wvmat.com

I hope Wheeling Park is being "fashionably late" in getting some wrestlers enrolled for Super 32.

Wheeling Park has TEN returning varsity wrestlers due back from last season's team that finished sixth in the AAA state tournament.

Of those 10, there was a runner up, THREE third place winners and a sixth placer.

Wheeling is much farther to drive to Super 32 as opposed to say................ Greenbrier County.

On that note, Greenbrier East has nine varsity wrestlers due back, two of which went to Fargo and they have an incredible wrestling room. ZERO registered for Super 32 right now.

East has an interesting culture surrounding their wrestling program. Coach Miluk is top notch, the wresting room is phenomenal, and they bring up good kids through the youth program. However, they recently seem to hemorrhage talent right before it reaches the high school level. I wonder if there are other people associated with the program, driving good folks out? Perhaps that's not it at all, and there is another factor.

Top 10 team if they had Lusher and Williams last year.

Getting out of state for off-season competition is uncommon throughout the state, for the most part. I'd be surprised to see anyone making multiple big trips like that. Gets expensive.

I can't say anything about WP; I haunt the southern part of the state. Prefer to avoid the yank territory.

greencrush wrote:East has an interesting culture surrounding their wrestling program. Coach Miluk is top notch, the wresting room is phenomenal, and they bring up good kids through the youth program. However, they recently seem to hemorrhage talent right before it reaches the high school level. I wonder if there are other people associated with the program, driving good folks out? Perhaps that's not it at all, and there is another factor.

Top 10 team if they had Lusher and Williams last year.

Getting out of state for off-season competition is uncommon throughout the state, for the most part. I'd be surprised to see anyone making multiple big trips like that. Gets expensive.

I can't say anything about WP; I haunt the southern part of the state. Prefer to avoid the yank territory.

As a former assistant and head coach of the middle school team that feeds into East, I have an opinion or two.

1) The middle school has an AD that is absolutely not supportive of the wrestling program at all. As HC I watched as a soccer team that didn't even exist yet was allowed to go $4000 in the red using booster funds while I was told that I could not go $200 in the red to pay for hotel rooms to take the team to WSAZs, even though I had fundraiser funds coming that would cover it.

2) As a result of #1, there is a revolving door at coach at the middle school. As soon as a coach takes over the team they are told by numerous people "Good luck dealing with the AD." Not a good way to promote the sport in the school or ensure that there is continuity. Including myself I believe there has been 4 head coach changes in the last 7 years or so and if Brian Bush didn't keep the position this year, that would make 5 changes in the last 8 years or so.

3) There is a community culture in Greenbrier county that everyone thinks their kid is the next Kobe/MJ/Shaq. This is so prevalent that they started a rec league for all of the kids that get cut from the middle/high school teams or if the parents don't like the coach. A lot of kids who would make fine wrestlers are instead trying to become superstar basketball players on the rec league.

With that said, Coach Miluk does a fantastic job of promoting the sport at the high school level and building a solid team. If he had a more effective system feeding wrestlers into his program then one can only imagine how much better the team would be.

coach_williams wrote:

greencrush wrote:East has an interesting culture surrounding their wrestling program. Coach Miluk is top notch, the wresting room is phenomenal, and they bring up good kids through the youth program. However, they recently seem to hemorrhage talent right before it reaches the high school level. I wonder if there are other people associated with the program, driving good folks out? Perhaps that's not it at all, and there is another factor.

Top 10 team if they had Lusher and Williams last year.

Getting out of state for off-season competition is uncommon throughout the state, for the most part. I'd be surprised to see anyone making multiple big trips like that. Gets expensive.

I can't say anything about WP; I haunt the southern part of the state. Prefer to avoid the yank territory.

As a former assistant and head coach of the middle school team that feeds into East, I have an opinion or two.

1) The middle school has an AD that is absolutely not supportive of the wrestling program at all. As HC I watched as a soccer team that didn't even exist yet was allowed to go $4000 in the red using booster funds while I was told that I could not go $200 in the red to pay for hotel rooms to take the team to WSAZs, even though I had fundraiser funds coming that would cover it.

