2024 Bill Farrell Memorial

[CHROMEBIRD]

I saw that Bryce Andonian and PJ Duke are going. Any other notable entries? 

[MPhillips]

Forest, Snyder, Macc, Wick, Quincy and Kennedy, Rath...

[GimJustafan]

There are 7 top 6 ranked high schoolers 

• 57 kg: #2 Jax Forrest
• 57 kg: #5 Nate Desmond
• 61 kg: #5 Billy Dekraker
• 61 kg: #6 Sam Herring
• 70 kg: #1 PJ Duke 
• 70 kg: #4 Kollin Rath
• 125 kg: #6 Coby Merrill

[Truzzcat]

Kinda crazy that Forrest and Duke are both in high school and probably are the on-paper favorites to win the tournament. It is definitely not a strong field from what I have seen though I'll be interested to see what the international entries look like.

Edited November 7 by Truzzcat

[nhs67]

16 hours ago, Truzzcat said:

Kinda crazy that Forrest and Duke are both in high school and probably are the on-paper favorites to win the tournament. It is definitely not a strong field from what I have seen though I'll be interested to see what the international entries look like.

The year after Olympics at the BF is always a bit skimpy.

[maligned]

11 hours ago, nhs67 said:

...always a bit skimpy.

[Truzzcat]

Pj just counter wrestled Andonian into oblivion the metzger and sprawl go behind off Andonians high c are hard for me to compute.

[de4856]

PJ Duke looked very impressive over Andonian. 

[CHROMEBIRD]

Was expecting Andonian to go grown-man strength on PJ and horse him around. Kids these days are so insanely talented.

[D-1]

I would hope that some coach(s) will send or accept PJ to NLWC for his senior year...He has nothing left to prove on the high school level!! Maybe the OTC? Anything besides destroying anyone in his path to another state NYS title!!

[CHROMEBIRD]

15 minutes ago, D-1 said:

I would hope that some coach(s) will send or accept PJ to NLWC for his senior year...He has nothing left to prove on the high school level!! Maybe the OTC? Anything besides destroying anyone in his path to another state NYS title!!

Agree with this. He may be tempted to stick around though. Completely crushing it his senior season of hs, even if predictably so, probably helps his NIL earning potential. Sponsors and collectives might be more easily wowed by big results and impressive numbers than a year of development, even if spending a year at the OTC or an RTC would have a bigger payoff in the long-run.

[BAC]

16 hours ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

Agree with this. He may be tempted to stick around though. Completely crushing it his senior season of hs, even if predictably so, probably helps his NIL earning potential. Sponsors and collectives might be more easily wowed by big results and impressive numbers than a year of development, even if spending a year at the OTC or an RTC would have a bigger payoff in the long-run.

I dunno. You really think crushing it his senior year would burnish his NIL potential more than success on the college or senior circuit? 

Seems to me that high school rosters are littered with guys who pin or tech their way through their senior year, but it barely elicits a yawn because of the competition.  I can rattle off a whole bunch of names of guys who've done that, and you probably won't have heard of most of them. The only reason Duke is on our radar at all is the damage he's done against guys outside his normal schedule (national and international tournaments, and guys more senior than he is). No one's buying Bo Bassett t-shirts because he teched his kid in state finals.

That said, I have no issue with Duke sticking around for his senior year.  He's the star of his high school, with all the guys knowing and admiring what a killer, and all the girls swooning.  I'd never want to take that from him.  I don't know much about his training situation, but clearly it hasn't hurt him thus far, as he's outwrestling veterans like Lewan and Bryce. And if he's planning to bob in and out of his regular schedule to attend a few college and international tournaments, that's all for the better.  

[Not the Real Scribe]

Anyone know if it's possible to see video from the tournament.  Would love to see Duke go at it with Andonian.

[D3 for LU]

1 hour ago, Not the Real Scribe said:

Anyone know if it's possible to see video from the tournament.  Would love to see Duke go at it with Andonian.

Got a subscription to FLO?

(You can see it thru FLOARENA bracket results, Not Ready for Primetime Scribe.  )

D3

Edited November 10 by D3 for LU

[D3 for LU]

On 11/8/2024 at 8:04 PM, maligned said:

D3

[Le duke]

PJ Duke is an absolute horse. Just murdered Andonian and beat Lewan handily.

IIRC, he has two more U20 years left.

