Month: March 2018

Welcome back to our annual series of season wrap-up posts, which we cleverly titled as “The Season (20xx-xx).” Your donation dollars at work, folks.

This year, we’re not following a rotation scheme. We’re keeping it a bit more random this go-round. Using a highly scientific line of inquiry for the first change, our next installment in the series is Yulee.

Each The Season post will have the same content as they’ve had for the past four seasons. At the request of a reader last season, we will note the accomplishments of each team’s senior class that will be moving on to new goals in May or June.

YULEE

You can see everything I have on the Hornets in 2017-18 here –>  YULEE

Win/loss record: 14-9 in dual meets. Please review the attached document for a summary of the Hornets’ performance in IBT events.

Season in a nutshell: This looked to be a tricky year at the start for the Hornets, what with a couple of key transfers impacting the program even before the off-season began in earnest. But Yulee picked itself up, dusted itself off and still put together a solid season, winning eight of 11 duals after a 5-4 start. After an early win, though, the Hornets couldn’t solve West Nassau, handing over County after a pretty good run of success. IBT finishes also were slower in forthcoming, but from the end of January on, Yulee had five top-10 finishes (including a pair of runnerup efforts at Battle of the Border and districts), with a solid ninth at regions and top-half effort at states. Even with a solid graduating class leaving later this spring, there are 10 wrestlers back with a good amount of mat time, so Yulee should be OK once again in 2018-19.

Key returners (15+ matches this past season) for 2018-19 (with year in school as they’ll be next year): Tristan Martinez (sophomore, 33-17 at 106, district runnerup, 2-2 at regions); Josh Brown (junior, 9-9 at 106/113, did not compete in post-season); Trevor Gladson (junior, 26-20 at 113, district runnerup, 1 match from state meet); Bryce Bees (junior, 39-14 at 120, district runnerup, 2-2 at regions); Aston Ricks (sophomore, 10-12 at 126, district 4th, 1-2 at regions); Orion Duffy (senior, 27-22 at 132, district 4th, 1-2 at regions); Christopher Francis (senior, 8-7 at 145, did not compete in post-season); Michael Crawford (senior, 33-16 at 195, district 3rd, 2-2 at regions); Bradley Durrance (junior, 19-12 at 220, district 3rd, 1-2 at regions); Grayson Pope (senior, 9-9 at 285, did not compete in post-season).

Graduation losses from this year’s team: Jonah Luna (7-16 at 132/138, did not compete in post-season); Logan Blaise (19-32 at 138, district 3rd, 1-2 at regions); De’Von Worthen (18-13 at 145, district runnerup, 0-2 at regions); Tyler Berrier (18-14 at 152, district 4th, 1-2 at regions); Gunner Harrison (14-15 at 160, district 4th, 1-2 at regions); Victor Jansen (13-23 at 170, 1 match short of regions); McKenzie Lewis (43-9 at 285, district champ, region 3rd, state 6th).

2017-18 MVP: We really started to see McKenzie Lewis get into off-season competition this past year, and the results paid off, in the form of a 40-plus win season, a district title, and a state medal, the first state medalist in school history for wrestling. Lewis had 100+ wins and was a two-time state qualifier, with a runnerup finish to a Georgia wrestler at Cam Brown in Tallahassee, plus a title at the South East Classic hosed by Space Coast. Lewis had two nine-match win streaks over the course of the year, with a third in-season tournament win at Battle on the Border. As “Big Mac” went, so, too, would Yulee go, and his presence will be missed after seven years in the Hornet program.

2018-19 captain: There are a few guys who could fit the bill with about equal capacity, based upon the resumes of this past year, and when that occurs, I tend to look for the senior returners among that mix. Given that, I’m going to tab Michael Crawford for the position. Crawford had had some struggles in his first two years while contending with the upper weights and still being an underclassman, but occasionally had some good runs where he seemed more comfortable this year. His 9-2 run from the end of the Space Coast tournament through the first part of district duals, and 9-3 run from North Metro through Wakulla were just two examples. We didn’t see those kinds of runs the first two seasons, and that should be helpful in his senior season.

Heaton’s Hero: Even in a year where kids struggled by comparison particularly to last year, there weren’t many kids who had under-.500 win/loss records. Victor Jansen has had one of the longer careers and presences on the varsity — for any level of success — and he’s stayed out, kept working at his spot in the lineup all this time, and was a good role model for the younger kids. He was the only Yulee wrestler who competed at districts that did not move on to the regional round, and I remember watching that match where his tournament run ended. It’s always tough when a senior’s career ends. But Jansen’s ended on the mat, not in front of a video-game machine, and for that, Victor Jansen is the Heaton’s Hero for Yulee.

