...for those reading this thread, go to the Newman thread to see what this is about...


I think you're taking his comments wrong. In no way is he saying that this is the best the team can be, or that the team has peaked already. What he's saying is for that tourney, he's happy with how we did. We (and when I say we I mean the guys actually wrestling) wrestled a lot better than we've wrestled all year. We're gradually making steps into the right direction, b/c every week we're getting better.
And I don't think you can fully judge Coach Stovall's coaching ability based on his 3rd year at Newman with the situation he's in. But if you wanna question his ability, I think his resume so far speaks for itself. Look what he did at Carroll. In no way were they a powerhouse a decade ago. Look where they were his final year as head coach there, and what's continuing there today. He turned them into a very good team.
Also, look where we finished at last year in NAIA. We finished 12th, and we were only another win or so away from a top 10 finish. Not to shabby for a 2nd year program I'd say. Coach Stovall is a great coach and knows what he's doin. I'd go to battle for him any time he asked me to. In my opinion that's the mark of a great coach, when he has guys on his team that'll battle for him no matter what.

All that a coach can ask for is for his guys to get better each time out, and to continue to try to get better. As I said before I probably shouldn't draw conclusions from a one time comment in a newspaper. I don’t know nearly enough about Coach Stovall to judge whether he is a good coach or not. I also don't think you can judge a college coach by his HS coaching accolades or his own wrestling accolades…Bishop Carrol was pretty good from what I remember a decade ago. 12th in the country out of 26 teams is a "not to shabby" start for a second year program.

With that being said...Let's keep this in the context of Coach John Doe...In my opinion a great college coach is a lot of things… not just having your guys willing to go to battle for you. Some of the major things a great college coach brings are motivation, knowledge, intensity and genuinely caring about his guys on and off the mat. If a coach does that his guys will always go to battle for him. Recruiting is a major force as well…a coach with a program on probation will naturally have more trouble doing this. I think the biggest factor of all is motivation though. Wrestlers with great technique and intensity often get beat by the motivated guy (although intensity and technique sure help). I believe the biggest factor in motivation is setting the bar high and a coach getting his guys to believe they can reach that bar…undermine that and you undermine the rest of your efforts.

I agree with a lot of what you said. And from the recruiting aspect you must keep in mind he was very limited. He couldn't do any recruiting until he passed the test for the NCAA, and he wasn't able to do this til recently as he had neck surgery around the same time he was supposed to originally take the test. For us, in the situation we're in, we're competing with UCO, FHSU, UNO, and not to mention all the JUCO's in the area. When they can all openly recruit while our coach is being held back it hurts a lot.
I really don't think he's undermining the team either. I can see where you would say that though. He has high long term goals that we're still far from reaching, and he pushes us as hard as he can.

Now, I probably don't know much about the college level. I've only coached a few kids who have been there, and I personally never got any college mat time. My teams are not in the top ten in the state, and perhaps that is due to my coaching ability. That being said, I am a head coach and a former wrestler who won several matches on guts when I was clearly outclassed. Ike said, "I think the biggest factor of all is motivation though." Sometimes, you gotta throw em a bone. Do I think my teams performance last weekend met our potential? Absolutely not. Do I think it was our best performance of the year. From a technique perspective, yes. Several of our young kids were working exactly what we've been practicing, and the returners looked much sharper than our previous outing. So you say something like Coach Stovall said. However, when you get back in the room you tell them from the standpoint of utilizing the new technique we're trying to implement, this was a great weekend BUT in now way was our team placement acceptable. You just don't want to blast them in the media. What happens in the room stays there and is much easier to deal with because you don't have the eyes of an entire community now looking down on you because of a lack luster performance. I would imagine Stovall didn't let them believe that they fulfilled his expectations this weekend, but they did show improvement. I can't speak for the man, but that's my two cents worth.