Top Middle School Wrestlers this Season

[indyms]

I have seen it with the HS wrestlers, anyone ever try to give their top 3 or 5 for MS wrestlers?

[justawrestlingfan]

Hopefully this thread doesn't turn into a bickerfest like the last one did.

I will say that I think the competition is changing a lot this year. Liam Lusher (95 2nd place at WSAZs) moved to 9th grade and I think Mikey Shamblin (95 1st place @ Zs) did too. Chase Patterson (2nd @ 116 @ Zs) is a 9th grader this year I think.

123 is wide open with Zane Lanham (1st at Zs), Wesley Medley (3rd @ Zs), and Malik Cox (5th @ Zs) gone to 9th grade and Jordan Williams (2nd @ Zs) moving up weight classes.

I believe 128, 135, 145 and 155 all also have a large chunk of their placers from WSAZs moving up to 9th grade.

Should be an interesting year.

[WP1992]

I am pretty sure Chase Patterson is in the 8th grade. He has always been 1 year older than my son, who is 12 and in 7th grade. There is a ton of middle school talent throughout our state right now and it will definitely be an interesting year as kids start to mature and grow. Its a shame that travel restrictions at the middle school level prohibit many of the top kids to ever compete against each other until states or in an open tournament.

[TrueSouthFanInPburg]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Braxton amos. he again will be in a class by himself.

[ZZChooseTop]

Who are the good ones up there wp92? I wish more of the northern panhandle teams could go to wsaz, clash, or charleston, the matchups would be interesting year in and year out and i'd have something more to go on than just wsaz
Top 8th grade wsaz returners in no particular order:
Haynes (Hayes) - 3rd/1st
Best (Jackson) - dnp/1st
Donahue (Jackson) dnp/2nd
Roberts (Edison) - 3rd/1st
Amos (Edison) - 1st/1st

[dontlikethelights]

123 is wide open with Zane Lanham (1st at Zs), Wesley Medley (3rd @ Zs), and Malik Cox (5th @ Zs) gone to 9th grade and Jordan Williams (2nd @ Zs) moving up weight classes.

Wesley Medley is an 8th grader this year.

[justawrestlingfan]

I was thinking Chase Patterson was an 8th grader this year, but wasn't sure. I stand corrected on Wes Medley as I thought he was an 8th grader last year.

ZZChooseTop I could not agree more. I live in Wetzel county. Needless to say, I am quite disappointed with their schedules here. They choose to go to tris during the week rather than large duals on the weekend and refuse to attend any major end-of-year tournaments. I have done everything but get on my knees and beg for them to attend either WSAZs or the middle school OVACs with absolutely no ground gained. This seems to be the mentality here in general among the middle schools. There are some pretty decent middle school teams up here like Moundsville and Cameron, but for some reason they just won't travel 2 hours south. I have my hopes up for the high school as they seem to seek out a higher level of competition by going to meets like the OVACs, but for some reason the middle school simply refuses to go to anything larger than a few local 8 team duals.

[WP1992]

I cannot speak for other counties, however, in Ohio County the issue is that administration will not let our student-athletes have an overnight at the middle school level. This applies to all sports and activities. That is why we have never been able to attend WSAZ's. We have asked time and time again, but the rule apparently is non-negotiable. My son wrestles at Bridge Street MS and we do go to the Williamstown Duals, but even that is like pulling teeth. The County doesn't like the expense of the bus driver on a Saturday. In our neck of the woods, middle school sports are not taken seriously and there is no emphasis on making the programs any better. The middle school in Ohio and Marshall County basically wrestle each other 1 time, go to maybe 1 local tournament, and then have a Pac-8 conference Tournament with the schools from the two counties. My son, as well as others, have seriously considered not wrestling for their middle schools at all.

As for talent on the northern panhandle, there are some quality wrestlers. I don't know them all, but in 8th grade you have Andrew Shelek(Wheeling), Peyton Hall (Oak Glen), Hunter Oliver (Bridge Street), Alec Cook (Weirton). 7th grade Billy Gooch (Bridge Street), Charlie Tamburin (Bridge street), 6th grade Hunter Nixon (Triadelphia), Nate Shelek (Wheeling), Cody Taggart (Warwood), Gabriel Carman (Sherrard), Ian Bush (Cameron).

