wvmat.com

I ran into some folks from the Panhandle from Berkley Springs, so I asked what happened to or where is Tory Bennett? I believe he still holds the WV record for wins at 217.

I knew he had gone to Lock Haven I believe and their reply was he blew out a knee, and is helping his Dad coach at Spring Mills. The folks were in the Parkersburg area for a youth tournament, great to know wrestling in the Eastern Panhandle still has the interest, and dedication of those fine folks, to travel and dedicate their time for the kids!

Spring Mills opened in 2013 and was projected to be the largest HS in WV. I don't recall much about Wrestling in that area, except for Tory Bennett, Damen Caper and the young man who won 2 WV and 2 PA state Championships, then a national Championship before enrolling at Maryland. All coached by Darrell Bennett at Berkley Springs If I'm not mistaken.

Good Luck building Spring Mills into a fine program!

Young mans name was Ryan Diehl he won the National Title at Liberty.

TomBennett wrote:Young mans name was Ryan Diehl he won the National Title at Liberty.

I had no idea we had a NCAA Champ from WV. Congratulations

Not an NCAA division CHAMP, although Liberty is NCAA division 1. A NCWA Champion, which if I'm correct still left him with 4 years of eligibility for Maryland.

TomBennett wrote:I ran into some folks from the Panhandle from Berkley Springs, so I asked what happened to or where is Tory Bennett? I believe he still holds the WV record for wins at 217.

I knew he had gone to Lock Haven I believe and their reply was he blew out a knee, and is helping his Dad coach at Spring Mills. The folks were in the Parkersburg area for a youth tournament, great to know wrestling in the Eastern Panhandle still has the interest, and dedication of those fine folks, to travel and dedicate their time for the kids!

Spring Mills opened in 2013 and was projected to be the largest HS in WV. I don't recall much about Wrestling in that area, except for Tory Bennett, Damen Caper and the young man who won 2 WV and 2 PA state Championships, then a national Championship before enrolling at Maryland. All coached by Darrell Bennett at Berkley Springs If I'm not mistaken.

Good Luck building Spring Mills into a fine program!

Wow, I don't typically respond to much on here. Since this was related to me directly and it was something positive I felt the need.

Thanks for the mention Tom.
In this and the comments below you were correct. Ryan did win 2 titles at Liberty, but since they don't have an NCAA program we still don't have an NCAA title from the state just yet.
Ryan is wrestling for Maryland now in his second year there. Just got the 141 starting spot a week or two ago after getting healthy. So hopefully more to come on him in the next couple years.

Coach Bennett x3 are coaching at Spring Mills and right now doing all the right things (including trying to recruit from the kids in the halls) I think with some time they will do well there. Because of Bennett, Berkeley County now has the option for middle school wrestling. Jefferson and Morgan have had this for a while so it will help with future competition and athletes success.

Berkeley Springs wasn't the only Youth Program representing from the Eastern Panhandle this past weekend. JJWA took 19 kids and had 17 coming home with hardware. Musselman had at least one kid in the finals. (also happens to be a MS WSAZ champ this year) Hardy County had a good showing well.

As for us in Berkeley Springs our youth program is growing once again. Most don't travel just yet but we did manage to get the majority of our kids on the podium this weekend. On the middle school level Warm Springs had (in my opinion) a successful season. We made the trip to the Mt State Clash. one of the two days went REALLY well the other not as much but that is listed in the results if you want to see more. HA! And we placed a handful at WSAZ
But the High School Podium is what we are building toward. On that level we have some athletes doing well this season. And we hope to get them to Huntington and with any luck bring home some hardware.

My point (I guess if I have a point in this rambling) is there is still a wrestling community in the Eastern Panhandle. There is still a lot of interest from the kids. We didn't come up with the dividing lines that created AAA region 2. and I can PROMISE we wouldn't have put ourselves in AA/A region 1! The coaches are doing what they should do, the youth programs are building a solid base and we parents/fans are doing our best to get these kids where they need to be.

Thanks for the positive post these kids need to know there is someone out there rooting from them, even if just in small way.

Most of all, Tom, thanks for making sure I was well fed. My travel mates don't like me when I am hangry!

Let's not forget the 1995 Berkeley Springs High School State Team Championship under coach Horace Blankenship. Many of those team members now have sons following the family tradition and many of their fathers are coaches both in the Junior, Middle School and High School. Wrestling is indeed alive in Berkeley Springs.

[quote="mriggleman"][quote="TomBennett"]I ran into some folks from the Panhandle from Berkley Springs, so I asked what happened to or where is Tory Bennett? I believe he still holds the WV record for wins at 217.



mriggleman it seems like you talk to or know Coach Bennett well. Any chance Bennett X3 (Tory & Tyson) ever returns to Berkeley Springs? I like his style and there are not 2 better assistant coaches in the area. I caught his speech a time or two at the athletic banquet during his time at Berkeley Springs. I like the emotion he showed when he talked about his wrestler's accomplishments.

Hmm…. That is a tough one. For a couple reasons.

