THe Love of this Sport.

[aacoach124]

I’ve been involved in wrestling my entire life. As a youth wrestler I had the privilege of wrestling greats like Steve Higgins and Rob Archer. I’ve made numerous friends through the years thanks to this great sport. When my son reached the age I made sure he chose wrestling over basketball because of my love for this sport. He is now graduated but I had the privilege of coaching a lot of great kids throughout my sons journeys.
I always have been proud of wrestling because unlike other sports, there always seemed to be a mutual respect among people involved in wrestling. However on this forum in the last couple of years I’ve seen terrible attitudes, rude responses, and terrible behavior displayed. This isn’t the wrestling community I grew up with.I hope a few bad apples don’t ruin the bunch but I am concerned.
I’ll always follow and love WV wrestling and hope that it will continue to grow. It has given me so much throughout the years and many great friends from around the state.

Sincerely, Stewart Cottrell

[forthekids]

Well said!

[ZZChooseTop]

Amen! I share your disappointment with the bickering and tone of some of the coaches and officials snipping with each other and with fans on here.

Call the stall
Call the fall
Message boards should show love for all

Before the referee posse or the coaches coalition jump in with both feet, I'm joking.

[Ol'Dad]

Well said.

I know, in my opinion, with all the bickering, negativity and entitlement that seems to seep into this forum it’s a wonder any coach or wrestling parent would want to participate in this forum.

Keep it positive and keep to the forum thread.

Again just my opinion and if I offended you then maybe you are one of the listed above

Fire away

[Geoswaff]

Is it still ok to hate Parkersburg south?

[JennyHannan]

Geoswaff, I say absolutely! I've been with the South program many years, and some of my favorite memories come from statements made by fans from other schools who hated South.

Probably my favorite memory of all is from the 90's. South was in hot contention at the state tournament with another team. I was sitting down front next to Dean Moore (who is now one of South's coaches), and this little boy wearing a shirt from that school came down and told us that his dad said that everyone from Parkersburg South lived in trailers! LOL! I think there was another insult in there too, but I just remembered the trailer thing because my husband (at the time) and I lived in a double-wide. I personally see nothing wrong with living in a manufactured home, but maybe at the time it was considered a big insult. He was funny, though. I can't remember what Dean said to him, but we had a good laugh out of it.

My all-time favorite online South hater was "Mexicano", back in the infant stages of the forum. That guy could get my ire up and crack me up at the same time.

I forgot that Doc archived the "old" forum. If you're wanting to take a walk down memory lane in the week between the regional and state tournaments, check out the old forum.

http://wvmat.com/forum/forumndx.htm

[Geoswaff]

Awesome JennyHannan. Was just poking a little fun at the people who hate south. My team is a single A team in a completely different region so all I know about south is what I read on this board. I just find it funny that their programs success has bred a New England Patriots/Cowboys like hate. The Mexicano archives sound funny. I will have to look those up.

[Truesouthfaninhunt]

Lets all try to be more friendly

[KDunbar]

Lets all try to be more friendly

You keep saying that. But I know you.

On a serious note, on another thread I kind of made an on-line promise to myself to keep it on a positive note and all about wrestling (as long as South is in every discussion in some manner, even if it's a slam---shoot, I couldn't keep it serious for very long). I agree with the start of this thread, it's all about a mutual respect. What I admire about the "tap out" matches on TV is that the two try to kill each other, but when it's over, it's over. I hope that makes sense.

[Panther_coach]

Jenny, I know the “artist formerly known as Mexicano” quite well, he was a hoot. In fact, his whole family was liable to say just anything at anytime. Case in point, this was back in the day when one almost never saw a tattoo on a wrestler. Well, old Mexicano got one of those tribal bands when they came into vogue and unveiled it at a home dual. People were whispering and speculating on it’s authenticity when his mom stood up and loudly proclaimed “Yes it’s real and I took him to get it, so y’all just hush up! ” The whispering ceased really quickly. He went on to a very successful career as did both his brothers who also wrestled. There were some epic forum battles between the erstwhile Mexicano, Longshanks and BUFFALOBILL who always used the caps lock. He’s a great guy as well and is a former coach and present referee. Lots of fun on this board over the years!

[Truesouthfaninhunt]

I had a dog with 3 legs.. we called him “ skip”.