studies at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. His second book, "Timeless: Recollections of Family and America's Pastime" is now available from the publisher, Team Dubuque. The book is an autobiography of Matt's baseball playing, coaching, and spectator days all while providing social commentary on several issues related to sports and society in general. A lot is about our relationships with our loved ones and how America's great game is a part of those special moments.

Matt's first book was entitled "Preparing the Successful Coach". It was published by Jones and Barlett and is available on Amazon.com. I have read the first few pages of the book and I was so impressed, I purchased it. This book is perfect for anyone that wants to coach at any level and with any sport. It is a workbook that makes one think about the philosophies of coaching and the responsibilities of a coach that go far beyond the Win/Loss column. As I involved in coaching in several different sports, I am looking forward to getting into this book and developing my skills even further.

Update on Season

We have been to two tournaments this season. At Lincoln, both boys finished in Second place. Egan went 3-1 while Bowen went 2-2. On December 13th, we were at Springfield. Bowen took first in his group going 3-0 with one tech. fall and two pins. Egan took third in his group going 1-2.

So for the year, Bowen is 5-2 while Egan is 4-3. As you can see from the schedule our next meet is on January 10th in Mattoon.

2009-2010 Wrestling Schedule

Well, it is back to wrestling for the boys. I have looked at the IKWF tournaments and I think I have a schedule planned out.

January 10th Mattoon
January 24th Mahomet
January 31st Mt. Zion
February 7th Monticello
February 14th Chatham

Pontiac Sectionals

Well, things didn't go as well as I would have hoped. Bowen ended up losing his first match 11-3. So we had to sit around and wait for the kid who beat him to have his second match. If the kid who beat him would have won, Bowen would have been able to wrestle again in the consolation bracket. But the kid from Danville lost so Bowen was out. It made for a short day, which was fine and Bowen got his taste of the state tournament. We will come back even stronger next year.

So now we have Midget State in two weeks and then Egan and Bowen get to wrestle in Kansas City at the Brute Adidas Nationals the first weekend of April.

Springfield Regional

Saturday was the Springfield Regional. Egan was wrestling in the 8 and under group, which of course means that he would be facing 7 and 8 year old wrestlers. Egan's first match was against a kid from Shelbyville. Egan dominated the match from the whistle and pinned the kid in 18 seconds. So Egan advanced to the First place match against Austin Herkert from Taylorville. Egan has faced this boy a couple of times and this match was no different from the other times. Egan was just out matched but a second place finish for a second year wrestler going against 7/8 year olds is pretty good.

Bowen was wrestling in the Junior division which is 8,9, and 10 year olds. Bowen had to face a kid from Mattoon. I don't think he had wrestled this kid before and he probably should have won this match but he wrestled pretty sloppy. Bowen ended up losing this match 13-9. His second match was against another kid from Mattoon. Bowen had wrestled this kid at Monticello and lost in overtime by two points. Bowen was ready for his revenge. He wrestled like a man possessed! He was quick, aggressive and very violent. When he put the half in, he torqued it hard and was really pulling on the other kids shoulder. It was awesome! By the end of the second period the kid from Mattoon was crying and needing the injury clock to run. The third period was a lot of the same and Bowen ended up winning 11-0. Bowen got his revenge from earlier in the season. Now Bowen was in the Third place match and guess who he was set to face? The kid from Mattoon who had beat him in the first match. They were called to the mat and set to wrestle but the match would not happen. In the state series there is no duplicate matches so Bowen couldn't face that kid again. And since the Mattoon kid won the first match, he automatically won the second match and was awarded third place. Bowen said when they told him that they wouldn't have to wrestle, the kid from Mattoon said, "Oh good!!". He had obviously watched the beat down Bowen put on his teammate and wanted nothing to do with it! Even though Bowen got fourth place, he qualified for Sectionals in Pontiac on March 7th. Not bad for his second year of wrestling and his first year wrestling in this group (he wrestled 8 and under last year).

Urbana Tiger Camp

I am a little behind on this post so please forgive me. First let me thank Dad for taking the day off to come watch the boys wrestle (Grammy came also). Thanks also to Uncle Tim, Aunt Jen and Samuel for coming up to watch their first wrestling 'meet'.

