Coaches Corner for February 26th: Ryan Ross, Boone Boys Wrestling

With this on Coach's Corner here in KWBG, going to talk state wrestling with Boone Wrestling Head Coach, Ryan Ross joining us as the Torrey Dors sent four to state, had one on the podium on Saturday night. I know Coach wants four for four, and you know what?

I think some year that will happen. But with everything that went down, Ryan, boy, one out of four is better than none, right? Yeah, one out of four is not bad.

I mean, getting any kid to the podium in the state of Iowa is pretty impressive and just shows their hard work and dedication. But as far as this one goes, every kid down there got two wins. And we had two guys losing the blood rounds, and a guy lose the round before.

So I mean, we were right there. So that was fun to see him compete. Yeah, 100% right there. Let's start with Easton Landis at 106.

Boy, I'll tell you what, one of those matches, I'll never forget where I was when I was watching it, Coach, because I was in the Webster City parking lot getting ready to do girls basketball that night.

Easton's getting ready to come up on the mat, and I'm thinking, OK, I'll just wait for a second. I watched the match, loses in overtime to Vincent Moore from West Des Moines Valley. We'll talk more about him later, I'm sure.

But I thought Landis, I didn't know how he was going to bounce back after that, Ryan Ross. And I'm going to tell you how he bounced back after that, phenomenally for a freshman. A great tournament, probably a kid that should have been up on the podium.

I guarantee he's motivated to be there next year. Well, that is correct. He is 100% motivated. I've talked about these kids and their families and the support they got. And it's through the roof. And Easton is no different.

He comes from a great family that helps him reach all of his goals. And he's got his wrestling family. It's going to help him too. But yeah, as far as his tournament goes, I'll tell you what. I talked to you about this before, Steve and my coach's deal.

And I told you these guys have been on big stages before, but there is something different about the state tournament in high school. And that young man, his stomach slipped right before the match. We're sitting there warming up.

And he just gets down real super fast, you know, like a catcher's position. I was like, I didn't see anything, but I was like, oh no. And then he hops up and he starts bouncing around again. Boom, right back into the catcher's position.

I'm like, this instantly was like, what is happening here? Why is he doing this? And then after the match, he looked up as his coach. I thought I was going to throw up. My stomach dropped. And it's just, you know, that stage is just something different.

And I love getting these guys down there as a freshman because you won't have, you'll always get these butterflies every year. It won't be that extreme. You know, and he said how to buy that first round.

And I honestly, I feel like if he would have got a little lower seed and wrestled, you know, like a 20 seed at first and was able to deal with those nerves and wrestle somebody, you know, not quite to his level, it would have been a completely different state tournament getting that first one out of the way.

But it is what it is. And like I said, I mean, you said it too, he is motivated and he will bounce back and I'd be willing to bet that that young man finds himself on the podium next year. Yeah, no doubt in my mind either. Let's go to Owen Thomas next.

And Thomas was able to get a real nice decision victory in round number one. Gosh, his offense in that first round was fantastic. Loses by a tech fall to a real good kid from ADM. And then he bounces back with a pin.

And I thought it was pretty workman like in that consolation round number two. And then, you know what, he runs up against a heck of a kid from Waukee Northwest, has his postseason come to an end.

But man, if I'm Owen Thomas, I told you, I don't want, at 150 when you're a freshman or a sophomore man, you're wrestling against guys that look like they showed up with their wives and their kids and everything else. I mean, those are just guys.

And Owen's going to be there at some point. But I was really happy with what his postseason looked like, Ryan. Yeah, he's just a workhorse man. And he's always asking questions. He's wanting to get better. You know, as far as Owen goes, he's like a baby giraffe kind of deal.

Dude's got size 100 feet. And his body just can't catch up to it yet. It will. It will. Yeah, or his feet can't catch up to his body. It will. And it definitely will. But yeah, his technique and his attitude and just everything about Owen's great.

And like you said, I mean, that Waukee kid, he was a buzzsaw man. He took off the warm up and walked out there. And it was like, oh, boy, this guy has been in the weight room for quite some time. But you know, Owen's really strong too.

I don't even necessarily think he was outmuffled. I just think as far as athletic ability and Owen, growing into his body, it's not quite there. So what he's doing with what he has is quite remarkable. But to jump along with Ethan is just a fantastic family.

And they're going to give him what he needs and what he wants to progress. And one of those things is getting those feet to get moving and get the development going this summer. And I'm positive he will. Yeah, it'll catch up. He'll catch up for sure.

Next kid I want to talk about, and I know the word disappointment is probably going to get brought up a bunch with him. And it's not on him. It's just on what happened to him. But Brody Warwick ends up getting a tech fall in his first round match.

Gosh darn, he looks so good in that first round matchup. And then as good as I thought he was in that first round, his victory over the Wristman kid from Western Dubuque might have been even more impressive to me. He runs up against Crossin from Indian Oil in the quarters.

