Month: May 2019

We have a new coach at Episcopal, Jefferson Brant, coming in from Maryland, and Coach Brant is hitting the ground running, getting the first schedule in for the 2019-20 season before the calendar ticks over to June.

December will begin with the Eagles traveling westbound on Atlantic Blvd on the 4th, facing 1A-District 3 (this year) rival Bishop Kenny on the road. The Eagles will then compete in Bishop Snyder’s North Florida Duals, a one-day tournament, on the 7th. Then, Episcopal will be off for two weeks before going to the Yulee Duals on December 20-21.

January opens as it traditionally has, with the Eagles hosting the Rob Bierbaum Invitational, a one-day IBT, on the 4th. Episcopal next will host Bolles, now no longer a district rival, on the 9th, and is scheduled to compete in 1A-District 3 team dual tournament competition on the 11th, with the potential for region duals on the 16th. That weekend, the Eagles will travel to Tallahassee for Lincoln’s one-day Trojan Invitational, scheduled for the 18th. State dual team tournament action is scheduled for (potentially) all teams on the 24th and 25th. Episcopal swings back into regular-season dual competition by hosting Orange Park to the 29th.

The Eagles close out January and open February with an appearance at the Flagler Rotary, hosted by Flagler Palm Coast, a two-day IBT. They’ll stay in IBT mode the first full weekend of the month, going to Clay’s Green Cove Springs Rotary on the 7th and 8th. That will wrap up regular-season competition for Episcopal.

That’s our first one in hand! Will one of our newer teams be second? Will one of our usual teams that submit early be second? WHO’S NEXT???

Find us on Facebook at North Florida Matmen or on Twitter at @NorthFLAMatmen. We want your schedules for the 2019-20 season. Head coaches can email them to our work email.

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Welcome back to our annual series of season wrap-up posts, which we cleverly titled as “The Season (2018-19),” because we’re creative like that. Your donation dollars at work, folks.

Teams are being selected on a random basis. Our 33rd installment for this season, and fourth from 3A-District 1, is Fleming Island.

Each The Season post will have the same content as they’ve had for the past five seasons.

FLEMING ISLAND

You can see everything I have on the Golden Eagles in 2018-19 here –>  FLEMING ISLAND

Win/loss record: 17-1 in dual meets. Please review the attached document for a summary of the Golden Eagles’ performance in IBT events.

Season in a nutshell: Get ready for a longggggg paragraph here. With one exception, Fleming Island finished no lower than third in any tournament in 2018-19, and won all but one dual wrestled. The Golden Eagles started with a third-place team finish at the Danny Byron Invitational, hosted by Osceola, to open the season on the first weekend. The second weekend saw a second third-place finish at Lyman’s Bill Scott Memorial. The Golden Eagles then had their first local competition of the year, holding the rest of the St Johns River Conference to just five match wins in sweeping to a 7-0 weekend. The only hiccup came — understandably — at Knockout between Christmas and New Year’s, where Fleming tied for 26th in that tournament’s loaded field. The Golden Eagles shook that off quickly, with a win at their own Robert Northway “Keystone” Invitational the first weekend of January. They then outscored two district opponents 141-3 in winning the 3A-District 1 dual team tournament midweek before going 3-0 in duals and finishing second at Palm Bay’s Ships N Duels on the second weekend. After that tournament, the Golden Eagles focused on state duals, with two double-digit wins in the 3A-Region 1 quarters and semis mid-month, a third double-digit win for the region title at Osceola on the last weekend of January, and a dominant semifinal win at state duals that same weekend. Fleming then pushed South Dade harder than any team has in nearly a decade before falling in the state dual title match. South Dade got the better of Fleming again the following weekend at the MyHouse Tri-County Invitational at Olympic Heights, as the Golden Eagles were second. Fleming then ran the table with titles at Clay Rotary, 3A-District 1 and 3A-Region 1 traditional tournaments, qualifying 13 wrestlers for state. There, the Golden Eagles finished second to South Dade, with five medalists — including one champion. It’s going to be a massive season for Fleming in 2019; this upcoming year is not a season like last season, where there was some reloading to be done. No fewer than 18 (!) Fleming wrestlers can return in 2019-20 with either post-season or significant regular-season experience — and that’s not including some real gems that fell just short of 15 matches, click the attached document if you don’t believe me. Of those 18, 12 were region qualiifers last year (11 of those 12 as district champions). Ten of those 12 qualified for states, with four of them earning state medals. Not for nothing, but Fleming should rightly be favored as the top 3A team in Florida next season.