The day started out with Coach Mammen from Urbana talking to the boys about winning attitudes and how far they will go in helping a kid become a champion. It was great having the boys hear the same things I have been telling them from an Illinois Wrestling Hall of Fame member. Then his son, Kirk Mammen spoke and gave some instruction. Kirk was a two time state Champion in Illinois and a four time All-American at Oklahoma State. Once again, it was great to hear Kirk telling the boys a lot of the same things I have been saying all year. Guess it shows them that I am not as full of sh*t as they might think.

The wrestling didn't go so well for both boys. They each got to wrestle twice and they both lost twice. The matches were pretty tough and it was definitely better than going down to Shelbyville for their tournament. I thought it was a good tune up for Regionals.

Speaking of Regionals..................

The Chatham Open

The weekend didn't get off to a very good start. We went to Springfield, switched hotels after viewing the outside of the Super 8 South...what a hole!! After checking in to the Hampton Inn we decided to head to a couple of stores. At this point Bowen started to complain about his stomach hurting. I was hoping that it was just gas or the fact that we ate a late lunch, but when we stopped at Sam's he proved that theory to be very wrong. As we were sitting in the Jeep he said that he thought he was going to get sick. So I told him to open the door and sure enough, he proved that he indeed had the flu. Well, that ended his weekend. So it was just going to be Egan wrestling while Kim, Bowen and Gwen sat in the hotel until check out time.

Egan's first match went well and it ended with 15 seconds to go in the third period. Not because he pinned his opponent but because he was brutalizing the kid so bad that the boy couldn't quit crying. They went out of bounds one last time and Egan through the kid down. The boy was crying so bad that his coach told the ref just to end the match. Egan's two other matches pretty much went the same way, him manhandling the kids and winning by decisions. So he was able to walk out of the tourney with another first place trophy. Egan's record now stands at 18-3.

We have the Tiger Camp and Duals at Urbana High School this upcoming Sunday and then the Regional Tournament in Springfield on the 28th and then the season is over.

Schedule update

Ok, so there is already another change in the schedule.

We are not going to Unity on the 8th or Danville on the 15th.

We are wrestling at Chatham on the 15th and we will be wrestling at Urbana HS on the 22nd. It is a neat deal on the 22nd. The boys go to a camp at Urbana HS, then everybody gets one match (so it is a huge dual match) then they get tickets for the UofI/Michigan State wrestling match. So if anyone wants to see the boys wrestle but they don't want to sit around all day at a meet, this might be a good opportunity.

Email me with any questions

Mt. Zion Open

Thanks to Grammy for driving over in the cruddy weather to watch the meets and keep an eye on Gwen. It was an absolute mad house. There were 550 kids at the meet and our limit was supposed to be 350. Well, we had a parents' meeting on Monday night to make some improvements to the tourney and our limit for next year is 400, no questions asked.

So on with this years tourney. The boys did really well in their respective brackets. Egan finished in second place in 5/6. He gave up a penalty point for an illegal hold and that is what gave his last opponent in 5/6 the win. Otherwise, he would have gone into overtime and had a chance at first place. Egan finished in sixth place in 7/8, but did get his first win in that age bracket by pinning his second opponent. He was very excited, a lot of parents got a kick out of him after he won. Egan jumped up and down with his arms raised above his head like Rocky at the top of the stairs. It was pretty funny and Tappy McLeod is going to get me a DVD of it, then I can put that match on the blog.

Bowen finished in second in 9/10. He went 2-1 for the day with his loss in the last match against a kid from Charleston. Boy, was it ever a battle!! Bowen really hopes to see that kid again this year. Maybe if he gets to Sectionals he will see him.

So records as of now are Egan 15-3 in 5/6 and 1-5 in 7/8 and Bowen is 7-8 in 9/10.

Schedule for the rest of the Season

I think this is the schedule for the rest of the season:

January 25th at Mt. Zion
February 8th at Unity (Jr. High)
February 15th at Danville (Spartan Rumble @ David S. Palmer Civic Center)
February 22nd at Shelbyville

Email me with any questions.

