We're just happy to be in the semifinals, and we're happy to be meeting Connellsville. The 1995 team had a lot of balance, and I would compare other teams to that one. These guys can be mentioned in the same breath as that team.
We're looking at a pretty tough schedule. New competition is going to be a test.
I would prefer not to have three tournaments in December, but there was nothing I could do to change the schedule.
Hopefully, this proved to the committee we should have been seeded No. 4. I'm proud of these guys. They've worked extremely hard in the room, and they've been underestimated by a lot of people. I feel great for them.
Our 103-pounder was sick with the flu, and I didn't have a replacement. Fortunately, the forfeit didn't hurt us.
Winning the toss allowed us to get Gibson matched up against Glover. What he gave us (the pin) was something we didn't expect.
Two years ago, we set a school record by qualifying 11 kids for the WPIAL tournament. Last year, we had 10 qualify. That's 21 in two years. It will be very tough to match that total this year.
We kept in it and I'm so proud of these kids. It's just amazing.
The only difference (Saturday) was I was jumping up and down. I was sick as a dog on Friday and I was fortunate the best medicine I could have had was a win against Connellsville.
We had to get a split there. The coaches and I worked things out before the match and every time it came out 7-7 in matches. We just got enough bonus points.
We are two proven programs going at it for the section lead. Both teams are looking forward to this match. Anytime we wrestle Latrobe, you can throw out the records, because almost anything can happen.
We are a stronger dual-meet team than a tournament team. We don't have a lot of big guns. What we have is a lot of foot soldiers that work very hard.
Brock sat out with a minor injury. Having him in the lineup would have given us at least 20 more team points.
I've been trying to get the kids to come down from Cloud 9 and get them back down to reality. We've had an incredible run, becoming the first team in school history to win a WPIAL title and qualify for the PIAA tournament, but the kids have to realize it doesn't get any easier.
The Steelers had to beat the top three seeds in the AFC. We had to beat two of the top three teams and a team that upset the No. 4 seed.
Ryan had a little more pressure on him this year. He wrestled a little tentatively and didn't open up the entire tournament. He realized that. He knows if he doesn't open up at states, he won't place.
Ryan knew we needed something big and he pumped up the team and our fans. Ryan has won a lot of things, but that was probably, to him, the most exciting win he's had.
A police car and an SUV were blocking the road. The police officer boarded the bus and said to the team, 'It's days like this that make me proud to be a police officer in Trafford.' He then offered a police escort to the high school to recognize what we had accomplished.
This is unbelievable and so exciting. We got banged up a little bit. This is all new to us, so we're going to try to enjoy this as much as we can and keep praying.
It was great to be back at the Eastern Area tournament. I was very pleased with our performance. We had all but three kids place among the top six.
I'm really proud of this team. We had some real good practices, and they believed they could win. Everyone did their part even in defeat by not giving up bonus points. We also did a nice job getting bonus points at critical times.
I kept telling these kids to expect to win. We stuck with it and we kept believing. Hopefully we can finish it off.
I invited everybody to come into the school to watch us place the championship trophy in our trophy case. It was great to have such a big crowd at the title match.
I knew North Allegheny would be a tough match, because we don't match up very well with them. I never expected to beat Trinity by such a large margin.
I'm worried about injuries because we don't have much depth. In fact, we don't have a replacement in a couple of weight classes, so if a starter gets injured, we may have to forfeit.
I never dreamed we would get this far. So any wins we record in the state team tournament will be icing on the cake.
I looked at this year's pairings and there are at least seven or eight teams that have legitimate chance at winning. North Allegheny has an excellent team, and they'll be tough to beat.
Chris' win was huge. Anybody could have won this match. I thought we got a little tight in the middle weights.
I don't think the committee considers the individual tournaments when it comes to seeding.
The Central Mountain tournament was much stronger than it's been in the past. And we got some kids banged up.