Key returners (15+ matches this past season or post-season experience) for 2019-20 (with year in school as they’ll be next year): Hunter Herrington (junior, 39-14 at 106, district champ, did not compete at regions); Riley Holton (junior, 46-15 at 113, district champ, region runnerup, 1-2 at states); Ryan Hobson (senior, 39-23 at 126, district champ, region runnerup, 0-2 at states-injured); Isaac Padgett (sophomore, 16-7 at 126/132, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Dalton Baysinger (junior, 22-15 at 132, district champ, region 4th, 1-2 at states); Garrett Cole (junior, 23-14 at 132, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Dalton Williams (senior, 37-14 at 138, district champ, region runnerup, 1-2 at states); Gannon Janssen (senior, 48-12 at 145, district champ, region 3rd, state 6th); Braden Hill (senior, 6-9 at 145/152/170, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Hunter Williams (sophomore, 14-4 at 145, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Connor Rogers (senior, 23-6 at 145/152, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Luke Chop (senior, 55-6 at 152, district champ, region 3rd, state 3rd); Tanner Hill (senior, 52-11 at 160, district champ, region 3rd, 1-2 at states); Gavin Smith (junior, 48-17 at 170, district champ, region 3rd, state 5th); Nick Janssen (senior, 30-16 at 182, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Chad Nix (senior, 53-7 at 195, district champ, region champ, state 3rd); Robert Tyre (sophomore, 15-1 at 195/220/285, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Jeffrey Lascano (senior, 45-7 at 220, district champ, region 3rd, 1-2 at states); Raul Gonzalez (junior, 36-14 at 285, district runnerup, 2-2 at regions).

Graduation losses (15+ matches this past season or post-season experience) from this year’s team: Briar Jackson (57-7 at 120, district champ, region champ, state CHAMPION); Anthony Breeden (41-14 at 182, district champ, region runnerup, 1-2 at states).

2018-19 MVP: He was the Florida Times-Union’s Wrestler of the Year, Fleming’s first two-time state wrestling champion and its emotional leader almost as soon as he walked into the room. Soon-to-graduate Briar Jackson (he walks tomorrow evening, so I’ve been informed) is the only choice for this award this year. For him, he got out to a slow start, with six of his seven losses in December (to be fair, two were to a Division I signee, the other four to current or future college signees, including two potentially, one certainly, for Division I). Post-Knockout, Jackson was 42-1, with titles at Keystone, Ships N Duels and Clay Rotary, with only a one-point loss in the finals at MyHOUSE Tri-County. No matter; from there, Jackson ripped off wins in his final 17 matches, with titles at Clay, districts, regions and states, where he avenged one of his December losses. We’ll get to follow Briar for another four years at Life University, briefly on #NextLevel hits on this site and probably a bit more detailed on our affiliated Georgia site, which will have expanded #NextLevel pieces.

2019-20 captain: A lot of teams, the MVP and captain choices are pretty easy ones to make. Not so for Fleming Island, where there are 18 kids back that picked up a mere 647 wins between them (that’s nearly 36 PER RETURNER). There are so many directions to go with this one. Lots of leader possibilities. But I started hearing about this coming year’s Fleming senior group even before it started as freshmen, and of those, the consistency that Luke Chop demonstrated right from the jump as its group leader stands out to me the most strongly. Chop had just two losses this year that weren’t against current or former state champions, with a second at Danny Byron, third at Lyman, plus titles at Keystone and Ships N Duels. Chop won 28 straight matches and 34 of his last 36, with a district title, region 3rd (only loss was 2-1) and state 3rd (only loss to the eventual champ, in the semis).

Zander Laurin Warrior: If you wrestled for Fleming this past year, chances were you had a better than .500 record, and if you started the post-season, 100% chance of making regions and making Saturday at regions. So I kind of looked to the second group of kids, and the season that junior Connor Rogers had as a backup at 145/152 really stood out to me. His first competition was at Keystone, where his only losses were to eventual state medalists. He was 8-0 with max points scored in all eight wins for Fleming’s B group at the USMC Duals. He reached the final at MyHOUSE Tri-County, filling in for Chop at 152, and finished fifth at Clay Rotary, again filling in for Chop. He’s one of the better wrestlers in the state that very few have heard of, and that’s why Connor Rogers is the Zander Laurin Warrior for Fleming Island.

Find us on Facebook at North Florida Matmen or on Twitter at @NorthFLAMatmen. We want your schedules for the 2019-20 season. Head coaches can email them to our work email.

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Welcome back to our annual series of season wrap-up posts, which we cleverly titled as “The Season (2018-19),” because we’re creative like that. Your donation dollars at work, folks.

Teams are being selected on a random basis. Our fourth installment from 2A-District 4, and 32nd overall, is Paxon.

Each The Season post will have the same content as they’ve had for the past five seasons.

PAXON

You can see everything I have on the Golden Eagles in 2018-19 here –>  PAXON

Win/loss record: 0-11 in dual meets. Please review the attached document for a summary of the Yellow Jackets’ performance in IBT events.

Season in a nutshell: This is going to be difficult for me to run through without putting my opinion on this, but the Duval County Golden Eagles did not leave Jacksonville during its run of competition this year. Paxon was 14th at Terry Parker’s Arlington Optimist Invitational the first weekend of December, then was off the mats until mid-January for a pair of midweek duals against its scholastic rivals in the city. Next up was Gateway, where the Golden Eagles were 15th, and the season wrapup was at Parker Duals in the final weekend of January, where only three kids suited up for the first day and just one for the second day. Paxon did not compete in the FHSAA post-season series, duals or traditional.

