Tholl Elite...the 12+ hour version

[Kelly Green]

Sometimes wrestling tournaments don’t go exactly as planned. The Tholl Elite was no exception this year. What a long day. You know it’s a long day when ya get home and skim over the matmen board and notice the RESULTS for the Romeoville Spartan tournament are already posted. I was feeling their(OPP parents) pain tho. I just wanted to get home and crawl into bed. The thought of those poor people having to stick around to roll up mats and clean that gym made me wanna puke.

Why I stuck around...

Like the rest of the wrestling nuts out there the competition at the Tholl Elite was way too good to leave. The tough matches started in the quarters for some brackets and by the semis almost every bracket had some great/close matches going. With the double elimination format the wrestle backs were fun to watch too. The "Elite" tournaments do nothing but produce tough, tough matches. Here’s a few kids that got beat...Klimara-66(LCWC), Zimmerman-70(OL), Bonic-74(LCWC), Rasche-79(MFVE)-TWICE, Theilke(WI), Haney-84(PLT), Uccardi-89(MFVE), Stenberg-108-(MFVE), Heimer-115(TP), and get this...AJ Smith-166(PAN). And the Ramos(MFVE) OT win over Farmer(TP) was a good one too. Wisconsin sent Team Adrenaline and the great state of Michigan had some kids there wearing Junior Golden Eagles singlets. I heard the JGE have some kind of ‘exchange’ program going on with a club out there. On a ‘team’ note...Martinez Elite ran away with the team title. Little Celtics were a distant second and the Vittum Catz were an even more distant third.

Five alarm fire...NOT

Ahhh, it’s been a few years since I had been to a tournament that the fire alarm was pulled and they evacuated the school/gym we were in. Going out in the cold and rain was the last thing anyone wanted to do. I was glad to see coach Tholl NOT blow a fuse. He was calm and cool about the whole thing. Props to him. The UNCOOL thing was the main entrance only had ONE set of doors unlocked and the guy on the microphone asking everyone to "hurry up". Thank god it was a false alarm because if the gym really had to be evacuated with only one set of doors unlocked it could have been tragic. Of course none of this was Orland Park’s fault either. They did the best they could with a bad situation.

As good as advertised: 79lbs.

This was THEE bracket in the tournament. The bracket featured Jeese ‘the body’ Thielke(WI), Tyler Quartullo(WI), and Colton Rasche. Thielke had already won the Midwest Classic and the Kids Open Novice Elite division. BUT, two Little Celtics made the most noise in this bracket. Mike Togher(LCWC) beats Ambrose(OPP) in OT in the quarters while Cooper(LCWC) beat Quartullo(6-0) in the quarters too. In the semis Thielke pounded Togher(10-0) and in a very exciting OT match, Cooper beats Rasche to avenge an earlier season loss to him. Rasche and Togher ended up wrestling back for the third/fourth place match. Rasche ran into the Little Celtic 'daily double' and got beat by Togher 3-1. I heard that loss caused one of the Martinez Elite coaches to get the old "heave hoe" too. The final was just as exciting. "The Body" had beaten "Coop" at the IKWF Kids Open just a few weeks ago. Prior to the Kids Open, Jesse beat Coop at the USA Wrestling Folk Style National in the 3rd place match. Neither one of these kids are your average 11/12 year old wrestlers. They are among the nations best in my eyes. In a very heated battle between these two wrestlers Cooper wins this Overtime bout in dramatic fashion with a very hard fought takedown. That match alone was worth the 5$ admission (That’s right...you read that right 5$) and the incorrect 3$ program/bracket(That’s right...you read it right 3$ for pre-printed brackets)

Marist vs. Carl Sandburg

Don’t know what the deal is with Sanburg HS, but next year this tournament has to be in a bigger facility. Four mats just are not enough with full wrestle backs and the gym was way to small. Five mats would have been perfect. Sandburg HS would have been perfect. Maybe next year???

[ImpactCoach]

Does ne one have results from this tournament ???

[Mat Tick]

I for one had a real good experience for the most part, although the fire alarm added some time to an already long day and nite. But what really irked me was the "Brackets" they sold for $3. Price not a problem... but incorrect brackets was!!! All of our wrestlers brackets were changed, so trying to keep track of the bouts using my "Brackets" became a nightmare. Just a thought. Being in the same gym with Kelly Green, aka, Sir Lawrence... PRICELESS.

