Month: August 2016

And we have 16 schedules, with the Rams — under former assistant coach Matt Miller now taking over the reins as head coach this year — reporting in this afternoon.

Most of Englewood’s schedule is familiar to it, as the Rams will be at Terry Parker for Optimist Invitational in Week 1, back at Parker twice in January for the Army Duals on the second week of January and the Parker Duals to close out that month, with Gateway Conference at Sandalwood in between those. Englewood will return to Clay’s Rotary tournament in February, which has been a key development in its schedule.

The one potential new event on the Rams’ calendar might be its own, as Englewood is hoping to move back its “Super 6” event one week, rename it as a “Super 8,” and — possibly — hold it outside on a Friday night on the football field. That is still up in the air at this point.

Englewood has one single dual on the calendar as well, traveling across the river to face Ed White on December 7.

We’ve got the first third. Who’s going to lead off the second one?

Our 15th schedule came in today, with Bartram Trail making it happen with a schedule in hand that has a mix of returning and new events for the Bears in 2016-17.

Bartram Trail will return to the Matanzas Duals to open the season and also is coming back for the St Johns River Conference at Matanzas in the third weekend of January and Flagler Palm Coast’s Rotary event to close out that month, opening February with a return to Clay’s Rotary tournament.

New events dot the middle of the Bears’ schedule, with Bartram Trail going to the Neptune Duals hosted by Fletcher on the Saturday of Week 2, Week 3’s Ridgeview Rumble and Buchholz’s Bobcat Holiday Duals just before Christmas, plus the Commander Duals at Ed White on the second week of January.

Single duals for the Bears include a road trip to Bolles on January 10, home against Creekside on January 18 and then their season-ending dual away at Ridgeview on February 8.

We’ve already got our 16th. That will be posted shortly…

EDIT: With change on the Palatka date.

We are at 14 schedules with a few days still to go before Labor Day, with St. Augustine coming in tonight.

The Yellow Jackets have two IBT events on the calendar, preferring otherwise to compete in dual or roundrobin events on weekends. St. Augustine will be a new participant in the Optimist Invitational, one of its two IBTs, in Week 1, and has added the Deland Duals just outside of the Matmen coverage area in mid-January. Those are its newer entries on the schedule.

St. Augustine is returning to the Neptune Duals at Fletcher in Week 2 and to the Tiger Duals at Columbia in Week 3, with another appearance at Matanzas’ St Johns River Conference two-day duals event. The Jackets’ other IBT event will be the Flagler Rotary to close out January, and another event at which St. Augustine plans to return is the Westside Duals on the first weekend of February.

St. Augustine will travel to Westside on December 7, hit the road for Palatka on January 10, host Ponte Vedra on January 24 and then host both Nease and Pedro Menendez on February 2.

OK, that’s 14. Who’s going to be 15?

Set for Saturday at Clay HS. Three hours and out the door. Time to finalize the Super 32 prep.

Green Cove Throwdown IV

Yes, Florida does not have a Division I wrestling program.

But there are options for wrestlers who want a Division I college wrestling experience and warm weather. And, in a few weeks, those wrestlers will have the opportunity to show their stuff in front of Arizona State University head coach Zeke Jones, who will be running a single-day at camp at South Walton HS, located at 645 Greenway Trail in Santa Rosa Breach, on Saturday, October 8.

The camp will begin at 9 a.m. and will have one session only, wrapping up at noon.

Jones will be joined by guest clinicians John Ginther, a former junior freestyle world champion as well as three-time all-American at Arizona State, and Jimmy Gressley, a two-time all-American for the Sun Devils.

Cost for the camp is $25 and paying at the door is acceptable. Kids of all ages with an AAU card are invited. For more information, contact Chris Pickren at cpickren@mchsi.com.

We are posting a list of one-time and on-going fundraising opportunities that each wrestling team is putting together individually.

Whether we’d like it to be this way or not, the reality of the situation is that at most schools, wrestling does not receive as high a priority as we would like it to have and many programs are under-funded in some way, shape or form.

So I would like to do my small part and make those fundraising efforts just a bit more public, if I can.

The “Fundraising” page is that small part. It will be a clearinghouse for funding efforts at all levels. If you have a fundraising effort going on, I invite you to email me the details at either nefloridamatmen@gmail.com or my work email address, which every high school head coach has.

(EDIT: Due to site display limitations, we’ve had to build two sub-pages that drop down from the 16-17 Schedule page. The first is High School Varsity, which had everything that the original 16-17 Schedule page. This page, noted below, has been updated as JV & Middle School).

We’ve added a page for JV and middle-school events that we’ll add to as more schedules come in. When Buchholz submitted its schedule, it came with a JV list as well, and I wanted to be able to publish those dates as well, but they really couldn’t be included with the varsity list as well.

So that will be a page that we will update as well (NOTE: We have updated this with our first middle-school schedule, from Lake Asbury JH). We’ll publish youth events on a separate page when we start to get those.

Got Episcopal’s schedule during the nightmare of my Saturday (again, I’ll share some more about that in a few days). We’re at 13 now and moving.

Quite a few new events for the Eagles, but a few familiar things as well. Episcopal will again go to Terry Parker for Optimist in Week 1 and will travel to Tallahassee in Week 2 for the Capital City Classic. They’ll again host the Rob Bierbaum Invitational to open 2017, and they’ll be back for the Rotary events to close out January and begin February, going to Flagler in late January and Clay in February.

A lot of the stuff in the middle of the Episcopal schedule, though, is new. The Eagles are the first team to check in as part of the Yulee Duals on December 17, and that won’t close out 2016 for them, as they’re going to Atlanta to compete in the Southeast Prep Slam in between Christmas and New Year’s. Additionally, Episcopal will get some travel in around mid-month, going to the Viper Duals — hosted by Space Coast — on January 13-14.

Single dual-wise, Episcopal will have Bolles on January 11 and will take on Bishop Kenny — the traditional season-opener — on January 17 this year.

So that’s 13. Who’s going to be the 14th? Could be YOUR school…

The Northeast Matmen schedule is 25% complete, with Ponte Vedra submitting its schedule late Friday afternoon (it’s been a stressful weekend for me, more about that in a few days).

The Sharks are keeping a few larger events and adding a few new ones, staying with Parker’s Optimist Invitational on Week 1 and also with the Braves’ Parker Duals to end January. Those are the events at which Ponte Vedra has been a fixture.

But the Sharks are changing some things up as well, joining up with their coastal counterparts, Fletcher, for the Neptune Duals during Week 2, Yulee’s Battle of the Border (which seems to have gotten some traction this year) to kick off 2017) and Ed White’s Commander Duals in mid-January.

Ponte Vedra has several single duals scheduled, with Wolfson home on December 7, Ridgeview home on January 11, Fletcher away on January 18, St. Augustine and Bishop Kenny, both away, back-to-back on January 24 and 25, Menendez away to open February (the 1st) and home against Nease on February 8 to close down the regular season.

That’s 12, with another one waiting. Watch for another schedule addition being posted before the night’s end!

The Cradle to the Grave single-day camp will be staged at Oakleaf HS on Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m. and going until 12:30, with an hour break for lunch, and then picking back up at 1:30 p.m. and going until 3:30 p.m., with additional instruction and live wrestling at that time. Camp is open to all age groups. Cost is $25, instructor will have T-shirts for sale at the camp for an additional charge. Please bring your own lunch if you plan to attend. For more details, contact Oakleaf coach Wes Champ at wesleychamp@gmail.com.