Key returners (15+ matches this past season or post-season experience) for 2019-20 (with year in school as they’ll be next year): Logan Holman (sophomore, 4-11 at 145, did not compete in post-season traditionals).

The awards and the concerns: I just don’t have enough of a sample size on the Paxon kids to know which is their MVP, which is their captain, etc. Yes, I didn’t think Paxon should have been assigned to this district when it was, but they were and their kids should have gotten a chance to compete (I don’t know what the circumstances were for them not competing; quite frankly, I don’t care). Those kids should have gotten a chance to be on the mat and put it on the line. I remember being really quite upset, when 2A-District 4 started competing and I got wind on the grapevine that Paxon didn’t show, that they didn’t send anyone. Look, I know as well as anyone not inside the building can how hard it is to simply compete in a sport at a school like Paxon (my own kid faced similar struggles for four years). But if the school isn’t even going to make sure that it affords its wrestling kids a chance at a post-season — something it offers in every other sport — it should consider (and I hate to say this) dropping the program, or it should allow its kids to wrestle for another team. Kids like Logan Holman, the only kid that wrestled the full set of competition he was allowed to face this past year. Logan Holman deserved better than this.

Find us on Facebook at North Florida Matmen or on Twitter at @NorthFLAMatmen. We want your schedules for the 2019-20 season. Head coaches can email them to our work email.

We’re EXPANDING in South Georgia! Check out our affiliated site at http://sgamatmen.wordpress.com

Please support our independent journalism!

We’re on Venmo now: Shannon-Heaton-6
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Welcome back to our annual series of season wrap-up posts, which we cleverly titled as “The Season (2018-19),” because we’re creative like that. Your donation dollars at work, folks.

Teams are being selected on a random basis. Our first installment for Round 4 (31st overall), the fourth from 2A-District 2, is Leon.

Each The Season post will have the same content as they’ve had for the past five seasons.

LEON

You can see everything I have on the Lions in 2018-19 here –>  LEON

Win/loss record: 3-4 in dual meets. Please review the attached document for a summary of the Lions’ performance in IBT events.

Season in a nutshell: The Lions opened the season with a pair of in-town tournaments, taking eighth out of 10 teams at Florida High’s round-robin Cam Brown Seminole Classic and then finishing T-23rd at Chiles’ Capital City Classic IBT in mid-December. Leon was then off the competitive mats for a month, returning in the third week of January with a midweek dual and 13th-place team finish at Lincoln’s Trojan Invitational. We didn’t get results from their trip to Cairo GA for the Syrupmaker Invitational, unfortunately, even with Cairo being an area team on our affiliated Georgia site. The Lions were 17th at Wakulla’s one-day IBT in early February, and wrapped up their regular-season tournament schedule with a sixth-place team finish at Chiles’ one-day dual tournament, the Timberwolf Duals. Leon took fourth at the 2A-District 2 traditional tournament and was 17th at Region 1 over at Chiles, with one state qualifier. That qualifier can return in 2019-20, along with most of the Leon starting lineup. The Lions only lose two starters to graduation, but will need a lot more numbers — particularly in the uppers — to make more inroads in the district race.

Key returners (15+ matches this past season or post-season experience) for 2019-20 (with year in school as they’ll be next year): Lukas McKinney (junior, 12-11 at 113, district runnerup, 1-2 at regions); Alex Crago (junior, 6-12 at 120, 1 match from regions); Derek Holloman (senior, 4-7 at 132, district 4th, 1-2 at regions); Cole Dalton (senior, 6-10 at 138, district 4th, 0-2 at regions); Ethan Eudy (senior, 24-12 at 145, district 3rd, 1-2 at regions); Tramia Dillard (junior, 3-5 at 152, 1 match from regions); Josh Seabrooks (junior, 220, district champ, region 3rd).

Graduation losses (15+ matches this past season or prior/current post-season experience) from this year’s team: Jaquenez Madison (24-8 at 160, district runnerup, did not compete at regions); Jalani Stockton (20-13 at 170, district 4th, 1-2 at regions).

2018-19 MVP: We didn’t get to see a full season out of rising junior Josh Seabrooks, but what we saw was full of promise. He got off to a slow start, with a 2-2 weekend at Capital City, and then didn’t return until February and the Wakulla IBT, where he placed sixth; he also put in a 3-1 day at Timberwolf Duals. But the regular season really was just practice for Seabrooks, who was Leon’s only district champion and only state qualifier. His only loss, in placing third at regions, was to the eventual champ. Seabrooks had a quick state tournament, but his opponents had tons of experience and a combined total of 91 wins.

2019-20 captain: Rising senior Ethan Eudy has the most returning experience among the Lions with eligibility to return next year. Eudy was tied for the Leon team lead in victories this past season, with .500 or better performances at every tournament. He was third at Cam Brown and would go on to take third in a solid district field. With sufficient off-season work, Eudy could be a threat to qualify for states in 2019-20.