[62kilos]

I am not affiliated with Powerhouse but or any other club but I noticed when they had their terrible tournament there were people that were posting on here "NEVER GO TO A POWERHOUSE TOURNAMENT" This tournament ran long and no one is saying anything bad about that? Hmmmm. I heard of a couple of other tournaments that were no run very good and ran long as well but there has been nothing said about those tournaments either. Just making a observation though

[Kelly Green]

62kilos:

Not real sure what your "observation"/point is? The Tholl Elite was a very long day but there was a 45minute to an hour delay because of a fire alarm at no fault of the Orland Park Pioneers.

The Tholl Elite was by no means a "terrible" tournament. The competition was outstatnding. They had full wrestle backs to 3rd. place. The kids wrestled on full mats. Semis and finals were 1:00, 1:30, 1;30 periods. There was very little to no 'down time' on the mats. It was an 'Elite' tournament and there were maybe 275 kids. So you didn't have 700 kids running all over the place. The atmosphere at an 'Elite' tournament is much, much better than your average sunday 'open' tournament. Did I mention the competition was outstanding??? Because of these things I don't mind a "long day".

Don't mis-read my post about the Tholl. Over all it was not a bad tournament. Really the only thing they need to do next year is have five mats instaed of four. Wich I'm sure they know. And maybe throw in the 'the-walking-taco' too.

Nic9er:
The Marist gym that we were in was WAY smaller the Sandburg gym we are normally in. As for the 'IKWF state bracket' issue...that will be a topic in the very near future:)

[Nic9er]

My guess would be maybe some first/second year parents get upset if they are there after 3pm, the die hards know now and then a veteran club will have a long event for one reason or another. Just a guess .... maybe some events were really bad this year I can't speak on those events.

As for the bracket issue, well if the wrestlers didn't scratch they would always be correct. Some events let the wrestlers weigh down to bare and some don't. This causes some wrestlers to think they can still make weight. So this would be my plan for the weigh-in:

All male wrestlers in one area, and any female wrestlers in another, all wrestlers may weigh-in wearing as they wish, as long as it is no less than socks (no athletes feet that way), and no more than socks, singlet or shorts (female wrestlers may weigh-in as they wish, supervised by a female trainer/coach). No bags, shoes, or food/drinks in weigh-in area, leave these items with mom/dad, all wrestlers being ready to enter the weigh-in area, without the typical clutter items that waste time way to much time. I like the idea of one chance on the scale to make weight, too much time is wasted weigh checking. If you want to wrestle 62 and weigh 62.3 you are now a 66 wrestler. These young wrestlers do not need to cut weight but than again if they can't make the same weight on a Monday and Friday they need to be wrestling a higher weight class. And if your son or daughter can not get dressed by themselves please don't attend. No moms, dads, brothers, sisters, etc in the weigh-in area, wrestlers only and coaches working scales or check in tables. Just my take on running the weigh-ins.
Everyone is happy, the wrestlers make the decision to weigh-in as they wish and if they don't make weight they know they are going to be bumped up (if allowed) or scratched from the event.

Yes, I know there are alot of young wrestlers (8 & under) but if you think they are too young to understand what I have said they maybe don't need to be wrestling competitively yet.

:eek: That's my 2 cents. :eek:
________
Mercedes-benz m-class (http://www.mercedes-wiki.com/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_M-Class)

[itsshowtime]

Rasche did lose to two celtics but if you watch the tape on those matches Rasche took all the shots and I counted any where from 10 to 11 shots in each match that Rasche took compare to maybe one shot from cooper if you want to call that a shot and zero from Togher and plus Rasche dominated Coop but just made a few mistakes on his shots and Coop was almost on his back quite a few times. And your right about a martinez coach got tossed because Rasche had Togher on his back at the end of the match and should of got a takedown and possibly back points but thats wrestling. Its very hard for a kid to wrestle someone that doesn't take any shots at that weight. I do give Coop and Togher credit for hanging in there. Just remember your going to have to step up your offence someday in tough match's or you will be out looking in. And there were quite a few other team coach's that said Rasche got some bad calls even a Celtic coach. Still no excuse's. But once again it's better to have wrestled than not wrestled at all.

