Ok people. I have sat and read all this stuff long enough. After all...this whole topic was started about me. Allow me to introduce my self...I am Daniel Smith. Senior at Derby High School, weight:145 pounds.

Where to begin...where to begin. Well...to start off with....I DID NOT slam Wilcox at all, last Saturday night at regionals. If you watch the tape, you can see that he landed on his BUTT then his BACK, coming NO where near his HEAD like he and his coaches claim. As far as "never intervening" from the Junction City coaches, it was SEEN by an entire gym, AND ON TAPE!!!! To tell your kid to lay down just so he can win a match, cuz that's the only way you can get him to state is not only bogus and chicken s**t, but also a lack of integrity on your guy's part. When an ENTIRE gym sees what happens, then deny it EVERYWHERE you turn is also very LAME! You know for a FACT that that was the only way you were gonna get your kid to state...also to screw a SENIOR wrestler out of a chance to place in the top 4 at state, and waste 11 years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears. and speaking of tears....how's that grade 1 "concussion" doing that you guys so claim to have had? Now you tell me, any body-ANY body, how can you get a concussion from hitting your BUTT and BACK on the mat? Did he have his head up his butt that afternoon or what? I have been told by my coaches, and I may be wrong on this, I will admit it..but they told me that if someone is diagnosed w/ a grade 1 concussion, or any kind of concussion at all, that that particular wrestler must wait at least a 7 day period b4 returning to competition....which would mean that Wilcox would have to sit state out this year. DARN!!! What a shame...to go through all that hard work to screw a senior with a much higher calibur of wrestling skill and SPORTSMANSHIP, just to qualify some one for state, then not get to wrestle.

who am i - yes he was cranking my arm pretty good, and yes it should have been called a lot earlier, and yes I was pretty ticked off. But I am NOT one to slam some one because of it. I am NOT one to CHEAT to WIN! I have integrity, and honor and class, and SPORTSMANSHIP...those are all something that wrestling has taught me. I EVEN CLAPPED when he got up...figuring that he was going to FINISH THE MATCH, and NOT give up.

Dingbat- How did I cheat? Was it because I brought him down to the mat with a little bit of force like MOST PEOPLE DO!? Besides, the Derby crowd was not the only ones booing, after I had got DQ'D. The ENTIRE GYM that saw it happen was booing. I think you need to clean your ears out b4 you go to another tourny so you can actually HEAR what's goin on.

Now I WILL APPOLOGIZE for "slaming" Wilcox, but I did see a lot more "slaming" going on the rest of the day, but nothing was called for any of it. It's pretty bad when I have other coaches come up to me after it all happened, APPOLOGIZING to ME that I GOT SCREWED OVER!!!! And that Wilcox was NOT hurt, and should have got up and finished the match, LIKE HE STARTED TO, BEFORE his coaches MADE him LAY BACK DOWN!! C'mon, with 1:13 left to go in the 3rd, and you can't finish a match because you got a consussion from landing on your BUTT! You should never have even got on the mat.

Now Fris and I have been talking back and forth for the past week. He's a good kid, and I have a good respect for him, after all...he did beat me a Newton FAIR AND SQUARE! Yeah, I wanted a re-match in the consilation finals at regionals...can't really say what the out come would have been, but it would have been one heck of a fun, good match! I congratulate you on making it to state. Fris...good luck to you at sate this weekend, I'll be rootin for ya.

Mejia...you ur self are a great wrestler as well. You and I have a little bit of a history together,starting last year at Douglass. Don't know if you remember it or not, but you DID beat me by 1 or 2, I THINK, I may be wrong. But I did get my revenge a year later at the exact same tourny beating you in the finals. I loved that match, it was a good, hard match..very top quality finals performance, on BOTH of us. I then got you again at Newton..beating you by 3 I think. But I think you kinda got the last laugh of that match when I busted my lip open on your head on that final take down. I tasted blood for the next 3 days. But even in that match, I had a blast doing it. Then at regionals, you got ur revenge, beating me by 1 to go on to the finals to wrestle Sequoya. Even though you got ur butt kicked, I congratulate you on making it to state as well. Good luck and I will be rootin for you as well.

Now if you two wind up wrestling each other...then make the more victorius one come out on top.

Now I know that what I said here tonight may offend some of you (Junction City), it may have made some of you laugh a little, maybe even smile. But I think my over all message is this: "Keep everything with you that you have ever learned in wrestling. Keep it and treasure it, and use it later on in life. Never lose sight on what's at hand and in the future. Keep the INTEGRITY, SPORTMANSHIP,HONOR and everything else..but ABOVE all, keep with you your entire life: SELF RESPECT! NEVER lose it, with out it, you are nothing, and never will be.
That has been something that I have had to learn over the past week. I WAS and SITLL AM the better man from that match. I didn't CHEAT to win. I walked away with my head up, and restrained from doing anything that I later would regret. To Junction City, even though you guys may not have much integrity, or honor..GOOD LUCK this weekend, and good luck to all that will be there this weekend. I will be there cheerin on my team, and those that I have become friends with over the past 11 years.


Daniel Smith
Derby High School
145 Pounds