WV Black Bears

[Beast]

A K-8 team was put together to compete in a dual tournament on Saturday just north of Pittsburgh called "The Battle in the `Burgh". We went 3-1-1 (discussion on the tie later on). I wanted to thank all the kids & parents that participated. They were great! Kids got good mat time in & represented their state & our wrestling community very well. I also love to see the kids on the team hang out together. They will remember these events & make friendships that will follow them for a while. Sometimes that is a fact that I miss.

Wanted to give a special thanks to our Head Coach George Smith. I enjoy working with you sir. About half the kids were from his youth & MS teams. They were great as most could probably predict. They brought a good cheering section too!!

Also want to thank all the people who I contacted to get me in contact with guys I was trying to get a hold of. Much appreciated. I wouldn't be trying to get a hold of them if you had done a lot of work to get them to where I think they are good enough to represent to whole state at a particular age & weight. Hats off to you all!!

A breakdown to the dual results:

Match 1 vs. Indiana Outlaws - Lost 53-27. Got pinned in several of our first 6 matches or so & couldn't make the deficit up. Was down like 25ish points going into 87# match.
Match 2 vs. OMP - Tied 28-28 (Loss on Criteria-they had more wins 9 to our 8). OMP went on to lose in the finals to Ascension from OH by a large margin. OMP was the host team & from what Mr. Kehler said is one of the premier clubs in PA. FYI - OMP beat the Outlaw team by 10 points.
Match 3 vs. East Coast Vikings - Won 53-18 - Therefore finishing 3rd in our pool. Dropping us into consolations.
Match 4 vs. Bad Karma (Consolation semis) - Won 50 something to 20 something.
Match 5 vs. Quick 5 (5th place match) - Won 38-24. Finished 5th out of 8 teams.

Our team seemed to get better throughout the day. Coach & I think we were a little better than 5th, but you have to show it when you need to & it didn't go our way.

Here was the line-up:

58-Issac Sands (Wheeling)
63-Brody Kehler (Toss)
67-Milton Funkhouser (Iron Eagles
72-Ben McComas (Competative Edge) & Adam Carmen (Independent) - They alternated at this weight all day
77-Moses Eads (Mahindra)
82-Josh Woyan (Point)
87-MacKandle Freeman (Point)
92-Gabe Carmen (Independent)
98-Brock Kehler (Toss)
104-Issac Short (Point)
111-Chris Smith (Point)
118-Justin White (Point)
126-Mitchell Freeman (Point)
135-Hunter Kuhn (North Marion) - for a one match.
142-Julian Stoneman (Williamstown)
150-Gavin Quiocho (Edison)
175-

I keep telling everyone that if we put our best wrestlers on a team, that we (WV) can compete with any team in the country. These results & what came out of VA Beach this year can back this up. Even though this team was really good with some top shelf talent, we still have better wrestlers out in certain weight & age classes that can improve the team. I hope that as we move forward with these dual teams, the top elite hammers will join up so we can put our best team together & bring home some titles for this state & more importantly, respect from other parts of the country that WV can hang with anyone when it comes to the sport that we all love.

If you would like to be a part of these teams in the future, contact me (texting is preferred):

Corey McComas
Team Coordinator (you know...the guy with the clipboard!)
304-951-8650

[WP1992]

Out of curiosity, was the opportunity to be on this team posted someplace? Admittedly, I may have missed it. However, if you want more kids to be interested in this type of opportunity it is important to make sure it is well advertised. My son will be a freshman this year so I am not even sure if he was eligible for this event. But if he was eligible, we certainly would have wanted to be part of it if a spot was available.

[ZZChooseTop]

Mr. McComas I thank you for the opportunities that you are selflessly giving wrestlers from all over WV. Congratulations to the kids who laid it on the line to compete. Many of the people who will come out of the woodwork now to criticize you would not have gone anyway because of baseball or football or some other commitment.