[Kelly Green]

itsshowtime:

Thanks for the tip..."Just remember your(you're) going to have to step up your offence someday in tough match's or you will be out looking in."
--I'm sure the Twin Towers will tuck that one away:rolleyes:

BTW... the ref on the Rasche/Togher match is a great ref and has been in the biz for a long time. I would not be surprised to see him at the IHSA state tournament.

Also, I never mention WHO got tossed, I said a Martinez coach...

And that is what's great about the 'elite' tournaments... you get to see top Novice wrestlers go against top Senior wrestlers. Sometimes the Senior division wrestlers don't always win...

Onto bigger and better things now... When are the Tholl Elite results going to be posted????

[bigred]

Kelly Green, If you're going to take on the job of forum english teacher, why not correct all of the post's spelling errors and typos? Surely a mind as keen as yours can handle that task while thinking up your own witty prose. BTW, where were the mighty Little Celtic midgets this past weekend? Didn't they commit themselves to go the the Midget Duals? I was looking forward to seeing some of the kids who are primed to kick the door down in the future.:confused:

[62kilos]

I guess my point is that a long tournament is not enjoyable by most and I happen to be at the other tournament and not only was there good competition people left early and then came on here to complain. My point was no one should get a pass for running a tournament long or bad for what ever reason. I have been around for a long time and remember going to a tournament at Leyden (long time ago) and not leaving until 8:30 pm.

Let me say i am for the kids and i am always going to support things that benefit the kids but I think the people running the tournaments have to do a better job of making sure tournaments are enjoyable for everyone including the casual fan that doesn't want to be there till 7:00 pm. that' s a long day for everyone.

By the way is anyone going to post the entire results from all weight classes?

[Bob2]

I was there until 6:30 and it didn't bother me one bit. It was such an awesome tournament with some great matches that it didn't even seem that late. Kudos to OP!! Another great Tholl tournament!

[Kelly Green]

62kilos:
You are correct, most people don't like being at a tournament that runs way to long. I'm not giving the OPP folks a "free pass" as you say. I, like a few other posters, think it was worth the time...that's all. I think it's great that your in it for the kids too:)

I remember hearing about the Leyden tournament aka, "The Illinois Tournament of Champions". Wasn't it??? Let me tell ya, the Tholl Elite was nothing like that.

Bigred:
Chill...I am no english teacher. I'll be the first to tell you; My Grammer stinks to high heaven. The "Your" was just a little friendly dig. No big deal:) Trust me, if you want to correct(pick-on) my english skills you will have plenty of chances. Thank god there is a thing called spell checker. As for the "Little Celtic Midgets" (Little Celtic Midgets..isn't that funny to say? It's almost like "Jumbo-Shrimp".) You would have to ask the person in charge of the Little-Celtic-Midgets:) I'm simpley(SP) a parent/huge fan of the IKWF.
Please don't try to start some kind of 'war-of-words' over the Rasche/Togher-Cooper matches. I know Colton and his dad, and they are wonderful people. Mark knows we respect him and Colton's wrestling abilites to the MAX.:cool:

Enough of this...When are, Tholl Elite results going to be posted???

[coachmn-lcwc]

Sorry guys... wrestling coaches and English Teachers? The twin towers have that market cornered. We don't ever come on and correct the grammar or spelling. We could! Our REAL jobs pay us to do that; maybe Mr. Matman would like to pay us to come on and proof everyone's posts.

Offense? Guys come on. I know our kids are offensive in there matches. Our kids dont waste shots. They work for positioning and hit their shots... or are at least supposed to! Its our belief that you dont shoot just to do it.

As far as the midget duals go- I never received information officially! Sorry about that one. We like the younger group of wrestlers we have and look forward to them continuing the tradition... We have an outstanding group of coaches working with those kids... Things will continue to go well as long as we have good people involved with our program---> LIKE MY GUY KELLY GREEN.

Primed to kick down the door? I remember WAY BACK WHEN people doubted the a young group of wrestlers; five years later they built themselves into quite a program... They set a tradition... People think "Y'all musta forgot" is a dig at them... The truth is... it is a message to our own kids that they may have forgotten the tradition/work ethic/ standards that other LCWC teams and wrestlers have set. When they see that- it reminds them

DONT FORGET YOUR PAST OR WHAT THE STANDARDS YOU WANNA REPRESENT MEAN!

Look out for that "CUZ I AM ROY" CHARACTER! I am sure he is gonna have a thing or two to say about all this.