THE ILLINI WRESTLING BLOG AND FORUM

THE ADVENTURES OF JOMBO We are selling this wonderful piece of Iowa Hawkeye wrestling history as an NFT for the LOW, LOW price of ten million dollars (US). That's right, we are slashing our prices by 99%. What used to be one billion dollars (US) is now only ten million dollars (US).  And what a conversation starter! For example, in bankruptcy court when the bankruptcy judge asks you why you spent so much money on such a foolish purchase. Or, when your spouse brings up this item during divorce proceedings. You can simply tell them: Nothing shouts "class" more than paying a ridiculous amount of money for a piece of crap. So, don't wait! Call now! Operators are standing by!  THE ART OF PAINTBALL Sun Tzu has thirteen chapters in his epic book The Art of War . There are admonitions to know your enemy, know yourself and on and on for hundreds of pages. In paintball, on the other hand, there is only one maxim: Be Small.  Look at Matt Wroblewski's chest. Compare that ches

Read this like a comic book, from top to bottom with a soda pop and a candy bar. Coach Poeta signed a great one here, as Braeden Scoles is a force on the mat. Besides the three state championships and counting, there's the multiple Fargo All American honors.  You can see the character and ability of Braeden in this video of his state championship final win as a freshman at 145 against a two-time champion: Video credit: Scott Rhoads

FARGO Like Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful , Fargo started off on a somber note, not uncertain, but also not certain, found some inner soul and then built and built and built to a mighty crescendo. In 16U Freestyle, the men and women from ILLINOIS both finished 9th, and in 16U Greco, the men finished a little worse at 11th.  In Junior Freestyle, the ILLINOIS team finished in 8th, while the womenfolk found their inner soul and finished 3rd.  The mighty crescendo came with Junior Greco, and my goodness those men tore it up. ILLINOIS won the thing by sixty points, 164 to a second-place team that only managed 104. Iowa finished in 5th with 74, while Pennsylvania was 11th with 44.  That kind of performance becomes part of the legend.  ILLINI RECRUITS The ILLINI recruits had a total of four All American performances out of four attempts. Kannon Webster led the way with a second in Freestyle and a championship (and Outstanding Wrestler award) in Greco. Kole Brower finished 7th in Fr

  THE ADAM TIRAPELLE STORY World Premiere video below!  Adam discusses his wrestling career in California and at the University of ILLINOIS. Also, among many other topics, he does not admit to destroying a 1986 Subaru Wagon, breaks the news that Mark Johnson is a great guy, and provides us with two excellent quotes: "PEOPLE OVERESTIMATE WHAT THEY CAN ACCOMPLISH IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME." And its corollary: "PEOPLE UNDERESTIMATE WHAT THEY CAN ACCOMPLISH OVER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME."   Check out the video, my friends. Adam Tirapelle has a cool story, and he's a certified wrestling legend. Plus, there are about eighty images, twenty-eight subtitles, and video from his matches with Tony Davis in the 2000 finals, Reggie Wright in Las Vegas, T.J. Williams at the dual in Huff Hall, as well as Jared Lawrence and Dave Esposito in the 2001 NCAA semifinals and finals.  COMING TOMORROW Fargo Recap . Unless it's not over by then. Will it be over? These poor kids have go

  Just when I think that we've covered all of the ILLINI Guest Clinicians at Beat the Streets Chicago over the past week at their sold out Summer Camp, along comes Emery Parker. Two-time All American and one-time Round of 12er.  And not the Emory Parker you've read so much about.  Apparently, the former ILLINI great also is the leader of BTS Chicago's Mentoring Program and serves on their Young Professionals Board.  I remember like it was yesterday when Emery beat that tough kid from Rutgers, Nick Gravina, and thinking, "Man, Emery Parker is going to be an All American." Well, he did it twice. I also wrote this about the Poeta-trained athlete, "If Mike Poeta wants to get a loan for an even bigger training facility, he could go into the bank and simply say, 'Emery Parker,' and they would load up shopping carts with cash for him." Maybe it was the match with Gravina, but if not, it probably happened around that time, Emery Parker is on all fours i

  THE ILLINI & BTS CHICAGO The ILLINI have had a slew of Guest Clinicians helping out over at Beat the Streets Chicago, and that continues over the weekend. All American Zac Brunson joins the crew to teach wrestling and life. He's now part of a long list of ILLINI who've been showing up to do good works: That includes student-athlete Lucas Byrd:  ... and other ILLINI greats like Mike Boyd, Conrad Polz and Jordan Blanton: And there was a sixth, as-yet unidentified ILLINI helping out. Could've been one of the Coaches, Poeta, Ruth, Hunter, Medlin or IMAR, or somebody else. I just don't know. Here's where you can donate to BTS Chicago . Also, don't forget to donate to the ILLINI Regional Training Center .  THE #NFT CRAZE You are probably aware of the crypto marketplace, which is where you can buy and sell cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Solana. Well, there's also a marketplace for crappy clip art that is turned into a Nonfungible Token or "NFT.&quo

When you look back on a life well-lived, you realize that one thing is paramount over everything else, and that one thing is this: Nothing is more important and more valuable than your health and the health and welfare of your family.  Except for a JOMBO™ NFT.  You see, a JOMBO™ NFT is priceless, unique, extraordinary; but that won't stop us from putting a price on it because we believe in you, the customer. You aren't an idiot buying a picture of an ape or a lion in a cowboy hat. This is a solid investment you can cherish over a lifetime.  For just under one billion dollars (US), you can add the latest Adventures of JOMBO™ to your NFT collection. Good old JOMBO™ is now a part-- perhaps the biggest part --of Iowa Hawkeye Wrestling history. You can own a unique part of that history today.  Call now. We have scammers ready to take your order.  LUCAS BYRD! I thought that Beat the Streets Chicago had set up an amazing wrestling camp with the appearances of Guest Clinicians like Con

THE IRTC GOLF OUTING Lake of the Woods was always fun, an early bucket of balls at the driving range, some practice on the putting greens, then a good time on the course. The best part, of course, was taking the little one on the driving range and the course to watch him hack away. He did not take instruction. So his swing still looks like a combination hammer throw and jockey whacking his horse in the home stretch.  He took wrestling instruction much better.   With the IRTC Golf Outing, you can have fun with a bunch of wrestlers! I bet that most of them suck at golf like me, so there will be comedy. Maybe some wrasslin' on the fairways, too. Here's the course, with some annotations from me: Here's the link to sign up your foursome, and here's another link to become a sponsor. But while you're on the ILLINOIS Regional Training Center site, you'll want to see the new front page with an action photo of IMAR on it: CONRAD POLZ ILLINI Great Conrad Polz is the gues

It seems that the ILLINI Wrestling Camp was a major success. There was a lot of love posted on social media, and people noticed, like ILLINI legend Jordan Blanton: But you don't have to believe Jordan Blanton or me, as you can see it from the players* and their coaches in the pictures that were posted. I used the word "players" above for any new UCLA Bruin or USC Trojan fans who are reading this board. That's what NOT to do! Wrestlers aren't ******* playing. They're wrestling. That's why they're called "wrestlers," you smelly hippies! By the way, welcome to the Big Ten Conference. Get a wrestling program. Now.  With that out of the way, let's enjoy some of the photographs, starting with Coach, of course: During the Summer Coach Poeta lives in a Winnebago, and the entire back half of that Winnebago is filled with workout clothes, wrestling shoes and Army-style Meals Ready to Eat (MREs). Like Flo from Progressive, but in a good way, the Dud