[Beast]

The ability to join the team was not posted for everybody to see. That is not how I am going to go about forming these teams. This is the second team that I have put together. The WVYWA Elem. Dual Team for VA Beach & this one. The VA Beach team had a tourney to qualify & we ended up with many holes to fill due to weight gain, inability to travel, lack of interest, etc. I ended up filling nearly a dozen spots just by contacting certain wrestlers. The year before, the turnout was very low as well for the qualifying tourney. My process was to start by contacting the best wrestlers I could identify. I used results from mainly WVYWA states & some other results that were posted. The reasoning was I wanted to put together the best team I could find. When the #1 guy turned it down, I moved to the second best guy until I filled it, and so on & so forth.

This was a K-8th grade event on Saturday, but the grade level was based on last school year. So, I believe that your kid would have been eligible. I apologize for not being able to contact you guys. We are talking about starting a HS Dual team if he is interested in future opportunity. I will say that I don't know HS & MS wrestling as well as I know youth because that is what my kid & my team is involved in.

I wont say that it is completely selfless. I really enjoy experiencing the teams you worked to put together kick butt. And yes football did make it hard to fill this team.

This K-8 team, I put together with George Smith & his guys from their program. He filled the spots that he could with his guys & I would fill the holes in he couldn't with the contacts that I had. I basically used the same process except I relied on The WSAZ results pretty heavily. I put a lot of effort into these & the search was pretty thorough in my opinion. Example: I contacted around 15 different kids before the 82# spot was filled.

One thing to remember, duals are not open tourneys. What I mean is that when we travel & compete against Premier clubs from OH, PA, Indiana, etc...They are bringing the best cats they can find. If your kid is not top notch, they will get it handed to them in most matches. My kid went 1-2 in actual matches & he was a runner up at states. My kid wasn't the first option to fill the spot he was at. I am not going to put kids on the team that I think cant handle that level of competition.

Mike Carmen & I talked a lot about the dual team concept & have some ideas how we are going to make this process better. This is my first couple of adventures into these types of events. This will be an evolving process. But I will say that one of my goals is to have one team that is very competitive with the best wrestlers from this great state & we are wrestling to win. Now will the kids get good mat time so they can continue to develop...absolutely. What I am saying is that some people may be unhappy but someone has to decide who is going to take these spots. If that person is me, I will do it. Sometimes it is tough to say who is better or more importantly, who is going to perform better on the team. Mistakes will be made but I do this trying to consider all the factors & I will & have asked for some advice from some people that would know those kids a little better.

We are also talking about sending multiple teams to some of these events so more kids get the opportunity to go & get these experiences. We also want to continue to develop the dual concept throughout the state. If you have been to one of these types of events, they are very exciting.

My suggestion to all those who would want a spot on these duals teams, especially the elite team: #1 Contact me (304-951-8650) & get on my radar. #2 Show me results: State finishes; big national tourney finishes; other major wrestling accomplishments; etc. #3 What does Ric Flair say, "To be the man, you gotta beat the man...Whooo" If I have picked someone on the team & you want that spot, go beat them! Example: If my kid is holding the 72# spot & you want it, go beat him. Dominate him. Show me that the team would be better having them on the team not him. And the guys on this team will know that if they lose to an in state guy, they may lose that spot & probably will.

Appreciate the feedback guys!

[WP1992]

Beast, Thanks for the explanation. I think what you are doing is a great thing and will help WV kids if you get buy-in. Travis Phillips and I took a team several years ago ( I think my son was 100 To NUWAY National Duals in Columbus and it was a great experience. We have done other big duals and they will humble even the best wrestlers at times.That is how you get better. We will look for additional opportunities as they come available. Keep the WV wrestling community up to date through this forum!

ZZChoosetop: Nobody was complaining, but thanks.

[P.H.D.]

Traveling to the Pittsburgh area to wrestle is a good move on your part. We live in Wv but only 40 min from downtown Pittsburgh. You can wrestle anywhere in the U.S. and not find competition like Western Pa. Not saying there aren't great wrestlers in other states but in abundance...I think Pa is a lock. My opinion!