THE ILLINI WRESTLING BLOG AND FORUM

That's what Luke Luffman, Zac Braunagel and Danny Pucino are doing right now. They're getting ready for Junior Worlds by practicing with the best in the world. Well, they're the best in the world for now, until Champaign-Urbana, Illinois overtakes North Ossetia, Russia.  That's Coach Medlin leading a pack of hungry wolves. If you want to see the entire video, and you have the Twitter, you go here . If you want to donate to the ILLINOIS Regional Training Center (IRTC), then go here instead . 

  Judge these things based upon your gut feeling and the reactions from your opponents. ILLINI fans are tripping over themselves with joy, while the fans of other teams are tripping over themselves to try to find any shortcomings. That makes for the perfect hire! Besides a three-time NCAA champion, the ILLINI gain through Ed Ruth’s MMA experience. You want that in a room to gain the attention of high school kids who have MMA aspirations. Add all that to his connections on the East Coast, and you get sour grapes from fans of other teams. Let’s compare the Ed Ruth hire to recent hires from other elite schools. Frank Perelli was named the Head Coach of Cornell’s Spartan Combat RTC. He’s a one-time All-American, who finished second once at Senior Nationals. Not a homerun. Staying at Cornell, the school hired Mike Grey, two-time AA, as Head Coach for their university team. Again, not a homerun. Stanford got a proven winner in Rob Koll, but his assistant hires, I would say,

 I'm going to republish this because I absolutely love it.  If somebody were to ask me if I was an Opera lover, I'd say that I love some Opera. It's like heights in that way. If somebody asks me if I was scared of heights, I would answer, "some heights." Seven inches is not very scary. Three feet isn't bad either. One hundred feet is a little scary.  Some Opera, about twenty minutes of it, is the best music in the history of the world. Watching the ILLINI kick butt to that music is divine:

  We received the following letter/threat from “Tom in Iowa.” Note that he spelled a** wrong:   “Deer ILLIINI Wrestling Blog, What are ya doing? Your gonna get it. Your such an a* and a picklehole. Aint nobody gonna beat Iowa never nope. Singed, Tom from Iowa” Then we got this from Vinesh in India:   “Would you like make $3,000 per month from home work? Click on this link and live like the rockstar. Spend ten minute per day on internet and get rich! I have made 300,000 dollars in ten months. You can tooooooo!!!”

 We've talked about Abraham Lincoln's last wrestling match here . That was all in good fun. But the Sixteenth President was an actual wrestler, and he was said to be very good. This wasn't what we'd call Freestyle or Greco, at least as we know it now. It was more like what came to be known as "Catch" wrestling: It is interesting to think of the 6-4 Lincoln throwing people around. This is from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame : Lincoln was a storekeeper at New Salem when his boss backed him to out-wrestle Jack Armstrong, local tough and county champion. From the start, Lincoln handed out a thrashing. When Armstrong began fouling, Lincoln picked up his opponent, dashed him to the ground and knocked him out. Lincoln's wrestling prowess was even a subject broached during the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates. Stephen Douglas mentioned in one of those debates about having known Lincoln for years, and Douglas said about his political opponent, "He could be

 Oh, yeah. I did that right here . 

 Stellar ILLINOIS recruits will be lighting up scoreboards in Fargo. These include Christian Carroll , who'll be at 220 in Junior Freestyle and Greco. Kannon Webster will be rocking both styles in Juniors at 120, and Caden Ernd will be doing the same at 170.  There's also another Rachal at Fargo. Ghee Rachal will be at 220 in both styles.  Who else does the staff need to recruit from this massive Fargo turnout? Why do most normal people ("normies") think of woodchippers when you say the name "Fargo"?  The 2021 USA Wrestling Junior and 16U National Championships will be held at the FargoDome in Fargo, N.D., July 17-23, with competition in men’s freestyle, Greco-Roman and women’s freestyle. This summer will mark the 50th USA Wrestling Junior National Championships, a major national high-school competition which has had a tremendous impact on the sport in our nation for a half-century.

These are the best comedy bits in the history of the world that have been reduced to video. You may disagree with my choices or their order, but you are wrong. If you would like to add what you think are the best comedy bits in a comment, you may do so (knowing in advance that you are wrong).  1.  The Fish Slap Dance. 2.  Roger the Shrubber. 3.  Hard Knock Life ( Austin Powers ' version). 4.  Kearney from The Simpsons . This is all top-drawer humor, but Kearney's line starting at 4:01 is worthy of this list: "Fixing this church should be our top priority, and I say that as a teenager and the parent of a teenager."  5.  Uncle Leo from Seinfeld . "You still say hello."  Honorable Mention:   I can't find the original Monty Python sketch of Ewan McTeagle, Scotland's greatest Poet, but this is a send-up of that. Not by itself worthy of the list, but it is remindful of true greatness. This is the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May,

  Which one of these moves was the MOST FIRE and why: 1.  Coach Poeta elevated to Head Coach. 2.  Coach Hunter retained. 3.  Coach Ruth added. 4.  Incoming class of Dylan Connell, Maximo Renteria, Joey Braunagel and Caden Ernd. 5.  Next class of Christian Carroll, Kannon Webster, et al. 6.  Moving home duals to the Assembly Hall/State Farm Center.

  Abraham Lincoln was a senior at Carl Sandburg High School with a record of 36-4. He dreamed of a wrestling scholarship from the University of Illinois, but he was only #98 on the senior big board. So, the lanky rail-splitter hopped a wagon train to the Northwest Territory to wrestle in the 9 stone 7 pound weight class at Fargo.   Old Timers say he wrestled like a furious shaved bear. The young railsplitter teched his way to the finals, setting up a match with the champion from Virginia, Robert E. Lee. Well, my friends, that match was a sight! Over 40,000 fans dressed in their Sunday’s best picnicked on boiled squirrel and pumpkin sandwiches and watched.   In the first period, Lincoln emancipated and proclamated for the full three hours, building up a sixty-point lead. During intermission, though, his corner had to reattach a finger, which had been chewed off by the Virginian.  Forty minutes into the second period, his reserves exhausted, Lee surrendered. A table was set up

  The news of this home-run hire became official on July 1, 2021 with reporting from FightingILLINI.com . The three-time NCAA champion and MMA star would join the ILLINI wrestling staff. Here's what that announcement looked like: As a fan of the ILLINI, it seems that the team is on fire. The hiring of Coach Poeta, the retention of Coach Hunter, and then the addition of Coach Ruth completes the room. You have Coach Poeta's ILLINOIS connections and charisma, Coach Ruth's Pennsylvania and New Jersey connections able to work with the upper-weights, Coach Medlin bringing world-class Greco, and Coach Hunter with a proven track record with the wee folk. Ruth also brings an MMA background, which is a nod to the future of our sport.  The big, early question in my mind is this: How much can an Ed Ruth help the current ILLINI such as the Brawny's, D.J. Shannon, Trey Sizemore, Matt Wroblewski, and even Luuuuke Luffman, who likes to shoot actual wrestling shots? Then, you think of r