There is a good crop of Ohio County 4th and 5th graders coming up as well. I know I have missed some names, but that is just of the top of my head, so please don't take offense if I failed to mention somebody.

[ZZChooseTop]

Here's an idea for Justawrestlingfan and wp92, why not join forces and do a tournament in your area and invite some of the rest of the state? If you can't come to them, see if they can come to you? There has been discussion about kanawha county only letting middle school teams leave the county one time per season (I think most of the teams make wsaz their one trip) so you might not get kanawha county but you might get eastern panhandle, Cabell, etc? Probably late in the year to try to out together but something to think about on the future. When the geniuses at your board of Ed see you bringing in money and your local chamber of commerce gives you love, then you can lean on them to modify their rules by pointing to your duty to reciprocate the courtesy by traveling to the teams that came to you. Work in a tour of the moundsville pen / reduced hotel fees/ gambling voucher for coaches at the track / etc. If local businesses are profiting from your tournament and your team is suddenly able to pay for the bus driver to williamstown, it is going to be hard for elected board members to continue to say no.

[justawrestlingfan]

My biggest problem is I am not the HC and the current HC doesn't seem that interested in taking his team to a high level competition. We don't have any county restrictions on travel. It seems to be a systemic issue that no one really wants to change except a handful of parents and wrestlers. I have actually spoken to board members and they have no issue with it (traveling). I have been informed of a wrestler who didn't wrestle for the MS team last year and attended open tournaments all season instead because of this same issue.

[Wmc2]

Alec Cook is a freshman this year at Madonna. Peyton hall is an 8 th grader and will be a force.
Amos is at the top for sure. Patterson is very good also.

[oroyos]

6th grade champs?

[justawrestlingfan]

6th grade champs?

It is a nice thought, but rarely do 6th graders who performed well on the community league level reach "top middle school wrestler" status as a 6th grader. While they may have done well against 11 and 12 years olds, varsity middle school wrestling is typically against 7th and 8th graders (13-15 year olds) who have more experience, are benefitting from puberty muscle growth and have a couple of years of middle school experience on their side. There are certainly 6th graders who compete and occasionally one that is a top contender, but that is a rarity, not the norm. You may see 6th graders make their mark at 78 or 84, but that is about it. Once you go above those weight classes you start seeing mostly 7th and 8th graders.

[mscoach64]

i agree with that statement. my son has been a pretty decent pee wee wrestler. his last 2 years at pee wee level he was 36-5 and 33-11. he moved up to middle school last year as a 6th grader and finished 27-14 and only finished 4th in his conference tournament. in his defense, he did wrestle in a popular weight class for older 7th and 8th graders at 116. middle school wrestling was an entirely different level for him. a lot of pee wee wrestling consisted of losing to the same 3-4 kids when he lost. in middle school, there were multiple kids who beat him. granted that my son was not a kid that was in danger of placing high in parkersburg....although he did win a match or two each year in the tournament.

[justawrestlingfan]

i agree with that statement. my son has been a pretty decent pee wee wrestler. his last 2 years at pee wee level he was 36-5 and 33-11. he moved up to middle school last year as a 6th grader and finished 27-14 and only finished 4th in his conference tournament. in his defense, he did wrestle in a popular weight class for older 7th and 8th graders at 116. middle school wrestling was an entirely different level for him. a lot of pee wee wrestling consisted of losing to the same 3-4 kids when he lost. in middle school, there were multiple kids who beat him. granted that my son was not a kid that was in danger of placing high in parkersburg....although he did win a match or two each year in the tournament.

