Editor's note - During the winter season Jordan High School Wrestling sends out an e-mail every Monday to all wrestlers, parents, coaches, alumni, fans and administrators, basically anyone who might be interested in their program! Additional e-mails are sent as the need arises. In the off-season they send out a minimum of one per month. The coaches say the e-mails have had a tremendous, positive effect on their program. Below are three examples taken from the past season. Note the numerous, positive comments and the many "teachable" moments expressed. The reasons for sending e-mails is just as valid for wrestling clubs as well as high school teams.

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Week 10 Post

Hello Everyone:

I hope all is well and yes I am insane for typing this on Christmas Day!!! But, I am bored in New York right now and wanted to stay true to my every Monday update. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays, and for those Seinfield freaks (like me) Happy Festivus!!!!

This past week was exciting! I thought, despite losing to Riverside, we wrestled great! Our inexperience just hurt us. I definitely have seen improvement over the course of the past few weeks. Friday and Saturday were brutal as well. However, we did manage to wrestle pretty well at the Tiger. Brian Reynolds and Jay Marko qualified for the second day and Jay wound up placing sixth which is great.

Our guys were definitely tired and hitting a low spot prior to our nice break. I hope they are enjoying the holiday vacation and get some nice R&R. I am sure this isn't the case (As I know some have stayed up really late playing video games and pigging out on junk food).

If you didn't see: Scott "Dickie" McGee made the front page of the sports last Saturday. A nice picture from day one of the Tiger!!!

This coming week's schedule looks like this: Wed. practice at 5 - 7 pm. Thursday 8-10 and Friday 3:30-5:30 (please note this is a change from the calendar). After practice on Friday several of us will be heading to the Ronald McDonald house of Durham. We will be presenting them with a check for $150, two framed singlets (thanks Roberts family), giving a demonstration, and showing last year's highlight video. Thanks to Mr. Anderson we are able to get this done and hopefully make someone feel good this holiday season.

Saturday we will be heading to the Southern Scuffle at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro. We will watch the semifinals of the college tournament, and wrestle afterwards, then stick around to watch the college finals. Several Top Ranked wrestlers will be competing: NCAA Champions Dustin Schlatter and Kole Konrad (Minn.) and Ben Askren (Missouri) along with NCAA Runner-up Troy Nickerson (Cornell). One of my former wrestlers will be competing in the tournament as well, so I am rather excited.

Mr. Webber (Principal) was at the Tiger for a good while on Friday morning. Please have your boys thank him for his support. While he was there we were able to chat a while. He and I would both like to bring back the Bull Durham. I have laid out details of how I'd like to run it, and will make a pitch at the end of the season to host it next season. That's going to be a huge money maker for us!!!!!! More details to come, when they become available.

Coach Slack has purchased a house in Durham. He's currently working in Raleigh and loving his job. His schedule is very hectic, but he gives everyone his best. Perhaps we can put something together for a house warming gift (Lowe's gift card or something).

Coach Collins was in town, and stopped by practice last Tuesday. He has lost a lot of weight because he's running miles on miles everyday.

Tomorrow I will be conducting a wrestling clinic at Newark Valley High School with 3X World Champion and Cornell Wrestling Head Coach Rob Koll and NCAA Champion Damion Hahnn. I am really excited and will post pictures online tomorrow.

Dinner is about to be served, so I must close this email and set the table. I wish everyone a happy and safe holiday.

Until next time....

Week 15 Post

Hello everyone!

We are winding down rather quickly. Thanks Mr. McGee for the email. He hit it right on the head: a win over Northern and we will finish in a three way tie for second place in the PAC-VI Conference. That will put us in the position to qualify for the state championships, next Tuesday. We would be thrown in a hat with Chapel Hill and Northern and what ever team gets drawn goes to the state duals! It's better to be put in that situation then not at all.

Please, bring everyone that you know! I want to pack the place, so much that we have to pull out the other set of bleachers!!!

Parents of seniors: we will be bidding fair well to you and your son/daughter. Please be here at 5:30 pm.

Coach Douglas, if you could bring your guys that'd be great! I am trying to work out that you guys get in free this time.

The guys are wrestling really, really well right now. This past weekend we had two HUGE wins!!! Jay Marko absolutely kicked the tar out of his guy from Broughton and it was a great sight to see (his opponent just did not want to wrestle anymore). The other great win was Brian Reynolds, LITERALLY, making a three-time state qualifier roll over and quit! It was probably one of the greatest and most pathetic sights I have ever been a part of (I know that probably isn't the right thing to type nor makes much sense, but I can't explain the joy I had to witness that). Both are a direct result of our strength of schedule!

