Very Important Weekend

ok so this weekend is by far the most important weekend for a wrestler. this weekend will decide who goes on the the state championship and who is done until next year. NY is made of 12 sections with section 12 split up into CHSAA and PSAL. the rest of the sections are numberd 1-11. every section sends one wrestler to the state tournament in albany on march 8th and 9th. section 12 sends 2. these tournaments are gighly competitive and there is really a lot of emotion and tension running through everybody there. it is something that should really be experienced. however before you go out and see a tournament like this, you should know some of the basic rules to the sport.
First thing first, the object of the sport is to pin your opponent. if you cannot pin your opponent you must beat him on points. there are many different ways to score points, one way is to take down your opponent. you must take your opponent down to the mat and have control of him to score. that is worth 2 points. after taking you opponent down you can score near fall points by putting him to his back and holding him for 2-5 seconds. for 2-4 seconds you get 2 points for 5 seconds you get 3. if you have been taken down and you escape you get 1 point for escaping. also if you reverse your opponent you get 2 points.
now if you perform an illegal hold or move your opponent gets 1 point. if you perform 4 illegal moves you lose the match. if you intentionally hurt the opponent you lose. the sport was created so men could dispute arguements fairly and with class.

Developmental League and CHSAA qualifier

The PSAL or public school athletic league, has a plan to make NYC wrestling amazing in the years to come. as of now there are 45 teams in the public league, however for the next 4 years there will be 15 more teams added each year at the high school level and 30 at the middle school level. today was the championship for the developmental league this year. the wrestling was horrible and every team was horrible, but it is a step in a good direction because with more and more schools in the league the more competition there will be and the better the kids will become.

As a former catholic league wrestler i can tell you the public school league will never come close to being anywhere near as competitive as the CHSAA because the PSAL teams lack the strict dicipline needed to have a well oiled machine. In catholic schools coaches can be more strict on practice policies and so on, but in the public schools they do not penalize for lateness or missed practices. that is why they will never be as good as the CHSAA.

also i would like to give much deserved props to the islanders who qualified for the catholic state tournament. Monsignor Farrell is sending 18 wrestlers to the states and had 14 kids in the finals winning 8 weigh classes. that is monumental not only for the catholic league and Staten Island, but it means a lot for NYC because of the reputation were getting as a bona fide city where wrestling is now one of the most popular amateur sports. Congrats Farrell and good luck at the state tournament.

Wresling Movies

If you are a movie buff i suggest seeing Vision Quest. It is one of the only wrestling movies out there and it is just as motivating as all the rocky movies. It isn't just about wrestling it has a love story intertwined in it along with the wrestling and the problem of cutting massive weight. The star of the movie is Lauden. He is a wrestler who decides to cut down two weight classes to wrestle the defending state champion. He also has a love interest in a 20 something year old played by madonna. i dont want to ruin the movie for you so i am not going to tell you much more other than that it is possibly one of the greatest underdog stories out there, and if you have no idea about how wrestling works it is a great way to start because most rules are explained in the movie and you learn how hard it really is to be a full-time wrestler. the soundtrack for the movie is also amazing.
It is great movie and i would definitely suggest seeing it.


use this link to find out more http://imdb.com/title/tt0090270/

wrestling and reffing

in high school i wrestled for msgr. farrell high school. now in college i am a referee, and now know how it feels to be on both sides of the sport. these last 2 days have been the mayor's cup championships, and this year was the first year i was there as a referee. the tournament brings all three sections of new york city together for one big tournament to see who is the best in the city. the three sections are the psal which is all the public schools, the private leagues which has all private schools and the chsaa which has all the catholic schools. the winner at each weight division is crowned the true city champion.
the weight classes are as follows. 96, 103, 119, 125, 130, 135, 140, 145, 152, 160, 171, 189, 215, 285. a wrestler must be below that weight to wrestle in the weight class. today each weight class had about 60 kids in the brackets. that is why this tournament takes so long. wrestling alone is hard but refereeing is harder because you are on your feet all day long match after match, and it is very tiresome. it isn't even that easy because of all the calls you must make. wrestling referees make more pure judgment calls than any other ref or umpire in any sport. you must always be alert and paying attention to detail. one mistake on your part could cost the opposing wrestlers a match.
all and all the tournament was run very well and i did a good job as a referee for the first time. here are some links from the tournament where you can find some more information.

http://www.silive.com/siadvance/stories/index.ssf?/base/Sports/1201869902106520.xml&coll=1
http://www.silive.com/siadvance/stories/index.ssf?/base/Sports/1202038230311740.xml&coll=1