Zander Laurin Warrior: Rising senior Cole Dalton didn’t enter the lineup until mid-January, and that was a midweek dual, but then didn’t return to the lineup until Timberwolf Duals. At that tournament, Dalton made a solid contribution with three victories, two of them contested. Given his relative lack of experience, he would have faced an uphill battle to get out of the district tournament, but he pushed his way out of the consi side of the draw with a key blood-round victory to extend his season for another week. For finding the way to win despite the odds, Cole Dalton is the Zander Laurin Warrior for Leon.

Find us on Facebook at North Florida Matmen or on Twitter at @NorthFLAMatmen. We want your schedules for the 2019-20 season. Head coaches can email them to our work email.

We’re EXPANDING in South Georgia! Check out our affiliated site at http://sgamatmen.wordpress.com

Please support our independent journalism!

We’re on Venmo now: Shannon-Heaton-6
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Welcome back to our annual series of season wrap-up posts, which we cleverly titled as “The Season (2018-19),” because we’re creative like that. Your donation dollars at work, folks.

Teams are being selected on a random basis. Our 30th installment for this season, and third from 1A-District 1, is Rutherford.

Each The Season post will have the same content as they’ve had for the past five seasons.

RUTHERFORD

You can see everything I have on the Rams in 2018-19 here –>  RUTHERFORD

Win/loss record: 3-15 in dual meets. Please review the attached document for a summary of the Rams’ performance in IBT events.

Season in a nutshell: Rutherford was one of the last teams to begin competition, with district dual team competition on December 20 the Rams’ season-opener, where they were 1-2. Next up was county and district rival North Bay Haven’s two-day Bash dual tournament, where a short-handed Rutherford team was 0-10. Round-robin tournaments seemed to afford the Rams some more opportunities to showcase their solid individuals, as Rutherford was 9th at the 13-team Panhandle Championship, hosted by Mosley the second weekend of January, and 10th of 19 teams at Wewahitchka’s Gator Brawl on the third weekend. The Rams tied for 15th at Wakulla’s one-day IBT to kick off February and closed out the regular season with two dual wins (nearly a third as well), going 2-3 at Bay County on Valentine’s Day. Rutherford had better showings in the post-season thanks to its strong individuals, with a fifth at the District 1 traditional tournament, 17th (out of 29 teams) at Region 1, and T-42nd at states, with two qualifiers. One of those two can return next year, along with five other wrestlers who had post-season or significant regular-season experience this past season. The Rams will need to work on numbers in order to compete more capably in duals format, but they have a few solid individuals who will keep them scoring well in IBTs and roundrobins.

Key returners (15+ matches this past season or post-season experience) for 2019-20 (with year in school as they’ll be next year): Jacob Latham (sophomore, 9-12 at 113, 1 match at regions); Colin Dutton (junior, 20-19 at 120, district 4th, 1-2 at regions); Hayden Stanemiller (junior, 3-21 at 138, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Zack Duncan (junior, 6-16 at 160, district 4th, 0-2 at regions); Xavier Stillgess (junior, 20-13 at 195, district champ, region 4th, 1 match from state medal); Elton Rumph (junior, 33-11 at 220, district champ, 2-2 at regions).

Graduation losses (15+ matches this past season or post-season experience) from this year’s team: Keivontie Logan (29-9 at 152, district champ, region runnerup, 0-2 at states); Ethan Elliot (13-13 at 170, did not compete in post-season traditionals).

2018-19 MVP: Recently-graduated Keivontie Logan has been the Rams’ stalwart performer for the past three seasons, and reached the state tournament this year in his final year of eligibility. He had a nine-match win streak during the course of the year, which started in his final match at Panhandle and concluded in the finals at Gator Brawl, where he was second. Logan was a first-team all-Bay County competitor, with five bonus-point wins, following that up with a district title and region runnerup finish, during which he built a 12-match win streak. Logan lost to the eventual state runnerup, 5-2, in the first round at states and had another close match on the other side.

2019-20 captain: We didn’t see rising junior Xavier Stillgess until Panhandle in the second week of January, but he only missed two events in so doing. Stillgess got off to a slow start, going 5-9, but he rallied quickly from there, winning 10 matches in a row between Wakulla (where he placed fifth), Bay County (five max-point wins, including three pins) and districts, where he took the second of Rutherford’s three titles. Stillgess took an early loss at regions, but battled all the way back to the third-place match. At states, Stillgess bagged two victories, falling in the blood round, but he’ll have two more chances to fix that before he’s done.

Zander Laurin Warrior: I’m always leery of recognizing someone here who didn’t compete in the post-season, but at the same time I’m not always privy to injury info late in the season. Rising junior Hayden Stanemiller only had his hand raised three times this season, all of them via forfeits, and 18 of his 21 losses ended by fall. But despite the adversity, Stanemiller kept coming back once he entered the lineup at Bash, with appearances at Panhandle, Wakulla and Bay County. That determination to come back, in the face of much adversity in terms of wins and losses, makes Hayden Stanemiller the Zander Laurin Warrior for Rutherford.

Find us on Facebook at North Florida Matmen or on Twitter at @NorthFLAMatmen. We want your schedules for the 2019-20 season. Head coaches can email them to our work email.

We’re EXPANDING in South Georgia! Check out our affiliated site at http://sgamatmen.wordpress.com

Please support our independent journalism!

