2013 Year in Review

2013 was a great year for Bullet Wrestling.  Missing from the list below are the personal stories of friendship, determination, and courage.  The stories of how victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat or sometimes visa versa.  Watching Bullet Wrestlers do the unexpected is always thrilling. Unfortunately, some of these stories don't always make it beyond the locker room.  Regardless, the list is still long and replete with accomplishment.  The program has much to be proud of.

• Added almost 300 new fans to our Bullet Wrestling Facebook page.
• Coach Oswald joins Bullet Wrestling from Oley.
• 6 Berks County medalists including two champions. Bullets earn 5th place in team standings.
• Gimbor wins Counties as a freshman.
• Sam turned 36 yrs old again.
• Coach Lovello celebrated his 500th win at Twin Valley.
• Mackie continues to thrill us with the big moves and pins.
• Over 50 alumni return to celebrate 50 years of Bullet Wrestling.
• Mauer snubs Renda.
• Wrestling voted out of the Olympics.
• 7 wrestlers qualify for Districts.
• Mackie, Renda and Schmeck qualify for Regionals.
• The two seniors qualify for States.
• 2 State medalists 
• 1 State champion
• Lovello inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame.
• Wrestling voted back into Olympics.
• 300 boxes of blueberries sold to fund another year of Strength Training and MS singlets.
• Coach Oswald leaves Bullet Wrestling for head coach position at Daniel Boone
• @Bullet Wrestling Tweets started appearing
• Schmeck and Conrad take Gold at the Bullet Invitational.  4 others earn medals.
• Fenstermacher and Caskie take Gold at Governor Mifflin JV tourney.
• 5 Medalists at the Governor Mifflin Holiday Tournament.

Bullet Wrestling has great momentum heading into 2014.  This year we had two Bullet Invitational Champions...same as previous year.  This year we had 5 medalists at the Governor Mifflin Tournament, one more than last year.  Last year we had 6 Bullet Wrestlers earn medals at Counties.  What can happen this year?  Can Gimbor repeat as a County champion?  Can we bring home 6 medals?

Sure 2013 was a great year but what are the possibilities for 2014?  

Coach Lovello's Induction into Hall of Fame.  

Mackie with a pin over Lousieau

Finally!

Alumni Event with some Bullet Hall of Famers!

Lovello's 500 Win Celebration

Promoting Our Wrestlers

Last year, in an effort to recognize and promote the hard work and accomplishments of the Bullet Wrestling team, a Bullet Wrestling facebook and this blog were started.  We are continuing those efforts and expanding into some new areas.

As a member of the Bullet Wrestling community, you also play a significant role in promoting our Bullet Wrestling team and the sport of wrestling.  Here is how you can help:

• Check the blog for frequent updates.  http://thematslap.blogspot.com/ .  The blog generally contains more in-depth information and/or analysis. Mark it as a favorite in your Internet Browser.   Information about our schedule, sponsors and rosters also get posted here.  Please share the link with friends and family.  Guest writers are welcome.

• Follow Bullet Wrestling on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/BrandywineHeightsWrestling Like and Share the facebook posts with your friends.  Encourage your friends to Like the Bullet Wrestling Facebook page.   Facebook posts are generally short in nature and we try to include video and photographs here. 

• Follow @BulletWrestling on Twitter. https://twitter.com/bulletwrestling  Encourage your friends to follow us.  Retweet Bullet Wrestling tweets.   Twitter is popular with high school and college students.  It is also an easy way to provide live scoring updates if you can’t make a match.

• Our Instagram account is probably the least developed but it is very popular with high school kids.  http://instagram.com/bulletwrestling

The ultimate goal is to pack the gym at home tournaments and matches and attract youth wrestlers to the sport.  Wrestlers work hard!  Wrestlers are performers! They deserve this recognition in the school and in the community.

Thanks for your help.

Rippey's Challenge

Besides looking forward to the Bullet Invitational, you know it is wrestling season when you look forward to Brian Rippey's predictions in the Reading Eagle.  Just like rules, predictions by Rippey are made to be broken.  This year Rippey comments on how the power in Berks wrestling is shifting to the big schools.  Since 2011 it seems that either Governor Mifflin or Wilson has won the Berks title.  These large schools definitely have opportunities that a smaller school wouldn't have, mainly a lot of kids to fill the 14 weight class slots and a football program to help feed the upper weights. However, this might be considered an excuse by some since the five years prior to 2011, the Berks title was shared by either the Bullets of BHHS or the Panthers of Schuylkill Valley. And in reality, you only need 14 wrestlers, not entire offensive and defensive lines.

Did Rippey just openly challenge the smaller schools in Berks county?