1) I do speak with Coach B regularly but don’t know his plans. Though getting a middle school and feeder system running this year doesn’t sound like someone with plans to leave.
2) Not sure if it was intended or not. but it is pretty disrespectful to the current coaches to say that, don’t you think? Ignoring how the current coaches would feel about this. They are adults after all. But the athletes do read this stuff. Lack of respect from the parents and fans is in turn picked up but the kids. And if a kid doesn’t respect the coach how will that kid ever learn anything from him? It doesn’t matter if Sanderson or the Stallings Brothers, or anyone in between is the coach. The parents, fans and kids need to respect the coach.

mriggleman is it true Coach B is back in MoCo?

Indiansfan wrote:mriggleman is it true Coach B is back in MoCo?

He is teaching at WSMS, yes.

mriggleman, how dumb are the people choosing the new coach? I sure you agree with them because you are also now a coach. My sons will never wear Blue and Gold now! Politics and who's grandfather had money should not be a factor in such decisions. I just heard who applied, and there was no comparison in the applicants.

Returning to the positive nature of this post, I believe there were several Spring Mills High School wrestlers this past weekend at the Columbus Day Duals in York, PA and they did quite well, with one or two other eastern panhandle wrestlers on their club team out of Maryland. Congratulations to them and to the South wrestlers who also traveled there and participated. You can check the results of everyone there on Track Wrestling. Out of 36 high school teams present (with 24 teams in their upper division bracket), most of whom were club teams, those two teams finished about 8th and 9th overall and had 4 or 5 wrestlers go undefeated. Pretty good for a dual tournament made up of teams composed of pretty elite wrestlers (primarily from PA, NY, NJ, MD, & VA) and no slouches. Again, congratulations to all of the WV kids.

Indiansfan wrote:mriggleman, how dumb are the people choosing the new coach? I sure you agree with them because you are also now a coach. My sons will never wear Blue and Gold now! Politics and who's grandfather had money should not be a factor in such decisions. I just heard who applied, and there was no comparison in the applicants.

Indiansfan, What a ignorant comment! Explain to me how a man (my Father) who passed away 3 1/2 years ago influenced the coaching position decision a month ago.

coaches uncle wrote:

Indiansfan wrote:mriggleman, how dumb are the people choosing the new coach? I sure you agree with them because you are also now a coach. My sons will never wear Blue and Gold now! Politics and who's grandfather had money should not be a factor in such decisions. I just heard who applied, and there was no comparison in the applicants.

Indiansfan, What a ignorant comment! Explain to me how a man (my Father) who passed away 3 1/2 years ago influenced the coaching position decision a month ago.

Im a little lost here. Indian fan are you saying the vote for coach in the Hs level? If you are then your kids should certainly be wearing blue and gold. Coach Bennett is probably the best coach I have ever been around. He made my son a state champ (Literally) so I of course was pretty excited that he came back and was in the running. When I spoke to Tory he told me the coaches line up and who was applying. Bennett was voted out (BS) but Derek is a hell of a coach and is running his practice much like the old school guys. Furthermore we are getting Shawn Diehl back into the program, that is HUGE. We have a lot of studs coming this year and some that are already there. So I guess what I need to know.....What was the influences. And if this wasnt about HS then just act like i never wrote it.

Qualityshots wrote:

coaches uncle wrote:

Indiansfan wrote:mriggleman, how dumb are the people choosing the new coach? I sure you agree with them because you are also now a coach. My sons will never wear Blue and Gold now! Politics and who's grandfather had money should not be a factor in such decisions. I just heard who applied, and there was no comparison in the applicants.

Indiansfan, What a ignorant comment! Explain to me how a man (my Father) who passed away 3 1/2 years ago influenced the coaching position decision a month ago.

Im a little lost here. Indian fan are you saying the vote for coach in the Hs level? If you are then your kids should certainly be wearing blue and gold. Coach Bennett is probably the best coach I have ever been around. He made my son a state champ (Literally) so I of course was pretty excited that he came back and was in the running. When I spoke to Tory he told me the coaches line up and who was applying. Bennett was voted out (BS) but Derek is a hell of a coach and is running his practice much like the old school guys. Furthermore we are getting Shawn Diehl back into the program, that is HUGE. We have a lot of studs coming this year and some that are already there. So I guess what I need to know.....What was the influences. And if this wasnt about HS then just act like i never wrote it.

I don't understand either. I do not know of any School Board that would vote or allow a vote for a head coach. Always comes from the AD and Principal of a given school. I believe it goes like this in most school districts for all coaches on any sport. The candidate must have board approval after a finger print and back ground check has been conducted and they pass with no blemishes on their background check that concludes no possible harm would come to the student athlete or school. It's getting harder and harder to find good people to take the time to lead our kids. So what is IndiansFan trying to say? If your kid wants to wrestle let them. If there is something you don't like be on the positive side and try and make it better.

Money Talks, Peoples Last Name and Sometimes Just the Perception! Give it time the truth will come out it's a small town everyone knows everyone's business.