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Welcome back to our annual series of season wrap-up posts, which we cleverly titled as “The Season (20xx-xx).” Your donation dollars at work, folks.

We’ll open the series this year with our most active of the first-year programs (at least on a varsity level), that being Keystone Heights. The Indians have toiled in the background for a couple of seasons, being supported by a Beat the Streets program that gave this year’s initial FHSAA season some structure and some backbone. Hopefully, KHHS will join a district shortly and be able to compete in the post-season.

Each The Season post will have the same content as they’ve had for the past four seasons. At the request of a reader last season, we will note the accomplishments of each team’s senior class that will be moving on to new goals in May or June.

KEYSTONE HEIGHTS

You can see everything I have on the Indians in 2017-18 here –>  KEYSTONE HEIGHTS

Win/loss record: Unknown in dual meets. The attachment breaks down what was available to us from dual competitions. Keystone Heights did not participate in any IBTs this year.

Season in a nutshell: Ever since the Beat the Streets — Northeast Florida program began its presence under Rich and Peg Marshall in St Johns and Clay Counties, we’ve been anticipating the formation of a high school team in Keystone Heights, and this year the Indians made their debut. It came as little surprise, given the Marshalls’ affiliation with Bishop Snyder, that the North Florida Duals was KHHS’ first larger event. The Indians picked up their first dual victory as a program at the Bobcat Holiday Duals in mid-month, with a pair of them over Interlachen and Carrollwood Day. It would be another month before Keystone would pick up another win, but the Indians would add two more dual wins at the North Bay Haven Bash (this was the one event where I didn’t get all records, there was a dual with Crestview that wasn’t included), taking Ws over Wewahitchka and Ft Walton Beach. KHHS closed out its season with victories over Interlachen and Leesburg on February 3, finishing with seven dual wins in its initial season.

Key returners (15+ matches this past season) for 2018-19 (with year in school as they’ll be next year): Gavin Briscoe (8th, 9-11 at 113); Hannah Raah (sophomore, 4-14 at 120); Ethan McFarland (freshman, 9-15 at 126/132); Isabella Hanna (junior, 4-17 at 126/132); Gabe Adams (sophomore, 9-16 at 170/182); Cody Wells (junior, 9-8 at 285).

Graduation losses from this year’s team: Levi McFarland (9-12 at 138/145); Jeremy Givens (10-9 at 145/152); Brandon Hoffmeyer (16-12 at 195/220).

2017-18 MVP: As might be expected from a program still very much in a developmental stage, successes were somewhat few and far between. So the wins that Brandon Hoffmeyer picked up in the upper weights always made me stop and look at them a little more closely. Hoffmeyer led the Indians in matches wrestled in 2017-18, winning eight of 11 at one stretch between Buchholz and the Bobcat Holiday Clasic in mid-December to a month later. Hoffmeyer had a harder time finding contested wins down the stretch, with just one at North Bay Haven Bash (along with three forfeits), but he stayed above the .500 mark for most of the season, never going below it after Buchholz.

2018-19 captain: I could have gone in a couple of directions here, but I’m going to tip Gabe Adams as the choice, partially because he had one of the more complete seasons. Adams had a very impressive cast of opponents during the course of this past year, seeing both current and past state qualifiers on five different occasions. It’ll be kids like Adams, along with the other returners, that will form the backbone of Keystone Heights’ program in Year 2, and the experience he got from this year should be invaluable going forward.

Heaton’s Hero: It’s never that easy for any girl to compete against boys in this sport. It’s also not that easy to compete as a wrestler in a first-year program, and not enjoy many opportunities to get the hand raised in victory. Such was the story for Isabella Hanna, who got her first win at Bobcat Holiday Duals, then not again for another six weeks after that. All four of Hanna’s wins were by forfeit, and all of her contested matches went against her. Nevertheless, Hanna started the year in the varsity lineup, and finished the year in February on the varsity lineup. We admire that stick-to-it-iveness around this shebeen, and as a result Isabella Hanna is the Heaton’s Hero for Keystone Heights.

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We’ve got the FTU all-area teams sent off to that newspaper. While there were a few really outstanding candidates, it came down to two for Wrestler of the Year. To be honest, it’s not a decision I would want to come down to me (I’d have them both, hang tradition and how things are usually done). But it’s their call. I gave all the information I could and said I had to leave it with them.

