By now most of you have heard the tragic news that Sal Castillo's family was involved in the fire and shootings on Christmas eve. Sal and his two sisters were not harmed by the gunman, however their family suffered tragic losses of both grandparents and Sal's mother Sylvia, along with several Aunt's and Uncle's. The coaches have been in contact with Sal, and are working on a plan to help assist the family. Our hearts go out to Sal and his sisters, and since we are family, we will take care of them. Let's please allow the family some privacy regarding this matter, and just offer up gentle support and loving arms. More information about assistance will be availible at a later date.

WOW and more WOW

What a crazy weekend! First off the duals at San Dimas, more on those later. Then a dual tourney at South Hills Way to go boys first place and everyone got to wrestle. Friday we went to El Dorado and wrestled all day and returned to the school at midnight, just to leave the next morning @ 7:30 to go back. We beat last years record of 5 placers and had 6 this year with 2 finalists. In fact it's the first time since the 215 pound weight class was added that SH had both the 215 and heavyweight in the finals at a tourney other than league finals . Great Job to the girls as well out at 1000 oaks, a champion adn some thirds! Then early Sunday morning I was cutting mats in the wrestling room, and now tryign to update stats and review film and get ready for the Sultana dual. It must be wrestling season!!!
Now for the San Dimas dual. I was really impressed all the way around we not only had fans, but we had alumni and alumni families there. I was very impressed with Coach Josh Stragier's squad, (although I knew he could do it) and need to clarify things. The rule book says that the end of match procedure is that the competing wrestlers must shake hands before the winner's hand is raised. It has been a tradition ( one that is not honored in collegiate wrestling) that wrestlers shake the opposing coaches hand. Here is my stand point. If the Dual meet starts with a line up and meeting in the center of the mat, the wrestlers shake hands. Before they wrestle they shake hands, after they wrestle they shake hands. they shake hands with the coach after a match. they shake hands again as a team with ALL the opposing wrestlers and the opposing coaches again (starts to sound like a little much). In the mean time a wrestler who has won a hard fought match runs over to receive a limp wrist or knuckle bump from the opposing coach ( which I view as disrespectful) if anything at all (especially if the match was close). Most times in a very heated dual things are said by parents, volunteers, kids, and coaches alike to the winning wrestler. All because he did what he was supposed to do, win. I made it clear that we would not be going across the mat that night, in order to a.) speed things up, and b.) to protect my kids. I informed both the referees, and the other coaches. I understand many fans felt what we did was unsportsmanlike, or to punish Josh, quite the contrary. I was protecting my kids. We did shake hands after the duals as always and will continue to do so, as we will in skipping the perfunctory handshake with the opposing coach after the match.
That being said , all who won this weekend great, all who lost great too!! It's what we learn form both our wins and losses that count. December tournaments (while fun) aren't the tourneys you WANT to win, that one is in March : )

I was Born For THis

I was humbled, almost emotional on Saturday. We spend a lot of time away from our families, and their events to provide a top notch program, and to see all those parents there,(not just the same ones) it was almost a validation that what we do is important and has an impact. I was amazed, but not surprised when I saw all those parents in the cafeteria on Saturday. We do have the best parents in all of Sports! The kids worked very hard and really seemed to be eager to wrestle, ,and get started on this season. I know that we have a lot of things planned for this year, a lot of travel, a lot of wrestling and after Saturday it looks like a lot of support. Please drop me a note at ctaylor@cvusd.k12.ca.us if you have not received your e mail newsletter, I will add you and send one asap. Spirit Packs are in pick yours up now. Extras can be purchased for sibling and parents, in fact we are working on a parent specific line of clothing. I myself was extremely tired, but was rejuvenated after watching former Gopher Brock Lesnar defeat Randy Coutere last night. Man, I thought he was big in person!!!!! He looks even bigger on TV. The lineups will start to become clearer this week as we get a better idea of who wants to go where, and a second round of hydration is yet to be scheduled. As I sat in church this morning, the lines form a song made me think about the program and our season,

The greater things have yet to come the greater things are still to be done in this city

With 60 plus wrestlers on Saturday, including 5 football players, I truly believe that great things will happen this year for south hills wrestling.

Our hearts and prayers go out to all affected by the fires. If you or anyone else you know needs assistance, and the wrestlers, coaching staff, or boosters can help in ANY way let us know. Good luck to our Wrestlers playing Friday night in the 1st round of the CIF playoffs. Congratulations to Mike Ramos and Matt Sustayta on a great senior cross country season.
Maybe by Monday I will have my voice back and wont be so sore :)

Things will get interesting

This week the wrestling room will be open on Monday night from 6-8 and Wednesday night from 6:30 - 8:30 for some more intense drilling and conditioning. The reason, two actually. We are ALL going to the SCWA tournament at West Covina on the 18th, and we are a little behind after our mandatory shutdown. The latter proved successfiul, as everyone of the 72 wrestlers on the off season roster have their forms and Adopt a husky in. We have mailed over 20 more Albertsons cards and will see a big check in a few months. The next two major projects are getting the district to move a little faster on the purchase of our new mat, and to get the remaining 35 or so kids to pay for the session six clinic. Remember there will be an all parent meeting on October 30th and we will have all the hydration information available as we will hydrate on the 28th. I know that the Halloween open is on the 25th, but last year it was really crowded and several wrestlers only wrestled once or twice, and the coaches feel that the amount of time we will spend in the Session six training log will benefit us more. Look for very tired, sore and cranky wrestlers this week.