That is pretty typical of incoming 6th graders from what I have seen. My son was pretty solid as a 5th grader typically finishing top 3 in just about every meet. He even wrestled two age classes at one huge open tournament at the end of his 5th grade year and came away with 2nd place in his age group and 5th in the next highest age group. Then as a 6th grader he struggled, going 17-12. We had another 6th grader that placed 2nd at Jr. States as a 5th grader, if memory serves me correctly he went 20-12 as a 6th grader. The level of competition goes up way more than these kids can imagine in middle school. My biggest concern is that parents don't realize this and expect too much of their 6th grader and put too much pressure on them. As a coach I tried to convey this message, but too often saw parents expecting their 6th grader to go out on the mat and destroy 7th and 8th graders and just not be able to grasp the concept that their "little champ" was competing on a higher level than community league.

[mscoach12]

Braxton Amos would be my number 1 pic.
Nathan Neale BMS
Dempsey HMS
Vaughn BMS
BLair HEMS
Those are just the ones that I know, I am sure there are still many that I am missing.

[gridironmike]

Chase Patterson, Mylik Cox, John Parks...they all return to Western Greenbrier Middle.

[Gator]

Braxton Amos just won Super 32 235 weighing only 195. Congratulations Braxton!

[mdadkins1130]

Don't forget the youngest Isabell 4x state champ is only an 8th grader. Weighing bout 126

[justawrestlingfan]

Braxton Amos just won Super 32 235 weighing only 195. Congratulations Braxton!

That is awesome!! Congrats to Braxton!!

[oroyos]

Gonna be a competitive season. Several teams are gonna be competing at a high level it seems.

[WVGrind]

Several teams will improve this season from last year and some will take a drop.
With that who are the top middle school teams this year? In my opinion Edison is the returning champions and the favorite. Point Pleasant will have a very good team and I am looking forward to results if they match up at the Charleston Duals.

Top teams - my opinion:

1. Edison
2. Point Pleasant
3. Huntington East

[Ricflairchop]

Top teams in middle school

Edison
Independence
Blennerhassett
Point
Huntington east
Hayes

[Andrethemidget]

Someone told me that once mighty Milton only has about 10-12 kids. I remember when my brother wrestled there, Coach Lemasters always started with over 50 and actually cut kids to get to like 35-36 kids. My bro was afraid he would not make the team. I bet Coach Lemasters is tore up. What happened to all them kids?

[mscoach64]

My son just wrestled Isabelle at Riverside this weekend. My boy is pretty good I think....he almost made it out of the 1st period before he got pinned. I asked him afterwards what he thought of the kid. My boy said that he did things that he had no clue what to do. Isabelle came to him and told him that he was pretty good. Isabelle sat on the mat in my boys corner for his next match. I thought that was awesome of him to do. He seems like a good kid.

[oroyos]

I am relatively new to competitive wrestling and don't know who the "big dogs" of MS wrestling are. Any preseason weight class predictions?

[GeneralDad]

My son just wrestled Isabelle at Riverside this weekend. My boy is pretty good I think....he almost made it out of the 1st period before he got pinned. I asked him afterwards what he thought of the kid. My boy said that he did things that he had no clue what to do. Isabelle came to him and told him that he was pretty good. Isabelle sat on the mat in my boys corner for his next match. I thought that was awesome of him to do. He seems like a good kid.

What weight class?

[mscoach64]

My son just wrestled Isabelle at Riverside this weekend. My boy is pretty good I think....he almost made it out of the 1st period before he got pinned. I asked him afterwards what he thought of the kid. My boy said that he did things that he had no clue what to do. Isabelle came to him and told him that he was pretty good. Isabelle sat on the mat in my boys corner for his next match. I thought that was awesome of him to do. He seems like a good kid.

What weight class?

128

[gridironmike]

I put together a spreadsheet based on Dr. Miller's ten year state tournament results. I used the WSAZs as the state tournament for middle schools. Unless he has posted the corrected sheet, Buffalo is incorrectly identified as a Single A feeder. They are AAA. Enjoy. http://www.wvmat.com/jrhi/15tenyearwsazms2.pdf

[admin]

Fixed it

Try http://www.wvmat.com/jrhi/15tenyearwsazms3.pdf