I see that Bishop Carroll might give Manhattan a run for their money, that is hard to swallow. Is their team really that good or do they have a soft schedule? I have heard that they are over rated and that they crumble under pressure. I might be wrong, but Manhattan is a very established team. What has the BC done to work their way to the top or is it just a once in a while good year for their team? Who is their coach and what kind of prorgram do they have in Wichita?

Bishop Carroll is not a flash in the pan and does not have a soft schedule. I am the assistant coach as Bishop Carroll. I graduated from here in 1991 and have been coaching here since 1993.

In my ten years coaching we have finished in the top 10 in state 8 of those years. In 1996 we finished 3rd in state, in 1997 we finished 2nd (both times behind Ark City of course). Todd Porter left as head coach at the end of that season.

In 1998 Mark Stovall became our head coach. Since he has been here we won state in 2002 and got 2nd last year. As Prant will tell you, we had a great team in 2002 with 2 all-americans and one that was an overtime match a way (also Newton champs that year). I believe our reputation for choking comes from last year when be beat Ark City by 60 points at regionals and then lost to them by 10 at state. There is no way around that - we choked.

Stovall wrestled high school in Texas and for LSU in college. He was assitant for 3 years at Ponca City, then 2 years at Wichita North, before becoming our head coach. I don't think our schedule is soft. We won the Valley Center dual tournament beating Junction City, Clay Center, Derby and Valley Center. (By the way if you want consistency we are on 3 year old 52 match win streak in duals.) We then got fourth at the Perry Invitational within 8 points of 2nd beating the likes of Perry and barely losing to Choctaw and Midwest City. Then we won our tournament over Campus, Valley Center, Rose Hill and 7 other teams and last week we won the tough 19 team derby tournament by 80 points (derby was in second).

Will we beat Manhatten this weekend? Only if we wrestle very well and don't choke but no matter where we finish it will not be a flash in the pan or beacuase we have a soft schedule.

You may have Mark Stovall... but we have the the real deal Stovall.... the orginal clone of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Whatcha gotta say about that. His only weakness is a booger fetish.

hahhahahahahahahaha!

coach church

OK, I would like to pose a wager to the Manhappiness duo of Prant and Jhris. You claim that there is and should be fear of the burger due to being one scary "mofo" as Jhris put it. I know it may be a bit late seeing as the tournament starts in 4 hours, but maybe JFinkeldei could take a message to Jhris and the rest of the hat town funny men. I would like to see if Jhris would be willing to put the burger on the line for the championship match of 215 this weekend??? What say you Jhris, I've never seen you wrestle, obviously from your record you are not one to be trifled with, but you sound very sure of yourself. Are you sure enough to surrender the burger avitar to the winner of 215, if of course it is not you? Finkeldei, would you mind passing this wager along to the Manhattan faithful when you see them later today?

Ooooh, that is quite the tasty wager. (Bad pun absolutely intended.)

I don't know if he'll get the message, but I assume you're thinking (as were those who seeded the tournament) that Jhris will meet up with Sponsel in the finals. That's also my prediction. I don't know how the match will play out, but I do know Jhris has beaten Sponsel in kids, and as far as common opponents I'll go back to last year and mention Bruce from Ark City, whom Jhris defeated 5-3.

Does that mean Jhris will automatically defeat Sponsel, or even get to the finals? Of course not. Just giving some stats that make me confident ol' Jhris should have no problem defending the honor of the hamburger.

And to whoever asked- Newton places the top eight, not top six.

Hmmmmm.

Now that I look at the seeds again, I would have to say Bishop Carrol would be the favorite (even over The Hat). Three especially delicious match-ups (provided both wrestlers take care of business) are at 119, 152, and 215. At 119 Bingham and Brown could meet in the semis, and the 152 and 215 matches would be in the finals.

Prant, in order to compare these two wrestlers, we would have to go back to last year as both are undefeated in Kansas, Sponsel's loss came to a kid from Oklahoma. If you want to do the Jhris beat Bruce, Bruce beat Sponsel thing, I could turn that around and say Sponsel beat Knipp, Knipp beat Jhris last year as well. But with head up matches, I do believe Jhris has the advantage. I am hoping that both will make the finals and if they do, I'm hoping that its a great match. I would be very dissapointed if the finals match was a blow out in either direction. One more little side note to add to the battle o' the burger, no holds barred cage match of death... as you have pointed out previously, it should be a battle all the way to the end between the happy bunch from Man-town and Carroll. Just that much more pressure on the burger match. Good luck to both!!!!

Jhris and Sponsel would be a good match. They did meet up last year at Kids State and Jhris handed it to Sponsel, I had ring side seats. I do know that Sposel trained hard this last summer and is much improved. Should be a great match up if they get to square off in the finals.

Is it top 8 place and medal or top 6 place and medal?

I would like to see the match between Danny Grater and Sequoia Hill in the finals, should be a good one, although I see Grater winning
by 4 or 5 points.

OOOOHH the drama!!!! Here's what I've got, and i have to admit, i was focusing on Carroll more than the other teams:

Carroll - 140
Manhattan - 133
Emporia - 88
Norton - 84 (not too shabby at all for missing some of their studs)

And to make it even more juicy (note the burger reference). Jhris vs. Sponsel for the team title is looking more and more like a possibility. Should be a great race tomorrow with all the back door twists and turns. Is Jhris up for the match up, can he handle the weight of the free world on his shoulders???? We'll just have to wait and see. Carroll has 5 in the finals, Manhattan has 4.

To all of my dear fans, I did what I could, and we still came up short of the team title. I would also like other people who doubt my skizzills to eat it. I won and there is nothing you can do about it.

AND I also defeated Knipp last year at Newton. I lost to him at state as I suffered a shoulder injury that has bothered me for about 3 years now.

Jhris, no doubt you had the skizzills to win 215. And without question, Manhattan is a team to be dealt with in 6A. However, you might want to be careful when you claim that you have 6A wrapped up. I haven't seen you claim that on this forum, but did hear you say that @ Newton on Saturday night. There is a lot that can happen between now and state and you have to remember that there were several 6A teams that weren't at the tournament. It may be that kind of arrogance that has put your team out of the state title in previous years.