One of the more impressive things he did was at about 2:20 left on the second against Lewan. They were in a Whizzer position and he throws Lewan out of bounds…with one arm.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bnwtwg]

Of course Lewan looked like a deer in the headlights. It was the first time in his life that he was in a match where he needed to use his fingers AND toes to count all the points.

[CHROMEBIRD]

On 11/10/2024 at 6:35 AM, BAC said:

I dunno. You really think crushing it his senior year would burnish his NIL potential more than success on the college or senior circuit? 

Seems to me that high school rosters are littered with guys who pin or tech their way through their senior year, but it barely elicits a yawn because of the competition.  I can rattle off a whole bunch of names of guys who've done that, and you probably won't have heard of most of them. The only reason Duke is on our radar at all is the damage he's done against guys outside his normal schedule (national and international tournaments, and guys more senior than he is). No one's buying Bo Bassett t-shirts because he teched his kid in state finals.

That said, I have no issue with Duke sticking around for his senior year.  He's the star of his high school, with all the guys knowing and admiring what a killer, and all the girls swooning.  I'd never want to take that from him.  I don't know much about his training situation, but clearly it hasn't hurt him thus far, as he's outwrestling veterans like Lewan and Bryce. And if he's planning to bob in and out of his regular schedule to attend a few college and international tournaments, that's all for the better.  

Yeah, I totally hear that. I just think sponsors think differently than fans on here and would rather put an athlete with the perfect hs record (or whatever) next to their brand than the guy spending time in development at the next level.

You see it in other sports too, even in like basketball where kids commonly reclassify to college (and then the league) sooner to get their bag. They spend their time walking through their hs season instead of spending their senior year competing at the next level because it keeps the hype machine going, which now keeps the NIL machine going too, and because it mitigates risk of getting injured or exposed if they're not yet ready for prime time (which is a ridiculous expectation, but it happens).

I'm cool with whatever PJD or any of the other upcoming superstars decide to do. Just saying that the calculus has probably changed about the decision to compete in high school vs. spend that time training at the RTC/OTC.

[Truzzcat]

1 minute ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

Yeah, I totally hear that. I just think sponsors think differently than fans on here and would rather put an athlete with the perfect hs record (or whatever) next to their brand than the guy spending time in development at the next level.

You see it in other sports too, even in like basketball where kids commonly reclassify to college (and then the league) sooner to get their bag. They spend their time walking through their hs season instead of spending their senior year competing at the next level because it keeps the hype machine going, which now keeps the NIL machine going too, and because it mitigates risk of getting injured or exposed if they're not yet ready for prime time (which is a ridiculous expectation, but it happens).

I'm cool with whatever PJD or any of the other upcoming superstars decide to do. Just saying that the calculus has probably changed about the decision to compete in high school vs. spend that time training at the RTC/OTC.

Bama has a WR that reclassified so that he could enroll a year early and im not sure if he still is but he played most of the season as a 17-year-old. I personally think for PJ,Jax,Bassett,Blaze,Lockett get nothing out of another year of high school aside from being a kid which is completely valid and I think enjoying that trumps making money sooner. All of them are ready to AA right now and worst-case scenario you spend a year on red shirt but get to spend it acclimating to campus life and in a college room full time.

[BAC]

3 hours ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

Yeah, I totally hear that. I just think sponsors think differently than fans on here and would rather put an athlete with the perfect hs record (or whatever) next to their brand than the guy spending time in development at the next level.

You see it in other sports too, even in like basketball where kids commonly reclassify to college (and then the league) sooner to get their bag. They spend their time walking through their hs season instead of spending their senior year competing at the next level because it keeps the hype machine going, which now keeps the NIL machine going too, and because it mitigates risk of getting injured or exposed if they're not yet ready for prime time (which is a ridiculous expectation, but it happens).

I'm cool with whatever PJD or any of the other upcoming superstars decide to do. Just saying that the calculus has probably changed about the decision to compete in high school vs. spend that time training at the RTC/OTC.

Fair enough brother, I can't claim to have inside intel on how the NIL decisions are made. 

In general though, I do like the idea of even the elite kids finishing out their high school years.  Even if it delays their wrestling development, the delay is very slight, and is offset IMO by the benefit of getting to live a normal life of a normal high school kid. I worry that that leaving high school early to focus on wrestling may cause premature burnout if your life is all wrestling, all the time.