Rynell Roper - Euclid High School - 1/6/2011

Week Four: Home Match 1/6/11

The Panthers hosted the first of only two home matches of the year on Thursday night in the Doc Daugherty Gym at Euclid High School. In this super tri. they took on league foe Cleveland Heights and Chagrin Falls. Collinwood was also there to wrestle the other teams, but not Euclid. The Panthers opened with a 66-16 victory over the game Tigers of Cleveland Heights. Recording wins for the team were Jeremy Adkins, Mike Figer, Reggie Phillips, Zak Adkins, and Kenneth Reese through forfeits. Pins were provided by Jared Clinton, Darsheed Mustafa, Rynell Roper, Dylan Norwood, Lamar Gunter, and Noah Brown.

In the next match the Panthers took on the Tigers of Chagrin Falls, a team that defeated us last year by the score of 52-18. This year we turned the tables and beat them 53-17. What a remarkable turnaround from last year. Winning for the Panthers were Ebrahim Elbagory, Jeremy Adkins, Jared Clinton, Darsheed Mustafa, Reggie Phillips, Zak Adkins, Rynell Roper, Dylan Norwood, Lamar Gunter, and Noah Brown.

What a great night of wrestling. The team has really improved since the very first dual meets and they are gelling together with a good mixture of seniors and newcomers. I am excited to see how far we progress.

Videos will be posted soon.

My boys are ready for the home match

Week Four: Preview

Week four is a busy week for the team. Everyone is rested and ready for our first home match, on Thursday, and the Perry Pin City tournament, on Friday and Saturday.
On Thursday at 5:30 PM we will have a Super Tri. in the East Gym, with Cleveland Heights, Chagrin Falls, and Collinwood. Weigh-ins will begin at 4:30 PM. On Mat 1, Cleveland Heights will take on Euclid and on Mat 2 Chagrin Falls will challenge Collinwood. After that, Euclid will battle Chagrin Falls on Mat 1, while Collinwood will wrestle Cleveland Heights. The match with Cleveland Heights will be for league records in the L.E.L. The new system this year is that the wrestler and team with the best record, after wrestling all the L.E.L. teams is the L.E.L. Champion. There is no L.E.L. dual meet tournament this year to determine champions.
On Friday, we will leave school early to weigh-in at Perry by 2:30 PM and wrestling starts at 5:00 PM. On Saturday, we will weigh-in at 8:00 AM and start wrestling at 10:00 AM. The schools that will be there are Brookfield, Benedictine, Conneaut, Edgewood, Grand Valley, Harvey, Madison, Mentor, Orange, Perry, Riverside, St.Edward White, Trinity, and West Geauga. It is set up like Riverside was, with four pools on Friday and the two best records advance to the championship bracket on Saturday's double-elimination final day. The bottom two in the pool go in the consolation bracket.
Good luck Panthers!

Week Three: CSU Freshman/JV Tournament

Week three, during winter break, saw the varsity with the week off, while the freshmen and JV traveled to downtown Cleveland for the CSU Freshmen/JV Open. The historic Woodling Gym was packed with 8 mats and over 40 teams from around Greater Cleveland and even as far away as Columbus and Erie, PA. In the double elimination tournament, we got off to a great start winning the first 4 matches. We had 12 wrestlers on hand and all but 4 received wins at the tourney. Lu-Ray Baker, Jared Clinton, Jermaine Tolbert, Montay Jordan, and Robert Reeves all secured their first victories of the year. Robert Reeves impressed with two second period pins for his first ever career wins and Jermaine Tolbert set the bar high with 12 takedowns in a 28-13 win. Darsheed went the furthest and was one match away from placing. Overall, the team gained invaluable experience on the mat over the holiday season and will benefit in the future from it. Good job guys!

Week Two: Normandy Kalin Invitational

The team continued their improvement with a 6th place showing at the Kalin Invitational at Parma Normandy. We narrowly missed a top-five finish by 2 points. The squad was led by two finalists, who won their pools, in Senior Zak Adkins and Junior Rynell Roper. Both had unfortunate setbacks in the finals, however. Zak, @ 145lbs., lost in overtime from a game opponent from Orange. Rynell, @ 160lbs., finished as runner-up for the second consecutive year. He had a one point lead, with around 20 seconds left, when he gave up a rare takedown, thus losing by one. Both wrestlers were in both matches until the very end and we are pleased with their progress so far this season. Continuing his hot streak was Dylan Norwood, who finished in 3rd to raise his record to 11-2 on the year. Also placing on the podium for the Panthers were Darsheed Mustafa, David Cozart, and Lamar Gunter, while all finishing in fourth. Overall, we are happy with the results and there is room for improvement. We are not where we want to be, but the team is working hard to get there.

State Tickets

I have applications for tickets to the OHSAA State Wrestling Tournament held on March 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

These are upper bowl (terrace) seating and are $50.00 for each seat. There is a processing fee of $7.00 for 1-9 tickets, $16.00 for 10-29 tickets, and $20.00 for 30 or more.

This application must be postmarked no later than Jan. 11th. 2011. If you plan on purchasing tickets, please contact Coach Turk to make payment arrangements. All seats will be together by purchasing the tickets in this way.

The OHSAA State Tournament has been consistently rated as the best high school wrestling tournament in the country and something that every wrestler should see at least once.