Week 2

The first week was great and I am so excited about the future of this team!  Congratulations to our guys on the football team for a fantastic season and nearly pulling off the upset.  It will be great to have those guys back, but I would have really preferred that they could have come back with that state title and I know they would have as well.  They did a great job and were probably the most underrated team of the season. 

Week 2 will present some interesting challenges and I am curious to see how the team responds.  First, we will be starting Wrestle-offs.  Wrestle-offs are the way we determine which wrestlers will have the Varsity, Junior Varsity, or extra wrestling positions.  We do this by simply just wrestling matches between wrestlers in each weight classes.  Some weight classes currently only have 2 wrestlers and others like 152 has several wrestlers.  I always look forward to how the athletes respond to whether they win or lose because it tells me a lot about where they are mentally.  As many of them do, they generally come back and start to work harder in practice and attempt to improve so that they can beat the next wrestler above them.  Wrestle-offs are something we do regularly especially in weight classes where we have 2-4 guys really competing and pushing themselves for that varsity spot.

This year may be interesting as it is very likely we will have guys that take a JV spot on our team but if they were on a different team, they would be varsity.  As a coach I will do my best to get them in a weight class that fits their needs and helps the team be successful.  It is important to remember that when we enter the Divisional Tournament on January 31st (this tournament qualifies wrestlers for state) we can enter 2 from each weight class.  Which means that we will probably have a few weight classes where we are taking 2 wrestlers to the state tournament.

In addition to wrestle-offs we will also be completing a scrimmage, concussion baseline testing, and hydration testing.  

Below is the schedule for the week
Monday: Practice and wrestle-offs (2:45 P.M.)
Tuesday: Practice and wrestle-offs (2:45 P.M.)
Wednesday: Light Practice (2:45) and scrimmage (6:00 P.M.). I will be assigning team uniforms and the trainer will be completing his concussion baseline testing. 
Thursday: Practice (2:45 P.M.)
Friday: Practice (I will be letting the wrestlers decide whether we do the practice before or after school on this day.)
Saturday: Hydration testing (meet at Olympus at 9:10.)  If you can't make it you need to let me (Coach Ashcroft) know as soon as possible.

Mr. Thorn was kind enough to create a couple calendars that you are welcome to use with events for the season.  If you notice any discrepancies please let me know:).

Use this as the link to the Calendar:
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=se87oq9boufeuf1fuik766ip80%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America%2FDenver
 
Secret iCal format-parents and students can use this with their iphone calendar
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/se87oq9boufeuf1fuik766ip80%40group.calendar.google.com/private-f0939671f854826cba9d2b4100e244f7/basic.ics