Monticello Open Results

Sorry to say that there is no video from this week's tournament. I bought a new camcorder but Kim stayed home to get some stuff done. Thanks to Grammy for driving over to see matches.

Egan won all three of his matches to win first place. He pinned his first opponent in less than a minute. His second match was sloppy and he had to go into overtime to win. I was not very happy with that match, happy with the win; not happy how he went about getting it. His third match was against a kid from Westville. Egan wrestled that kid last week in Mattoon so we pretty much knew it would be a win. Egan wrestled hard and beat the kid 14-0. He had him down on the mat but he just couldn't get the kid pinned. Egan will definitely be wrestling in the 5/6 group and the 7/8 group in two weeks at Mt. Zion.

Bowen had a very rough day. He lost all three of his matches. Two were very close. His first match was against a kid from Mattoon. With about 20 seconds left in the match, Bowen was up 8-7. He let the kid get a take down, so now he is down 9-8. Bowen was able to get the escape just as time expired, so regulation time ended with the match a tie 9-9. So we head into overtime and the kid from Mattoon got the take down and was able to walk away with the win 11-9. His second match was against a Lincoln opponent. He was down 4-3 with 16 seconds left. The Lincoln kid shot in on him and Bowen was able to sprawl and block it but he wasn't able to spin around behind the kid and the two points for the takedown. Bowen let him up and went to tap him in the head but missed the forehead and hit the kid right in the face. The ref stopped the match and gave the Lincoln kid a point since Bowen did an illegal move. So with six seconds left Bowen was down 5-3. The Lincoln kid just stayed away from Bowen and the match was over. Bowen's third match was against a kid from Monticello. This kid was really good and Bowen got pinned in the first period. Out of Bowen's 8 losses this year, this was the first one by being pinned.

So now Egan is 13-2 and Bowen is 5-8. We have next weekend off. So it will be nice not having to get up early on Sunday morning. That will mean there will probably not be any updates until Sunday, January 25th after the Mt. Zion Open.

Wrestling at Mattoon

The boys definitely had a tough week of practice but I think in the end it worked out well for them. Egan walked out of the Mattoon Tournament with a 1st place finish in the 5 & 6 group and Bowen walked away with a 1st place finish in the 9 & 10 group. I also tried something new this weekend, I had Egan wrestle in the 7 & 8 group also. I think I have mentioned before how he sits for so long during the day that he gets a little bored so I thought if I kept him out on the mat longer, he might keep his mind on wrestling more. He went 0-3 in this group, losing two by decision and one by fall. I was happy that he worked harder in the three losses than he did in the three wins. That is one of the things I was hoping would happen by wrestling him up.

Egan's 5 & 6 group went very well. He pinned his first two opponents in under one minute combined. His third match didn't look very good but he pulled out a 9-5 decision. He was lucky that the last kid was a first year wrestler otherwise Egan would have been walking out with another second place finish. So he is currently 10-2 with two first place finishes and two second place finishes.

Bowen was the big surprise of the day!! He came out fired up and aggressive. His first match lasted 10 SECONDS!!! His second match against a kid from Cumberland went the distance but Bowen came close to getting a technical fall with a score of 16-2. So he went into his third match unbeaten and going up against one of the hometown kids (from Mattoon). He went after that kid fast and furious and pinned him in about 30 seconds. What was great about that match on a personal note was that it shut up the Mattoon crowd. I understand that it was their tournament but they were allowing way too many parents on the floor and there were too many people standing by the ring trying to 'coach' the Mattoon kid. In our youth wrestling federation you are supposed to have a coaches card to be on the floor and you are only allowed two coaches on the mat. So it was awesome that Bowen was able to whip the kid fast and not give them time to get loud and out of place. Several of our coaches came up to me and told me how they thought that Bowen was really coming along well with the wrestling. They saw an agressiveness that hasn't been there up until today. I was talking to Kim after the tournament and she said that Bowen had told her before any of his matches that he was tired of getting third place in the meets. Well, he really went out and did something about it!

Here is a clip of video of Bowen's 10 second match (don't blink! haha) Thanks to Myranda, my niece, for the filming of this match!! Thanks to Aunt Chris and Myranda for coming down to see the action.