Clinic Cancellation and Changes

Parents due to the low number of sign ups for the Clinics, we regretfully inform you we will be canceling the following clinics: Mack Reiter and Cole Konrad, Brandon Eggum and Luke Becker, Nick Purler. It is uncertain whether we will reschedule any of these clinics. We are under a binding contract with session six and will still hold the October 25th clinic. The cost for this clinic will be 50.00, regardless of whether or not you have a session six book. This is a mandatory clinic. We will be returning your deposits, and all checks can be made to Chris Taylor. We are sorry for this inconvenience, and please understand that it will not happen again. If you have any questions please call one of the coaches immediately

WHO: Mike Clayton Session Six WHEN: October 25th
WHERE: South Hills Wrestling Room TIME: 12 Noon to 5 p.m.

ANy onformation on session six can be found at coach Clayton's website:

http://www.session6wrestling.com/

A Little Disappointed

I'm not sure whether it was the lack of phone blasts, the lack of flyers, the lack of information at the parent meeting, but this year we had several clinics set up. We set up an easy payment plan. And to date we still are shy of the 50 we need to have the clinic. Not by 5 or 10 but by 23. Most of them returners and potential starters. On Tuesday night I will cancel all clinicians and we will be on the same level as most other schools around us. Something I don't want to be. Starting to feel like kids are getting burned out and we are only in preseason. Lots of no shows, non suits and just i don't give A CRAP attitudes. Like the switch will get turned on in November and everyone will bow to the almighty green and gold. ( Ask USC about that) Anyway looking toward a new week and maybe new attitudes or newer excuses. We did do a pre hydration screening and only 2 wrestlers feel below the 7%. We were missing most Varsity football players, and a few starters unexpectedly disappeared as well. That's all for now, check out the updates on the page, added a few things.

Back to School Night and More

Back to school night was a huge success, we had over thirty parents there, with many new faces. As a coach it's nice to see that others share the same passion, and really that boils down to their child having the best experience of their life. Packets were handed out and Adopt A Husky is officially on. Packets are due the 24th of September. We are close to our quota in order to hold the clinics we have scheduled. The prognosticators have already placed the huskies behind the 8 ball, and they will probably start the season ranked #2, little does the rest of the world know....
A new mat is being designed, and should be here around December. ( we hope) At last count there were 60 kids in 6th period, and that does not include the football players or other fall athletes.
Reminder that the first 6 weeks is half way over grades are coming we have a 100% pass rate on the CAHSEE in English, and 99% in Math Way to go Huskies.
More to follow

2 weeks In

Things are underway in Husky land. We started our weight training and conditioning program along with our famous " Fieldwork", and the guys (and girls) jumped right in. I am excited , this team just wants to get better and better. They really want to carve their own niche, and prove everyone wrong. We have some great clinics set up, and the preseason is underway, with several Huskies wrestling at local tournaments. The big news is the New wrestling room practice mat that is being ordered and paid for by the district. Should be here by the time the season rolls around. Back to School night is coming up and I am excited to meet the new freshman parents and re connect with the returners parents. I have already begun to scout and look at the freshman football team for prospects, and there are a few. Things looks good right now at SHHS.

2 weeks and counting

It really seems that we say it all the time, but time is flying by! I still cannot believe I saw Thomas Williams off to Washington DC, or that Mikey Stragier is moving into his new Dorm at CSUF. Maybe the fact that I had 6 former wrestlers working for me this least week at J Rob after it seems they were just campers themselves. After I start to get sentimental at the loss of so many talented wrestlers, I get fired up for the groups we always seem to reload with. It is true that no one thinks that we can, or will do anything this year, but I know we can and will FIND A WAY.
That really is the reason I started this blog. I cannot begin to tell you of all the former wrestlers and wrestlers parents that I run into that want to know how he are doing, and so I thought that this would be a great way to keep everyone up to speed, if not on the programs happenings, then at least my thoughts as a coach.
We had a lot of kids wrestle this summer at camps and at Junior Duals in Oklahoma, but I am anxious to get cracking. We will have a lot of outside clinicians, and a lot of weight room work BEFORE the first day of practice, so be ready.
Change should be embraced, not feared. If we kept the Eric Osbornes, and Erin Milsaps, there would never have been room for the Kohl Crawfords or the Josh Pearsons. It is a great testament that we can and do graduate so many great wrestlers, and still FIND A WAY to reload every year, this one will be no different.


Taylor