Early this week, Coach Sam Lovello indicated we might have two forfeits in the line-up.  Even Sam admitted that this will hurt the Bullet's chances, especially against a "Wilson" who has 4 returning Berks champions and took 4th place at the District 3 tournament last year.  How does a program fight off their back in this situation?  Unfortunately, there are no quick answers to two open weight classes.  

This kind of problem requires a "system" approach.  It requires all levels (elementary, middle school and high school) to be working together to address the needs of the wrestlers.  It needs the support and understanding from school administrators, the community and the alumni wrestlers. The good news is that our Bullet Wrestling program understands this and are already working on solutions to keep at least 14 wrestlers on the mat every season.   

Anyone who knows a good wrestler, knows that he is an extremely competitive person.  They are scrappers and rarely back down from a challenge.  They find ways to win.  Good wrestling programs, just like that wrestler, are competitive too. I guarantee Bullet Wrestling will not be backing down from Rippey's challenge to take back the wrestling power in Berks.     

Click here for the full preview <<<< Rippey's Preview - Berks Wrestling

The Bullet Invitational

On Saturday, December 7, the Bullets will be hosting 11 other teams at the Bullet Invitational.  Wrestling is slated to begin at 9:30 am and it is guaranteed there will be some hard fought matches.  After all, there is only one chance to have a perfect record and it all starts at these early season tournaments.  Over the years, many Bullet Wrestlers have found themselves standing on the top podium.  Our own Coach Adam was a 3X champion himself.  Last year seven of our wrestlers earned medals.

In an interview with Coach Adam this week, he remembered back to when he wrestled in this tournament.  His memories and comments help describe what makes the sport of wrestling and this program so special.  21 years later, Coach Adam is still remembering how his team made it possible for another team to compete at the tournament by hosting them at their homes.  More than likely, some of those wrestlers might have had to compete against each other the following day.  It is not like a wrestlers to take the easy way out of things.  They would rather compete than take a bye.  

Come out on Saturday and help support another generation of wrestlers.  We are hoping that a few of them come away undefeated, more come away with medals and all of them come away with a memory that will last at least 21 years.

Lovello's Encore

Last year Coach Lovello reached 500 career wins, coached a PIAA State Champion and was inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame.  Watch the video to learn how the team is shaping up this season and how he is planning to top last year! Go Bullets Go.

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Is It Too Soon to Be Excited?

When is it too soon to get started thinking about the 2013-2014 High School Wrestling Season?  Do we have to wait until Halloween?  Not this blogger.  College wrestling has already started their official practices and they are counting down the days to the first competition in November.  High school wrestling starts up almost a month later but thinking about how the Bullet Wrestlers will fair this year is top of mind...especially after seeing this YouTube video by our strength trainer extraordinaire, Dane Miller.  The video features Bullet Wrestler Dan Schmeck.  Dan has been working hard on summer, lifting consistently at "the Garage".  I think when you watch the video, you will agree that his hard work is paying off.  Most Sundays, Dan can also be found in the Lehigh University wrestling room.  He has also been wrestling some pre-season tournaments with Steel Mat Club and went 4-1 a few weeks ago.  This Bullet Wrestler is not afraid of hard work.

See the YouTube video here>>> Schmeck Doing Work 

Does Clothing Make the Wrestler?

Considering the long history of wrestling, dating back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, the singlet is a relatively modern invention.  Statues and drawings from ancient times show the wrestlers only scantily clad, if that.  Thankfully, somewhere between the ancient times and the 1920 wrestlers started to wear clothes.  By the 30’s most amateur wrestlers sported full length tights and something called an outside supporter called a "black tom".

The next evolution took place between the mid 30’s through WWII.  The outside supporter was replaced with trunks.  Shirts were still optional, mostly depending upon where you were wrestling.  Most east coast teams, donned the shirt while the mid-west teams like Oklahoma State, went shirtless.  For dual meets where an east coast team would be wrestling against a mid-west team, it was the home team who got to determine if it was skins or shirts.  It wasn’t until 1966 that the NCAA actually required the 3 piece uniform which included the trunk, tights and shirts.  No more shirt-less dual meets.  (Is this when our attendance started to drop?  And we blame Title IX.)

US amateur wrestlers were introduced to the one-piece wrestling singlet at the Rome Olympics in 1960 however the singlet didn’t hit collegiate and high school wrestling rooms until the 70’s.  Bullet wrestlers first started wearing the one-piece singlet over tights in the 1974 yearbook.  It wasn’t until the 1986 yearbook that the tights totally disappeared from the pictures and we were left with the current look. 

While singlet styles change slightly from year to year, there have not been any big changes for almost 30 years.  Is there a need for a change and what would we change it to?  Are there any advantages to changing the singlet from the fan or the wrestlers’ perspective?  Would it help us grow wrestling?

Take our poll.  Leave a comment.  Looking to hear some comments on this one.