True Team Ohio

G

Guy Sako

Active member
Ohio arguably has some of the toughest young wrestlers in the nation however we are never truly represented accurately on the national level. The OAC, Barbarian Apparel, and Defense Soap have teamed up to put together a true Team Ohio. Below is a link to the official announcement. Also, below is the letter that each JH State Placer received and each Grade School State Placer will receive this weekend.

www.ohioathletics.com

Team Ohio Announcement 2021-22 - OHIO ATHLETIC COMMITTEE

www.ohioathletics.com www.ohioathletics.com

Greetings Wrestler

The Team Ohio Committee would like to cordially invite returning OAC State Placers (K-8 th Grade in 2021-22) to the Ohio Team Training and begin your journey to compete on Team Ohio for the 2021-2022 Folkstyle Season.

The mission of the Committee is to put together the strongest Junior High and Grade School teams to participate in the Top National Youth Duals next season. Tyrant Duals, Columbus Day Duals, National Middle School Duals, VAC and McDonough Duals are on our schedule and we could potentially add more.

These are the toughest competitions on the National Scene. We are inviting the Top 8 in each, needed weight class and division. We do have predetermined, qualified, paid coaches to coach the teams at tournaments as well additional training sessions. The Camps/Combines will be coached by Clinicians and our coaching staff.

What’s Next:
1. Please go to ohioathletics.com/teamohio and complete the Team Ohio Application of Intent. You have until 5/15/2021 to accept this invitation.

2. There will be four Camp/Combine events you will need to attend as part of the process to be chosen for the Trials.
5/16/21 @ Defense Soap HQ (Vermilion)-Cary Kolat
6/11/21 @ Dawg House (Milan)- Combine & Nathan Tomasello
7/2021 @ Ohio Crazy Goats (Columbus)
8/2021 @ The BA Center (Cincinnati)

3. Team Trials will be 7/31/21 (Location TBD) if you are chosen to participate. Team Ohio will be determined from the Trials’ results.

4. Once on Team Ohio, the cost of Gear and Tournament entries will be covered.

We are very excited to begin this new chapter for Ohio Youth Wrestling. Ohio has some of the best kids in the country and we feel we can bring competitive teams to these events and be in the running for titles.

Congrats on a great season!

Team Ohio Committee & Coaching Staff


Guy Sako
Defense Soap
216-255-8748
 
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Great idea. PA has done this for years and has been very good at the youth and junior high levels at those tournaments mention. My son was apart of 2 very good Ohio teams that have won the Va challenge(grade school team and jh team) but a lot of Ohio talent was on other teams! Keep them together in Ohio! Great work!
 
Thank you OAC , Guy, and Barbarian and everyone else that got behind this and made it happen. The previous version of ONT had some obvious flaws, and was really more of a collection of free agents rather than a cohesive team. Some also might say too political which drove top talent to other “national” teams. Love the idea of wrestle offs and training camps. Training together will make them all better. As competitive as Ohio is, there’s a whole other level out there, and it is a great experience to go and find the best competition.

Cheers!
 
Guy Sako said:
4. Once on Team Ohio, the cost of Gear and Tournament entries will be covered. ........YES, love it. A key factor. BobP

We are very excited to begin this new chapter for Ohio Youth Wrestling. Ohio has some of the best kids in the country and we feel we can bring competitive teams to these events and be in the running for titles.
Team Ohio Committee & Coaching Staff
Guy Sako
Defense Soap
216-255-8748
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OUTSTANDING! Great to see this kind of leadership. Ohio is Not the same as it was in the 90s and earlier 2000's when Ohio dominated Senior Nationals then in Pittsburgh then in Cleveland. Only 4 NCAA AA' s this year, PA had 17. Reason? We've had a major decline of YMCA support in once mighty Cleveland area, CYO too. I assume other Ohio areas same story.

something was needed if to turn things around, this may be it. Seems well organized, well thought out and planned. Fortunate to have Guy Sako to lead the effort. Best of luck!
 
I love the idea, but the question that I continue to have is will the wrestlers participate? I talked to a coach about this last night and he said that he saw West Shore at all sorts of "national" tournaments (which is a good thing for sure). Will those wrestlers choose to wrestle for this team over the West Shore team? That is the biggest question in my mind. Can you get the best wrestlers (and their parents ) to get behind this? Would love to see that happen - best of luck to you.
 
if my son is fortunate enough to wrestle on this team, he will. If he doesnt he will farm out to other teams. Id imagine it is very likely Ohio kids not on this team will go on to be on other teams and often times upset current team members. It happens. I think the vast majority of the top kids will support this
 
WGTJ said:
I love the idea, but the question that I continue to have is will the wrestlers participate? I talked to a coach about this last night and he said that he saw West Shore at all sorts of "national" tournaments (which is a good thing for sure). Will those wrestlers choose to wrestle for this team over the West Shore team? That is the biggest question in my mind. Can you get the best wrestlers (and their parents ) to get behind this? Would love to see that happen - best of luck to you.
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I was involved with quite a few Team Ohio GS and JH teams and there was always an issue with the parents. You, 'name it' pretty much.
I'm pulling for ya Gus. (y) I love the idea and the set up.
 