We’re on Venmo now: Shannon-Heaton-6
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So there was some good news for us last week, which has already been shared out in the community earlier in the weekend, while we were dark.

I was pleased enough simply to be nominated for Wrestling USA’s sportswriter of the year earlier this year. I had no expectations for it and certainly never dreamed to win. I had not received any awards for wrestling coverage since 1991, and that hope seemed long past me, who sometimes sees myself as a jumped-up dadblogger, at this point.

But having done so, I have several people to thank.

First to Larry Yudin, without whom there would be no website. Coach Yudin taught my third son, Logan, American government at Mandarin, and learned of my background — I had thought myself well and truly retired from writing (see the photo below). But I needed some way to try to become part of this adopted community (for those who don’t know, I moved here only eight years ago), and between Logan and Coach Yudin, the seed was planted in February of 2013.

Next would be PJ Cobbert (and by extension Travis Cunningham) and Jim Reape (and by extension Hunter Hill). Without getting a chance to see their programs up close — and the fanbases that supported them — I would not have known that there was a critical need for wrestling coverage (the FTU did not cover much wrestling before the post-season and I rarely, if ever, saw results before I started sending them in). After covering primarily, but not exclusively, these two teams in the first two weeks — for 1010XL.com, of all possible sites — I knew that the next season there would be a site, which kicked off on Labor Day of 2013.

Two wrestling parents deserve special note. Chris Pickren was the primary influencer and motivator to pitch me on extending our coverage to Tallahassee and the Gulf in 2015. Last year, Randy Burke floated what seemed to be a crazy idea to go into South Georgia. This coming year, which will be Year 7 for us, we will be covering 130 teams in two states, from the south Savannah suburbs down to Daytona Beach.

While every coach was and is invaluable to this effort, particular kudos has to go out to David Harrison, Kevin Warner and Chad Parker in our fledgling first year, but also to John White, Clay Allen and Billy Pankey in Florida, along with Joe Eichfeld, John Robbins and Jess Wilder in Georgia, for believing in our mission more or less from the jump. That was true for the Florida coaches mentioned even before they were brought on board. And it was also true for the Georgia coaches mentioned, particularly that there remain a couple of programs that never really got what we are trying to do.

In innumerous ways, particularly so over the last three seasons, Brant Parsons has become a trusted colleague and dearest friend. I still am not sure how a brother of mine from another mother can possibly tolerate Arsenal or, worse, “The” Ohio State University, but family is weird like that sometimes (my sister married a Steelers fan, for Pete’s sake). No entity out there in Florida, none, covers the sport as completely as we do in our Sentinel-Matmen partnership. We bring a large chunk of the Sunshine State a set of results, articles, previews, features and predictions every season and a lot of days in the off-season. It remains our goal to get all wrestling results statewide, something no other media entity has attempted. But Brant is the GOAT in the state; at best, to use a sports analogy, I’m D-Wade to his LeBron, or, in more of a wrestling context, Ben Askren to his Jordan Burroughs.

There have been significant challenges and disappointments along the way in my time here in Florida. Financial difficulties, which continue. Personal ones. Were it not for my youngest son wanting to stay with his friends, I was much closer, closer than any of you will ever realize, to leaving (not just the site, but Florida) last year. There seemed, particularly after September 2017 and again after January 2018, no reason for me to stay here. It took a great deal of prayer and self-reflection to endure. My intended, Lady Matmen, has been a blessing beyond measure on that front. You’ll see her more, and learn her identity, once the season begins next year; that’s the plan, leastways.

Speaking of my kids, they have had to tolerate, more or less, my wrestling obsession over the years (at least since 2007), but this website can’t happen at the level of depth and breadth that it has without the support of my youngest son, Brevan Heaton. While I’ve been off covering your kids, mine has had to spend a lot more time alone. I make it up to him, some, in the spring months, but the time he grants me to do this work is a debt I can never really repay.

As to (yet another) debt I can never really repay, you, the reader — the kids, coaches, and families — are the reason I work on this site every day. It’s been said that I’m kind of a big deal. It’s been said that I just want to make a name for myself. The kids were, are and shall remain always the big deal on this website. They, and not I, deserve to have a name for themselves.

If this award means anything, it’s a testament to my devotion in trying to make that happen.

And it also means that it’s time for me to go back to work.

Welcome back to our annual series of season wrap-up posts, which we cleverly titled as “The Season (2018-19),” because we’re creative like that. Your donation dollars at work, folks.

Teams are being selected on a random basis. Our 29th installment for this season, and third from 2A-District 3, is Terry Parker.

Each The Season post will have the same content as they’ve had for the past five seasons.

TERRY PARKER

You can see everything I have on the Braves in 2018-19 here –>  TERRY PARKER

Win/loss record: 23-25 in dual meets. Please review the attached document for a summary of the Braves’ performance in IBT events.