2) As a result of #1, there is a revolving door at coach at the middle school. As soon as a coach takes over the team they are told by numerous people "Good luck dealing with the AD." Not a good way to promote the sport in the school or ensure that there is continuity. Including myself I believe there has been 4 head coach changes in the last 7 years or so and if Brian Bush didn't keep the position this year, that would make 5 changes in the last 8 years or so.

3) There is a community culture in Greenbrier county that everyone thinks their kid is the next Kobe/MJ/Shaq. This is so prevalent that they started a rec league for all of the kids that get cut from the middle/high school teams or if the parents don't like the coach. A lot of kids who would make fine wrestlers are instead trying to become superstar basketball players on the rec league.

With that said, Coach Miluk does a fantastic job of promoting the sport at the high school level and building a solid team. If he had a more effective system feeding wrestlers into his program then one can only imagine how much better the team would be.

Coach Williams, your commentary goes hand in hand with an independent and previous conversation I recently had with my good friend "TrueSouthFanInMcArthur". His words mirrored yours.

When was the last time a kid made the sports page in Greenbrier County for basketball..............let alone went on to play in college????

Well, here is one : Rick Romeo, WVU 2012-2016

Truesouthfaninhunt wrote:Well, here is one : Rick Romeo, WVU 2012-2016

I am not hating on Rick or anything (I know his dad), but playing for three years (not 4) for WVU and averaging less than a minute per game is hardly a testament to the success of the county basketball program.

My response was to BH's request to name one kid from the county that " played" basketball in college.. so I named one.

Truesouthfaninhunt wrote:My response was to BH's request to name one kid from the county that " played" basketball in college.. so I named one.

So did Bimbo Coles. To my knowledge they are the only two that played D1 ball.

I wasn't trying to be a jerk with you or anything. Sorry if it came off that way.

coach_williams wrote:

greencrush wrote:East has an interesting culture surrounding their wrestling program. Coach Miluk is top notch, the wresting room is phenomenal, and they bring up good kids through the youth program. However, they recently seem to hemorrhage talent right before it reaches the high school level. I wonder if there are other people associated with the program, driving good folks out? Perhaps that's not it at all, and there is another factor.

Top 10 team if they had Lusher and Williams last year.

Getting out of state for off-season competition is uncommon throughout the state, for the most part. I'd be surprised to see anyone making multiple big trips like that. Gets expensive.

I can't say anything about WP; I haunt the southern part of the state. Prefer to avoid the yank territory.

As a former assistant and head coach of the middle school team that feeds into East, I have an opinion or two.

1) The middle school has an AD that is absolutely not supportive of the wrestling program at all. As HC I watched as a soccer team that didn't even exist yet was allowed to go $4000 in the red using booster funds while I was told that I could not go $200 in the red to pay for hotel rooms to take the team to WSAZs, even though I had fundraiser funds coming that would cover it.

2) As a result of #1, there is a revolving door at coach at the middle school. As soon as a coach takes over the team they are told by numerous people "Good luck dealing with the AD." Not a good way to promote the sport in the school or ensure that there is continuity. Including myself I believe there has been 4 head coach changes in the last 7 years or so and if Brian Bush didn't keep the position this year, that would make 5 changes in the last 8 years or so.

3) There is a community culture in Greenbrier county that everyone thinks their kid is the next Kobe/MJ/Shaq. This is so prevalent that they started a rec league for all of the kids that get cut from the middle/high school teams or if the parents don't like the coach. A lot of kids who would make fine wrestlers are instead trying to become superstar basketball players on the rec league.

With that said, Coach Miluk does a fantastic job of promoting the sport at the high school level and building a solid team. If he had a more effective system feeding wrestlers into his program then one can only imagine how much better the team would be.

This is true, but not quite the issue I was speaking of. Most of those kids are prima donnas anyways, and don't have the fortitude necessary to withstand the physical and mental challenge of wrestling. Rec-league basketball for the kids not good enough to make the high school team