We anticipate that some kids will bounce. We get that. What we are offering is a fair system to make the team. If the top guys bounces it drops down to number two... and so on. The camp system should be top notch. We are coming right out of the gates with Cary Kolat. I don't think you can make a better statement then that.

We selected Dave Riggs as the head coach and he graciously accepted the position. A National Hall of Fame coach also speaks to how serious and dedicated we are to making this work.

We believe that the camp system will add structure and the mini tournament will remove all the politics from making this team. Hopefully people will see value in an exclusive camp system only offered to the state placers. Time will tell.


Guy Sako
Defense Soap
216-255-8748
 
There has been ONT in the past, most of all of those freshman state placers multi divisions wide this year where on it since 6th grade. Is this a state wide combine slash recruiting slash developing tool for st eds highschool team? Dave riggs is a former perry coaching legend now coaching jr high west shore travel teams that his grandsons are on. Seems great on the surface????
 
Bitewhat? said:
There has been ONT in the past, most of all of those freshman state placers multi divisions wide this year where on it since 6th grade. Is this a state wide combine slash recruiting slash developing tool for st eds highschool team? Dave riggs is a former perry coaching legend now coaching jr high west shore travel teams that his grandsons are on. Seems great on the surface????
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This guy is good, how did you guess it. I ever would of guessed St. Ed’s is using this for a recruiting tool. Plus they get to also scout the top competitors so they can stay on top.

Maybe some people have bigger plans like making Ohio the top wrestling state in the country. Maybe some people are trying to unlocks some opportunities that some kids may not have in there home communities.
 
TrIbExTimE said:
How are Club Leaders that travel nationally going to feel about it?
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If you have the right club coaches/leaders they will be ok with it. Yes they may lose 1, 2 to 5 studs depending on the club teams but that opens the door for that 2nd tier kid to step up and show what he is made of on the National level.
My boys was BTW kids and Erik and Scottie always encourage them to wrestle for Team Ohio or National teams at the big National events. Now one of them growing up was never good enough to be on National teams while he was growing up and the other one has been wrestling on some kind of National team since he was in kindergarten.
When this camp happens at Milan or Perrysburg (BTW Dawg House or Hive) location you can count The Fenton Brothers to be there helping out the kids in any way they can to get better.
 
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Participation on Team Ohio would mean kids cannot compete for their Junior High team in the "regular season", correct? Same as if they were to compete for any other club?

Not trying to "make a point" or anything like that, just want to clarify.

I love this idea FWIW.
 
ASpecialOne said:
Participation on Team Ohio would mean kids cannot compete for their Junior High team in the "regular season", correct? Same as if they were to compete for any other club?
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No. The seasons are not at the same time. No restrictions for Summer wrestling.
 
ASpecialOne said:
Participation on Team Ohio would mean kids cannot compete for their Junior High team in the "regular season", correct? Same as if they were to compete for any other club?

Not trying to "make a point" or anything like that, just want to clarify.

I love this idea FWIW.
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I know that you are just trying to clarify the rules, but very few of these kids would wrestle for their school team anyway. At least I hope those are the ones that say yes to this. Those wrestlers are mostly or all club anyway.
 
TuPac said:
Can anyone try to make the team or do they have to be a returning OAC state placer?
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What’s Next:
1. Please go to ohioathletics.com/teamohio and complete the Team Ohio Application of Intent. You have until 5/15/2021 to accept this invitation
 
We had some great success a few yrs back with Team Ohio. A few things we ran into that made it hard. Out of state teams would actually pay parents and kids. Pay hotels etc. That's hard to pass up for some. No matter what you do there will be detractors for different reasons and they will try to convince others to go with them. May try to find sponsorships to help with cost for some families. No matter what you do someone will be pissed the way things are run. Impossible to please everyone. Be careful with too many camps. We found too many of them , they will pick and choose which ones to attend and you never get all the best kids together. For example northeast won't go down to southwest and vise versa. It's expensive to attend so many camps for some. Good luck and go get em!
 
gitsum said:
We had some great success a few yrs back with Team Ohio. A few things we ran into that made it hard. Out of state teams would actually pay parents and kids. Pay hotels etc. That's hard to pass up for some. No matter what you do there will be detractors for different reasons and they will try to convince others to go with them. May try to find sponsorships to help with cost for some families. No matter what you do someone will be pissed the way things are run. Impossible to please everyone. Be careful with too many camps. We found too many of them , they will pick and choose which ones to attend and you never get all the best kids together. For example northeast won't go down to southwest and vise versa. It's expensive to attend so many camps for some. Good luck and go get em!
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Very good points. Many of the state finalist type of kids are very used to traveling a few hours to find the right training atmospheres. It's just the life you get used to.
 
Bitewhat? said:
There has been ONT in the past, most of all of those freshman state placers multi divisions wide this year where on it since 6th grade. Is this a state wide combine slash recruiting slash developing tool for st eds highschool team? Dave riggs is a former perry coaching legend now coaching jr high west shore travel teams that his grandsons are on. Seems great on the surface????
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Keep the conspiracy theories to yourself. Riggs is a phenomenal coach and human being who would help anybody. So, chill out with any inferences!!!
 
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If Riggs is coaching, this is going to be highly successful. :-D

It's been a LONG time ago, but I wrestled for Riggs and that man is a great human being.
 
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