Season in a nutshell: As will happen four later times in the season, Terry Parker’s season began at home with the Arlington Optimist Invitational, in which the Braves took eighth out of 15 teams. Next up was Orange Park’s Raider Six-Way Friday-afternoon dual tournament, at which Parker went 2-3. The Braves’ short-handed lineup — something it struggled with all season — took a hit at Yulee Duals just before Christmas, as Parker was 0-7 there. January began with a 2-1 Thursday-night warmup for the North Bay Haven Bash, where the Braves were 5-5 later in that first weekend. Parker was third at the inaugural 2A-District 3 team dual tournament, going 1-2 there, and followed that up with a 2-5 dual effort at the USMC Duals it hosted on the second weekend. At Gateway, the Braves were 11th out of 15 teams, and then hosted their last regular-season event of the season, the Parker Duals, at which they were 7-2 and placed third as a team. Parker was eighth at the inaugural Bell-Raulerson IBT at Sandalwood in the second weekend of February and its trio of girls at Dr Phillips was sufficient to place in the top third (31st out of 94 teams) at girls’ state. The Braves were fourth out of seven teams at the 2A-District 3 traditional tournament, and finished mid-pack at the Region 1 meet (14th out of 26 teams), with one state qualifier, who went on to medal and help Parker place 28th out of 71 teams at Osceola. Terry Parker will return nine starters with either post-season or significant regular-season experience, with a couple more returners right on the doorstep of the 15-match threshold, but the Braves are going to need to find some lower-weight wrestlers in 2019-20.

Key returners (15+ matches this past season or post-season experience) for 2019-20 (with year in school as they’ll be next year): Tijuan Boyance (senior, 13-14 at 145, district 3rd, 0-2 at regions); Tazia Bates (sophomore, 9-17 at 145, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Lonnie Sanders (senior, 25-18 at 152, district 4th, 1-2 at regions); Darius Farmer (senior, 14-3 at 152, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Ashley Saddler (senior, 39-15 at 160, district champ, 2-2 at regions); Andrew Hodges (junior, 10-15 at 160, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Emily Mills (senior, 27-23 at 195, girls’ state 5th, 1 match from regions); Marquis Walton (senior, 2-5 at 285, district 3rd, 0-2 at regions); Evan Jefferson (junior, 33-10 at 285, did not compete in post-season traditionals).

Graduation losses (15+ matches this past season or post-season experience) from this year’s team: Amber Goodbread (17-37 at 106/113, 0-2 at girls’ state at 106, district 3rd at 113, 1-2 at regions); Danielle Farmer (13-22 at 138, 1 match from girls’ state medal, 1 match from regions); Estaban Lenhardt (17-20 at 170, 1 match from regions); Landon Dains (67-2 at 182, district champ, region champ, state 3rd); Ben Sabella (27-7 at 220, district runnerup, 2-2 at regions).

2018-19 MVP: Soon-to-graduate (tomorrow, by my count) Landon Dains was not only unquestionably the Braves’ most valuable wrestler in 2018-19, but also arguably has been Terry Parker’s best wrestler in the modern era, certainly since inception of the Matmen site. Dains ran the table from the beginning until states weekend, with regular-season titles at Arlington Optimist, Gateway and Bell-Raulerson. Dains had 26 pins and an incredible 18 tech falls during the course of the year, and was, I believe, the last wrestler in the coverage area to lose a match, which came Friday late afternoon at states in the quarterfinals against the eventual runnerup. Dains took a second loss against a former state champion in the consi semis, but finishing fifth — against the competition in the state field — was a major accomplishment. What his impact is on the Parker program, however, is the bigger accomplishment. Surely he’ll be wrestling at the #NextLevel, but I haven’t seen a signing photo.

2019-20 captain: Rising senior Ashley Saddler will have big shoes to fill in Dains’ absence, but he showed himself to be solidly capable this past year, with 39 wins of his own, including a 12-match win streak between Yulee Duals and North Bay Haven Bash. Saddler had another 13-match win streak that started at the end of January and didn’t end until the quarters at regions. During that stretch, he was 5-0 at Parker Duals in a part-time role and won the district title at 160. He got to Saturday at regions, the only other Brave at Chiles to do so besides Dains, and that experience is going to be big, particularly with what hopefully will be a team with several new faces next year.

Zander Laurin Warrior: Rising senior Emily Mills faced a host of competitors with significant strength advantages while competing at 220 and, later, 195, during the course of the season for the Braves. Until the final week of the regular season, all of Mills’ wins came against other girls or by forfeit. Meanwhile, only one of her losses — 19 prior to girls’ state — had been against a girl. Nevertheless, the experience of taking lumps against the guys in the regular season paid dividends at girls’ state, as Mills won three of her five matches, with the two losses coming by a combined total of five points, to place fifth overall. That willingness to undergo regular-season pain to get the end-of-year medal is what makes Emily Mills the Zander Laurin Warrior for Terry Parker.

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On this weekend made possible by those who gave their full measure of devotion, there was wrestling to be done during the course of the weekend. I don’t know if any local kids finished in the top four in the youth ranks, but I did see a couple of HS-aged north Floridians competing in the 16-under and junior divisions. This was the Southeast Regional tournament, contested in Wilmington, NC.