This weekend was fun because we saw everyone wrestle at least two matches (JV included), and we saw some excellent Footsweeps! Another fun moment was watching a boy become a man Saturday, as he experienced his first shave ever! Mom and Dad because you weren't there to witness this monumental moment, we got it on film! Please view the website and notice how much joy is on his face!!!!

Please note that our banquet has changed to March 13th to accommodate the lacrosse players. There is a baseball game that day, but it's a 4 pm, so a 6 o'clock banquet should be fine. It will be in the cafeteria and will be pot luck. More information will be forthcoming.

Also, please note that March 17th is our workday at the Ronald McDonald House. It will be from 8-12/1 pm. I expect every wrestler to be in attendance and help out.

The second semester is in full swing. Everyone should be nice and settled. It's so important that we, as coaches and family, support and encourage our boys and girls to strive for great grades. If a person receives two F's for the second semester they will be ruled academically ineligible for the entire fall semester (until mid January). You could go to summer school to improve that grade. I know we will not be in that situation because we work so hard with our guys!

Some people have asked about wrestling club and summer camps. I have spoken with several people and have decided on the Carolina Wrestling Club! It, from what I was told, will be $750 per team (unlimited wrestlers), I will pay this out of the wrestling account, this way those with lower incomes can afford it. Plus this will let our middle school guys get involved too. They are the future!!!! I will send around the paper work in the next day or so. It will begin March 20 and end June 10 or so. Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30-8:00 pm, and Sundays from 4:00-6:00 pm.

Camp dates will be Carolina June 29-July 3 and Duke July 5-8. Those are the camps we will attend. Please mark your calendars. We will commute to both so that we can go to two and save some money.

I cannot stress the importance of off season wrestling!!! It's the only way we are going to get better and compete for a state title in a few years. I am not asking anyone to quit a sport or to focus primarily on wrestling, just to give me at least two days a week in the evenings!

I am so excited to see the growth of our team over the past few weeks. It's absolutely spectacular! I will leave you with this little situation to ponder, heading into Wednesday night:

Northern Durham Coaching staff was speaking to the Cary staff (right in front of Coach Piefer and I on Saturday), and stated, "We will see you in the first round of the state duals, and we have something for you this year." Cary coach stated, something to the affect of, "You are the second team in the conference?" "YEP," replied Northern!

Think about it!!! Pretty bold statement if you ask me! It took everything I had not to say YOU GOT TO BEAT JORDAN FIRST!!!

Let's pack the place and kick their tail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Until next time...

Week 16 Post

Hello Everyone!

WOW!!!! What a night! I cannot begin to thank every single one of you for your support and help in last night's victory! It was by far the greatest coaching moment I have had in six years of coaching. It was greater than any individual successes I had as an athlete! Everyone in attendance had a major part in last night's victory!

I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of our guys! The whole night was truly remarkable!! THANKS!!!

Thanks so much to Stu Coman for announcing and supporting (he'll tell you that he did his job and it is all his doing, for the victory!), Olivia Garcia for setting up the slide show and the whole senior night, Nancy Pike for getting the flowers and being our team mom for the two years I have been here, and again everyone who was in attendance (please share my gratification with the people you had come).

Now, moving on, I received a phone call from the Northern Coach who was removed from the match. He sincerely apologized for his actions and his team's conduct. I also received the following email this morning:

Coach,

First and foremost congratulations on the Senior Night victory. I honestly was happy for your guys and the parents/fans. Regardless of the calls and outcome, our team should have handled themselves better and, well, they did not. With XXXX being a senior I know quite a lot of the parents and alumni were terribly embarrassed for us all.

Please extend my apology to your wrestling family as well as my congratulations.

Best Regards

Now here's where this leaves us. We are tied for second place. When we have our seeding meeting (supposed to be tonight) we will put Chapel Hill, Northern, and Jordan in a hat. The name drawn will go on to the state duals.

As for the conference tournament, I will know more when I find out if the meeting is still on. I then will let everyone know details. I do know it's at Person on Saturday.

Lastly, I want to say thank you again to you guys for raising such nice boys and girls. We drew a lot of praise for our bench decorum and demeanor last night. So thanks so much for doing a wonderful job with you children.

Until I email you again -