And you want to talk about, well, we're going to bring this word up again, a stud. But Crossin was fantastic. And then Consolation round number four, I'll let you talk more about it. The injury happens. He has to default out. And I guess heart wrenching also comes to mind too.

Yeah, yeah. Honestly, that would be the word I would use, heartbreak. You run through the tournament, kind of like you were talking. He does what he does that first match, just gets that one out of the way, and blows that kid up and gets into his technique and stuff like that.

Then he goes against Wristman. Returning state qualifier or state place winner, and just got it out of win. I mean, he dug deep for that one. And that was really awesome to see out of Brody. He set the single season records for near falls in a season and tech falls.

So we know he can score a million points. But when you go against a hammer like that, it's fun to watch them gut something out. And he did. Boston, I mean, D1 commit. He's going to Nebraska.

One of those deals where I know Brody can actually wrestle that guy a lot better, but that name gets to a kid sometimes and what he's doing and the fact that he's going to a D1 pool. But that is what it is.

And then, yes, as far as the injury, he goes out, takes the guy down, puts him on his back within 30 seconds. That match is either going to be a tech fall in the first or the beginning of the second. They get into just a weird position, but a normal one. Nothing too crazy.

Just wrong place, wrong time with his shoulder. Pops out. His dad and the medical trainers are out there. And his dad is actually the one that was able to pop it in the first time. So then they restarted. Guy chopped that side and popped it out again.

And then the athletic trainer told me he put it in. And when he let go of the arm, it just fell out right away. No pressure, just fell right back out. So it's just super unfortunate. And he's scheduled for surgery April 1. Looking at roughly a four-month recovery.

And he's going to be back with a chip on his shoulder. He broke his heart. He wanted to be on the podium more than anything. And truthfully, he was the better guy. Just a bad situation, wrong time, wrong place. Yeah, I think that's a great way to put it, too.

Well, we go from that disappointment to AJ Braddock. And my gosh, I told AJ right before we started doing our Meet the State wrestlers, I said, I can't believe this is our last time. It just felt like he came walking up the hallway. And we met in that conference room.

And I said, who is this dude right here? And I remember you saying, keep an eye on AJ. Keep an eye on him. He's going to be a lot of fun the next four years. And he was more than just a lot of fun. He was tremendous.

And he has just one of those tournaments where I watched the bracket. I knew Jake Knight was at the top. I know I'm already blowing past some of his other matches. But I want to look at that Jake Knight match because AJ did not go out there and say, you know what?

Here's your trip to the finals. I'll just go ahead and I'll just mess around for a couple of minutes. You can go ahead and pin me. This is a kid that went the full three periods with him. He pushed Knight. There were a couple of times that I think Knight was pushed a little bit.

He was definitely the better kid. There's no doubt in my mind. But man, it was fun to watch AJ come back, get that fifth place finish. I know it was a medical forfeit win. But it felt good to see him get his arm raised because, Ryan, he deserved that. Yeah, for sure.

You touch on the Jake Knight thing. And like Brody's scenario, we're on the top side. So we run into the number one team, Jake Knight, the semifinals. And then you're talking about another D1 commit. He's going to University of Illinois. Just a bus stop. But yeah, AJ fought him.

If I'm not mistaken, he got bonus, or he tech folder pinned almost everybody, except for maybe two guys this entire season. And AJ was one of the guys that hung with him. And Jake came out and did his thing and showed why he was the number one guy right away.

And then I think AJ just said enough, enough, man. I'm going to show you what I got too. And really slowed the match down. And not a lot of points were scored after that on Jake's end. AJ got a takedown and everything.

So yeah, and then bounced to the backside and lost a heartbreaker to get into the third place match against Southeast Boak Kid. And that kid went on to tech his guy for third place. So it took all over time to beat AJ. So it just shows the caliber of wrestler he is.

And to touch on your talk as a freshman, I remember playing just clear as day two, just long haired, little, just baby-faced freshman. But he was vicious on the mat. And there's kids that I remember every single one of them.

But there's kids that hold a different level or a special place. And AJ, without a doubt, won. His ability to lead this team and the development that we've seen on the mat, but even more, just the dude he became.

It was really fun to watch just a 14-year-old kind of amateur, just whatever kind of spastic. Didn't like losing. Didn't know how to handle his emotions. Just a fantastic leader and great human being.

I've told you several times that's the most important thing to our coaching staff is watching these guys become awesome young men and start the next chapter in life, which AJ will still be wrestling. So that's pretty cool. We're excited to watch him.

He hasn't committed anywhere yet. He has options, shall we say. Oh, he definitely has options. Yeah, and so hopefully get that all-American status in college He knows he's got a heck of a fan base here in Boone. So yeah, for sure he does. For sure he does.

Well, Ryan, we'll wrap up the season with you in a couple of weeks. I feel like we can do a part one and part two of that. So I can't wait to do that with you. But thanks for looking back at State with us here this week on Coaches Corner. OK, thanks, Ryan. You bet.

Ryan Rossigan joining us. Boone Boys Wrestling here on Coaches Corner.