Results can be found here:

Greco: SE REGIONAL GRECO-ROMAN RESULTS

Freestyle: SE REGIONAL FREESTYLE RESULTS

Girls’ Freestyle: SE REGIONAL GIRLS FREESTYLE RESULTS

Find us on Facebook at North Florida Matmen or on Twitter at @NorthFLAMatmen. We want your 2019-20 schedules. Head coaches can email them to my work email.

We’re EXPANDING in South Georgia! Check out our affiliated site at http://sgamatmen.wordpress.com

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Welcome back to our annual series of season wrap-up posts, which we cleverly titled as “The Season (2018-19),” because we’re creative like that. Your donation dollars at work, folks.

Teams are being selected on a random basis. Our 28th installment for this season, and third from 1A-District 3, is Bishop Snyder.

Each The Season post will have the same content as they’ve had for the past five seasons.

BISHOP SNYDER

You can see everything I have on the Cardinals in 2018-19 here –>  BISHOP SNYDER

Win/loss record: 12-4 in dual meets. Please review the attached document for a summary of the Cardinals’ performance in IBT events.

Season in a nutshell: Bishop Snyder had a solid-enough season to wrangle an area honorable mention ranking from the Jacksonville newspaper late in January. It took a while for the Cardinals to get there, starting with an 11th-place team finish at their own Westside Kiwanis Invitational on the first weekend of the season, followed by a 4-3 weekend at Ridgeview’s Panther Prowl. After three weeks off, Snyder returned to competition on the first Saturday of January, finishing ninth out of 10 teams at Episcopal’s Rob Bierbaum Invitational. At the inaugural 1A-District 3 dual team tournament at Baker County, Snyder went 2-1, its last dual-meet loss of the season. The Cardinals next were at Citrus’ Ed Kilpatrick Classic, taking eighth out of 18 teams, and then, with an additional pair of midweek wins, the Cardinals were 4-0 at their own North Florida Duals to close out January. Bishop Snyder had a midpack finish at Wakulla’s one-day IBT in early February (11th out of 19 teams), and closed out its regular season with a 28th-place finish at Clay’s Green Cove Springs Rotary. The Cardinals placed fifth at the 1A-District 3 traditional tournament, with nine Region 1 qualifiers, including one champion. At regions, Bishop Snyder’s season came to a close, as the Cardinals finished 20th, with two wrestlers getting to the blood round. Snyder has at least eight wrestlers that can return with either post-season or significant regular-season experience in 2019-20, but with only two rising seniors in the lineup that both started and finished the season, the Cardinals will be younger next year.

Key returners (15+ matches this past season or post-season experience) for 2019-20 (with year in school as they’ll be next year): Christian Villanueva (junior, 24-12 at 113, district 3rd, 1 match from states); Austin Davoli (senior, 1-3 at 120, district 4th, did not compete at regions); Backtash Wallizada (junior, 6-24 at 132, district 4th, 0-2 at regions); Clayton Beasley (junior, 13-22 at 145, district 4th, 0-2 at regions); James Baker (senior, 11-13 at 160, district 4th, 1-2 at regions); Kennan Wilder (junior, 20-18 at 170, district runnerup, 1-2 at regions); Jose Indio (senior, 12-18 at 182, district 4th, 1-2 at regions); Angel Lecointe (sophomore, 8-17 at 220, 1 match from regions).

Graduation losses (15+ matches this past season or post-season experience) from this year’s team: Elijah Bishop (13-13 at 120, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Matthew Drummond (6-9 at 126, 1 match from regions); JP Villanueva (14-9 at 126, did not compete in post-season traditionals); John Bokros (21-16 at 152, district 4th, 0-2 at regions); Thomas Graden (34-7 at 195, district champ, 1 match from states); Mark Morante (13-11 at 220, did not compete in post-season traditionals).

2018-19 MVP: Newly-graduated Tommy Graden was a state-ranked 195 during the course of the season and seemed to have done everything right to get to states, but ran into a buzzsaw in the region semis, falling by one point in the blood round. That doesn’t take away from what was a very solid season, as Graden won 10 matches in a row after losing his first of the season, then won 17 in a row after a loss to a 2A state qualifier at Panther Prowl. Graden was third at Westside Kiwanis and won at both Bierbaum and Kilpatrick, with a third-place finish at Wakulla. Graden was Snyder’s only district champion, capping a long career that began with much lower expectations four seasons ago, but evolved into a quality finish.

2019-20 captain: Rising junior Christian Villanueva will be the leader on the mats for next year’s Cardinal team, as the only other Snyder wrestler to get to Saturday at regions. Villanueva had a nine-match win streak that included a Kilpatrick title and a 4-0 day at North Florida Duals. He did struggle at some of the area’s bigger tournaments, but he was hardly unique in that regard, and rallied for a third-place finish at districts, falling in the semis to an eventual state qualifier. After another early loss at regions, Villanueva pinned his way into the blood round, where he took a second loss to the wrestler that beat him early on Friday.