There are 3 teams and 45 honorable-mention wrestlers, so 81 in all from teams that were with us in Year 1. Of the 45 HM kids, 32 were state qualifiers. So that left a baker’s dozen’s worth of kids that I could pick from beyond that. FTU also does first-second-third teams by weight, so not all resumes brought to the table are equal. A couple kids will all-area resumes were listed as HM, because of the depth of the class. So some of that is structural that I can’t really do much with.

I’ll let you know when I know the specific date of publication.

As I mentioned on my Facebook last night far too late (early?), all teams’ records, that I have, have been updated. Meaning that I can now finally start “The Season” posts on every team in the coverage area. We’ll start with the one team that completed a varsity season but did not compete in the post-season and kind of go from there. Not sure how I’ll send them out this year. Everybody always wants theirs done first.

These do take time and there’s 70+ of them. The goal is to have them done before Disney starts, if not sooner. There’s still a lot of track dad functions that I have in between time, and I am trying to expand my personal (non-Matmen) life in new directions. Just having the opportunity to have that go in A direction, and not be forced to be stuck in neutral, is already a big plus.

But…enough about that. Nobody cares about my personal life! Right?

So, in that spirit, I present you two links to an interview Chris Bono gave to Wisconsin Wrestling Online, a publication that has some good tech behind it but needs some better writing. Hmmm….Nope. Snow. Nope.

Here’s Part I of the interview: https://www.wiwrestling.com/bono-on-the-record-a-new-beginning/

And here’s Part II: https://www.wiwrestling.com/coach-bono-on-the-record-a-new-beginning-part-two/

Enjoy! I’ll be sort of offline tomorrow and most of Sunday for family travel. Might pick back up some content on Sunday night.

Please support our independent journalism by going here and donating to our website: https://www.gofundme.com/north-florida-matmen

Thank you to our anonymous sponsor(s) who was very generous to us. I am truly humbled whenever any donation comes in, and this was a nice one.

I will take a moment and update you all — those of you that don’t follow me on Facebook, and you really ought to, it’s a fun read and should be more so as the days and weeks unfold (my own page, not the Matmen one, which I don’t have time to update and I need to learn how to delete it).

We are at eight districts complete and have completed two of the seven teams in 2A-District 4, with probably a few more done today. That district should be finished tonight. We’ll be tweaking the first through third teams for the FTU. We’ll be adding honorable mention kids to that list (I always want to add more than I’m allowed, and that’s hard). We should finish 2A-District 1 sometime tomorrow unless I have a second day of track-dadding.

Please support our independent journalism by going here and donating to our website: https://www.gofundme.com/north-florida-matmen

Columbia senior and Limestone commit Chace Curtis (I don’t know if he’s signed yet; I have not been advised on that) is the Gainesville Sun Wrestler of the Year.

His story can be found here:

http://www.gainesville.com/news/20180327/columbia-wrestler-has-handle-on-annual-honor

The team lists can be found here:

http://www.gainesville.com/news/20180327/suns-all-area-wrestling-team

Seniors
170
Brandon Dickman (Creekside, 2-2): R64 — DEC Jacob Carpenter (PA) 5-3; R32 — L-DEC Reed Williams (WI), 5-2; C32#2 — DEC Logan Montgomery (DE); C16#1 — L-DEC Bryce Rowe (NY), 2-1.

Juniors
120
Devon Bell (Buchholz, 0-2): R128 — L-FALL Isaac Toe (NC), 1:38; C64#2 — L-FALL George Smith (WV), :49.
145
Billy Green-Church (Buchholz, 1-2): R128 — FALL Eric Starr (TX), 3:35; R64 — L-TF Wyatt McCarthy (NJ), 17-2 in 4:41; C64#2 — L-MD Jacob Conrad (Carrollwood Day, FL), 9-0.
Matt Ross (Columbia, 0-2): R128 — L-FALL Ezekial Williamson (ID), 3:39; C64#1 — L-MD Blake Bowes (VA), 13-4.
Grant Stanish (Clay, 2-2): R128 — L-DEC Diego Herrera (AZ), 5-0; C64#1 — DEC Kamden Lewis (VA), 5-4; C64#2 — DEC Justin Venezia (NJ), 1-0; L-DEC Ramy Freeman (MD), 7-4.
182
Lawrence Smith-Jackson  (Buchholz, 0-2): R128 — L-MD Nick Mihajlovich (IL), 17-4; C64#2 — L-DEC Diondre Space (MD), 5-2.

