Forum

Anything good happen last night?

We are just over a week out from the top two teams in the state going head to head. This is my most anticipated dual of the year, and the biggest instate threat Danbury has faced in quite some time. Before I get into a dual breakdown, I want to call out a few things that I’ve been thinking about that lead into the hype! My Dual breakdown will be posted on January 29th , Happy to hear your thoughts before I put my predictions out there! 1. Both Teams are Battle Tested: Danbury is known for their competitive schedule, I always tend to favor them in "swing" matches due to their schedule. But… Simsbury has put together a really solid schedule this year and their kids have been tested since early December. They have hit Lowell, Sam Cali (NJ), and won the John Gorman that hosted Timberlane, Cumberland and Bristol Eastern. 2. Does Either Team Adjust Their Starting Line Up?: I have been thinking a lot about this and at first I thought Simsbury would make some adjustments to try and “steal” a win. After crunching numbers and going through various dual line ups, I think both teams are best with their traditional line-ups. 3. Like Always, Bonus Points are going to Play a Major Factor: I anticipate bonus points at several weights, the question is… which team stays off their backs? More on this in the break down. 4. The Names You Are Least Familiar With Are Going to Make The Biggest Difference: These are the matches I consider to be the “swing” matches. 152,170,182,220 all come to mind here… bonus at these matches will be a HUGE deciding Factor. Competitive scheduling makes the biggest difference for this part of a team’s roster, kudos to Shook and Silva for not backing down to high level competition. 5. The G.O.A.T vs The Kid: Okay… Coach Silva isn’t a kid, but he is only been at the helm for a few seasons. In my opinion, he has done all the right things to create a winning culture in Simsbury A win in the Hatters Home gym would prove this true. Shook has been in this situation before, we know he will have the team ready to scrap, I am sure the each Hatter will know their “Job”. 6. Timberlane?: That’s right, Timberlane is going to be in town on February 1, as well as Nashoba, MA. One of these teams is going to have to wrestle each other after just finishing up a dual with the Owls. I’m not sure how much this plays into the dual result, but it cannot be left unsaid. 7: January 29th: Simsbury takes on Southington and Danbury has Trumbull 3 days before they square off. Both these duals will tell us more about the “uncertainties” of each team. This is the last result i'd like to see before sharing a prediction. I’ll post my breakdown on this thread next week, in the meantime… let me here your thoughts!!

Abdo, It seems we could use a separate pegged forum post for discussing Open rankings. The results/updates should still appear in the Class X Updates discussions, but sometimes the actual Open rankings are worth discussing directly. The recent post about State Open Heavyweight Rankings is a good example of that and resulted in needed adjustments to the Open rankings for fairness to the athletes and consistency with Class Rankings (though I admit consistency with Class ranks isn't of highest concern). It will also be helpful to the rankers who have a ton of hard-to-compile information to sort through.