Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School Most Exciting Wrestlers

This isn't necessarily a category of "best wrestlers" - but wrestlers you really enjoy or enjoyed watching. Matt Gilliland of Hoxie and Levi Younkin of Oakley were great high school wrestlers (as an example), but were not my favorites to watch. I have a few current and a few "classic" wrestlers which were very entertaining in High School...

* Matt Schippers - Hoxie. Scored points in bunches. Saw him tech Sutton-Kearn of Concordia two years ago. Was unbelievably aggressive

* Tait Weatherbee - TMP. Quick and strong witha great motor. Unless a wrestler can go 3 hard periods, there's almost no chance

* Danny Grater - Clay Center. Ok, he was flat out great. But a kid that attacked all the time made him exciting

* James Annnon - Norton. Gumby like. Great H.S. wrestler because he was so good on his feet, but could really contort his body

* Ross Taplin - Abilene. Always cool to see a great wrestler with a few exciting freestyle moves.

* (Classic) EK Franks - Wellington. Late 80's 152 pounder that was too strong, too fast, too athletic and too good for anyone to handle

Again, Bo Maynes was among the best wrestlers I've ever seen, but i wouldn't necessarily put him in the "exciting" category. He went out and took care of business in workmanlike fashion. What wrestlers do you consider "exciting"?

Brian Miller wrestled at Oberlin and Colby Juco. He was always fun to watch. Very smooth, sometimes very technical, sometimes unorthodox, out of control but in control.

GREAT points on Miller!

Wasn't it Miller vs. Baker in the finals a few years back (3-4) those we some great scrambles.

Does anybody in the 4A ranks recall a semi-final match between Matt Murray of Colby and Brian Harris of Eudora? Probably five years ago or so.

As far as exciting Danny Grater was impressive, as was Taplin, I always love a good throw. Beau Tillman from Pratt, Brit Madison from Ulysses(sp)in the 90's, Chris Tillman was exciting and so was Jeff Showalter from Nickerson. I can think of more but those are the ones I have seen wrestle.
I also alwayed enjoyed watching guys like Chris Ngo, Steve Mesa, and Kenny Taylor work people over.
Just my two cents.
Coach Brown

Hey that Detmer Deshazer match was exciting to watch. I look forward to seeing it again hopefully.

i was pretty excited, and had a lot of fun when i went to the 321a state championships and watched a ginormous jeff boyle at heavyweight pin his opponent in 19 seconds.......that was fun to watch

Jessie Hardy from LFS has some impressive throws through the years. Anyone who saw his championship match at Sunflower League knows what I am talking about

That one year in the state finals when Roberson was called for stalling. Apparently the really made him mad. He proceeded to take down and let up his opponent about 4 times in 30 seconds. It was very impressive. And, i bet the poor kid who was getting taken down was thinking 'thanks a lot for the stall call ref - NOT!' ;-)

Eddie Boyer (early 80's) Ark City was fun to watch, he destroyed people.
Garcia (Hutch) was always entertaining and Knox(WW) was always a treat, you never knew what was going to happen when he was on the mat.
Two matches I really enjoyed watching in the state finals was Bunch (LV) vs. May (Derby) and Knox vs. Garcia. Two great 103lbs final in recent history.

Gus is right. That was amazing, and I was pulling for the other kid. We should get that rematch this weekend.

The most exciting match I can remember was when Shawn Bunch and Michael Bradley wrestled in the semifinals at kids state in 1998 (I think that's the correct year). Lots of speed and talent on the mat!!!!

BigPin,
As soon as I read the topic, the Bunch v. Bradly match immediately came to mind. It was one of the best matches I have seen. It was amazing how all eyes in the stadium seemed to be drawn to that mat. There are a few others that always caught my attention:
Speer
the Older Lattimer
Jeff Boyle
Thomas Rhodes (Both the good and the bad)
Tait Weatherbee (this is a homer pic, as I've known the kid forever)
Sprigg: very active for a big guy
Taplin: So aggressive and physical

I didn't include kids that I coached directly, because there have been some very exciting matches and kids over the years and I didn't want to slight any of my kids. All their matches were exciting to me.

hah.

that hardy-metzger match was unbelievable.

i was pullin for jake, but jesse made almost everyone in the gym get up after that throw.

can't wait to see those two go at it again.

Mike- If you get the chance, go watch Phil Hart wrestle for Fort Hays. He still is fun to watch.

I think that people need to keep an eye on Taylor Sibala (Junior from Blue Valley Northwest). Although he didn't place last year, his wrestling is vastly improved, his movements and technique have become explosive and controlled at the same time. He remains so calm out there on the mat and is so smooth but really exciting at the same time because you never no when he is going to hit something really sweet!

Deshazier vs. Baldridge - Greco this summer. TD got a big lead early because of his quickness. Baldridge battled back but came up short. The whole gym was focused on this match.

I think another great match would be Tait Weatherbee and Wes Barrett. There both strong and explosive. I say Weatherbee wins but any other predictions on this one, it could be a state finals match up. How you think the match would go.

i have never seen anyone get into some of the postions james annon of norton got into let alone get out of them...also include earl jones vs. great bend wrestler 5-6 years ago