Sophomores
126
Stevie Chopek (Clay, 5-2): R128 — L-MD Tyler Albis (NY), 16-4; C64#1 — MD Yoseph Yilma (MD), 9-0; C64#2 — DEC Oakley Ridge (UT), 9-5; C32#1 — DEC Garrett Schrantz (VA), 4-0; C32#2 — FALL Alan Morano (Bradenton, FL), 3:53; C16#1 — L-DEC Anthony Federico (IL), 1-0.
170
8th place — Armando Acosta (Buchholz, 5-3): R64 — FALL Angel Lainez (NY), 3:38; R32 — MD Kobe Moreno (MT), 11-3; R16 — L-DEC Shane Reitsma (NJ), 5-1; C16#2 — DEC Dustin Radford (MD), 4-1; C8#1 — DEC James Danis (VT), 8-3; C8#2 — DEC Anthony Dalesio (OH), 4-0; C4 — DEC Walker Stephenson (SC), 5-2. 7th place: L-DEC Ethan Hatcher (OH), 3-1.

Freshmen
126
Cale Hoskinson (Clay, 3-2): R64 — FALL Ethan Slaughter (VA), 1:22; R32 — L-FALL Shayne VanNess (NJ), 2:50; C32#2 — FALL Blaize Bryant (VA), :43; C16#1 — DEC Kevin Muschel (TN), 3-1; C16#2 — L-DEC Logan Chandler (VA), 6-0.

Middle School
85
Calvin Williams (Panama City, 1-2): R32 — L-FALL Spencer Moore (KY), :56; C32#2 — DEC Ethan McCullough (GA), 1-0; C16#1 — L-FALL Kieran Cullen (NY), 1:57.
105
Aiden Moore (Gainesville, 2-2): R32 — L-FALL David Panone (GA), 2:10; C32#2 — FALL Jayce Crowe (KY), 1:21; C16#1 — FALL Clay Johnston (AL), 1:25; C16#2 — L-DEC Kodiak Cannedy (TN), 6-0
Kason Nichols (Gainesville, 2-2): R64 — L-MD Chris Lee (VA), 9-1; C32#2 — DEC Ryan King (FL), 6-2; C16#1 — DEC Benjamin McLaughlin (VT), 4-1; C16#2 — L-DEC Khalil Bourjelli (CT), 5-0.
135
Wylie Debarr (Panama City, 2-2): R32 — L-FALL AJ Fricchione (NY), 1:59; C16#1 — DEC Dylan Williams (OH), 4-1; C16#2 — DEC Carlos Guzman (NY), 6-3; C8#1 — L-DEC Christian Rutherford (RI), 2-0.

Please support our independent journalism by going here and donating to our website: https://www.gofundme.com/north-florida-matmen

I’ve seen this on several Facebook posts this weekend as well, so many of you have already been made aware of this. I am posting the Track link because I’ve always admired and appreciated Andy Hamilton’s work.

Congratulations to Coach Bono, and I hope to get further followup with him on this move when #GetBonofide is here a bit later on in the spring/summer. And I’ll of course post that as it happens.

http://www.trackwrestling.com/tw/PortalPost.jsp?TIM=1521994373871&twSessionId=whyclqjzpukebcz&postId=641325132

Please support our independent journalism by going here and donating to our website: https://www.gofundme.com/north-florida-matmen

The attachment file is all the results from Saturday’s event at Merritt Island HS, which a few coastal-side kids have attended. We’re posting those below.

There will be a post from Virginia Nationals on Monday, I should think, with all the results contained therein, including for what I believe is our area’s lone all-American, Buchholz’s Armando Acosta.

While I’ve mainly been track-dadding and overcoming personal stress from events earlier in my week, I’m also going to be preparing for my family’s ceremony of my mother’s life this cominig weekend down in Sarasota.

That personal/family stuff has been taking a lot of my attention of late, but I want you all to know that we are still compiling up records. I finished off my first district this morning and will begin work on the next one today, in fact shortly after I post this.

Mustang Open IV

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Is as complete as I’m going to have it be.

We will start on each district — walking through district, region and state — and when that’s complete, #TheSeason2017-18 posts can start to be generated!

It’s been a good day for me today, on a number of fronts. I truly needed a day like this.

Please support our independent journalism by going here and donating to our website: https://www.gofundme.com/north-florida-matmen

http://www.news-journalonline.com/sports/20180321/bartolotta-resigns-as-fpcs-head-wrestling-coach-after-6-seasons

The Bulldogs have been a key participant among the coverage area’s elite teams. Wishing Coach Bartolotta well as he moves across the state line to Glynn County!