Zander Laurin Warrior: Rising sophomore Angel Lecointe took over at the top of the lineup for the Cardinals, starting from the second week of the season at heavyweight. It took a month to get a contested win, but Lecointe’s biggest win of the year might have been at North Florida Duals, where a double-OT win in one of the duals drew a lot of attention and secured the Cardinals’ chance at an unbeaten day. Lecointe dropped down to 220 after the Wakulla IBT, and didn’t win a match there, but his importance to the team was already secured. The grit Lecointe showed in that match makes him the Zander Laurin Warrior for Bishop Snyder.

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Welcome back to our annual series of season wrap-up posts, which we cleverly titled as “The Season (2018-19),” because we’re creative like that. Your donation dollars at work, folks.

Teams are being selected on a random basis. Our third installment from 2A-District 1, and 27th overall, is Choctaw. (By the way, between Florida and Georgia, we’re a little more than half done).

Each The Season post will have the same content as they’ve had for the past five seasons.

CHOCTAW

You can see everything I have on the Indians in 2018-19 here –>  CHOCTAW

Win/loss record: 16-15 in dual meets. Please review the attached document for a summary of the Indians’ performance in IBT events.

Season in a nutshell: Choctaw’s kids got perhaps their toughest competition they’d see all season right off the bat, taking 18th out of 20 teams at South Walton’s Border Wars VI on the first weekend of December. The Indians then headed inland to Tallahassee, where they were 22nd at the Capital City Classic. Choctaw had a better go at crosstown rival Ft Walton Beach’s Beast of the Beach, where the Indians were second in Best of the Rest and were 3-4 in the tournament. To kick off January, the Indians were 5-5 at the North Bay Haven Bash, but fell to eventual district champion Pace in the quarters of FHSAA 2A-District 1 dual team tournament action. Choctaw had a pair of solid performances in round-robin tournaments in mid-January, taking sixth at Mosley’s Panhandle Championships and seventh at Wewahitchka’s Gator Brawl. The Indians took two of four wins at Gulf Shores’ Dolphin Pools on February 1, with wins over a pair of Alabama teams, and closed out their regular season with a seventh-place (2-3) dual-tournament finish at Chiles’ Timberwolf Duals. Choctaw was fifth at 2A-District 1’s traditional tournament in late February and tied for 21st at Region 1. The Indians can return as many as eight wrestlers in 2019-20 with either post-season or significant regular-season experience, but only two made it to the region rouund. Offseason work is going to be key, as will finding some more upper-weight wrestlers.

Key returners (15+ matches this past season or post-season experience) for 2019-20 (with year in school as they’ll be next year): Deagan Kilpatrick (sophomore, 33-18 at 106, district runnerup, 1-2 at regions); David Tambula (senior, 35-17 at 113, district champ, 1 match from states); Ethan Pfhul (junior, 16-18 at 120, 1 match from regions); Eli Devoid (sophomore, 13-34 at 138, 1 match from regions); Samuel Santos (sophomore, 10-29 at 182, 1 match from regions); Jesse Sarver (sophomore, 12-27 at 182/195, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Michael Barton (junior, 21-32 at 220, 0-2 at districts); Chase Pelfrey (sophomore, 14-15 at 220/285, did not participate in post-season traditionals).

Graduation losses (15+ matches this past season or prior/current post-season experience) from this year’s team: Brad Bates (12-27 at 126, did not compete in post-season traditionals); Logan Myers (57-8 at 152, district 3rd, 2-2 at regions); Hunter Pelfrey (27-19 at 160, 1 match from regions); Paul Roberts (23-8 at 170, district runnerup, 2-2 at regions); Aiden Savage (24-27 at 195, district 4th, 1-2 at regions).

2018-19 MVP: Soon-to-graduate Logan Myers was not the Indians’ most successful wrestler in the post-season. In a sense, though, the post-season was not the highlight; it was Myers’ very strong regular season in his senior year that nets him this award. Myers won 44 matches in a row, from the blood-round match at Capital City to the district semis more than two months later. That included a 7-0 run at Beast, 9-0 at Bash and titles at Panhandle and Gator Brawl. That run encompassed 26 pins and 41 bonus-point victories on behalf of the Choctaw team, and that kind of productivity is hard to ignore.

2019-20 captain: Rising senior David Tambula got off to a slow start to his junior season, going 3-7 at one point early on at Beast of the Beach, but he then won 19 of 20 matches through the holiday season and on into January, righting the ship from there with a solid second half of the year. Tambula lost just once at Beast and once at Bash, picking up his team’s only district weight-class title with a pair of victories at 113. Tambula also got farther in the region tournament than any other Choctaw wrestler, with two Friday wins getting him into the semis. On Saturday, he lost to an eventual state medalist, and lost by just a single point in the blood round.

Zander Laurin Warrior: Rising sophomore 220 Chase Pelfrey didn’t compete in the post-season, but his final regular-season event was his best one at Chiles’ Timberwolf Duals. Prior to that final Saturday, all of Pelfrey’s victories had come via forfeit. However, in the final event of the year, Pelfrey put some things together, collecting a pair of falls, his first of the season. Those pins capped a 7-0 closeout to Pelfrey’s season. For sticking with the grind of the season and then earning some reward at the close, Chase Pelfrey is the Zander Laurin Warrior for Choctaw.

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