So did you hear the news? Clarksville coach Jeff Jordan doesn’t want his team to host any more state dual wrestling championships.
Jordan took offense at some comments made by several coaches to the Times Free Press in the past couple of weeks.
The comments — complaints, if you will — included Jordan enjoying a decided home-gym advantage, and they went beyond Clarksville wrestlers sleeping in their own beds, dressing in their own locker room or warming up in their own wrestling room.
The noted complaints, and none were major, were items that could have been resolved rather easily. No one had a bone to pick with Clarksville being the state duals site. No one mentioned or seemed to envy the fact that Clarksville wrestling has a built-in fundraiser. Certainly no one complained about the hospitality afforded by the friendly Clarksville folks in general or the efforts put forth by tournament director Artie Manning and his hard-working corps of volunteers.
The complaints had to do with the facts that Clarksville wrestled on the same mat every time, that the chairs for Clarksville’s team were the only ones of eight sets that were padded, and that Jordan, through facial expressions or even hand gestures, often incited his team’s fans when he’d make numerous trips to the table to question a call by the referee working his meet. Surprisingly, no one even mentioned his occasional use of injury time for a tired wrestler.
No, the complaints were aimed more at Jordan and the perception that he took decided advantage of being the host team.
Then Jordan publicly deride referees, especially those from Chattanooga, although that Chattanooga group is generally acclaimed to have several of the state’s best. Those comments, coming after his team lost to Cleveland, included the phrase “level playing field,” and stopped just short of saying that Chattanooga referees cheated. That made some folks mad and drew for him a one-day suspension from his school.
Jordan told me the morning after that Cleveland meet that Cleveland coach Heath Eslinger “threatened” him during the meet, a charge that Eslinger later denied.
Jordan also told me that he felt he needed every advantage that he could get, and the feeling here is that Jordan has instilled an attitude just shy of “hate all things Chattanooga” in his wrestlers and fans.
Why? Because Chattanooga continues to dominate the state duals.
We’re likely talking about a deep and burning desire with Jordan to compete with the Bradley Centrals, the Clevelands, the Ooltewahs and the Soddy-Daisys. There is nothing wrong to compete with and, if you’re good enough, beat such teams. Those teams, however, have won the majority of the Class AAA state duals championships and yet were silent for years about wanting a “level playing field.”
I don’t really relish the thoughts of the state duals leaving Clarksville, although there are other sites more than capable of hosting the tournament. The people of Clarksville took the tournament when it was in jeopardy and built it into a quality event. The volunteers run an efficient tournament, and believe me when I say the folks there are close to having it down to a science.
So do you throw away 10 years of hard work? The complaints have been aired and obviously noted. But don’t let one coach’s knee-jerk reaction to relatively mild criticisms tear down what a community has spent a decade forging into a model of success.
The whole matter is easily resolved. The TSSAA likes having the tournament at Clarksville, and it’s clear that the folks put on a fine show. Just make some subtle adjustments so there is not even a hint of home-gym advantage.
The obvious first choice is to leave the tournament at Clarksville. If not, then ask Manning and company to go back to the folks at Austin Peay and sell the administration on the benefits of hosting the tournament. If that fails, and the people at Austin Peay reportedly have been anything but interested, then go ahead and hold it somewhere else. Perhaps it could rotate from east Tennessee to middle to west — and for the time being exclude Chattanooga, which hosts the traditional state tournament.
There is plenty of interest in level playing fields and that interest should supersede one man’s somewhat stilted perspective of right and wrong.
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Very interesting article, Ward stirred the pot to invent this story and then has to twist truths to make a personal attack on Jeff to make a story. Jeff's question for years has been why put a Middle Tennessee ref or Chattanooga ref on the mat with Middle Tn and Chattanooga teams on the mat. It's not done in any other sport. Has nothing to do with the ref themselves, but more how they are assigned and why. Several years ago when Clarksville and Bradley met in the finals, I went to ask Ronnie Carter to please put two West Tn refs on the mat so there wouldn’t be any perceived notions of favoritism. He personally told me OK, when we got started it was a totally different case. West Tn officials did not report to the mat, when Jeff questioned Ronnie Carter, he became very angry. Yet when I asked him it seemed like it wasn’t a problem at all, I can only speculate this came after talking with the man responsible for official assignments. Why the TSSAA doesn’t want to treat wrestling like all other sports makes a person wonder. But Ward didn’t want to report that Clarksville has been working on this for several years now, or that Clarksville has wanted to do away with the duals for awhile. (I have been begging to give it up because it has become such a distraction for the team. I think we should be able to show up and wrestle like every other team.) It appears Ward just wanted to make a personal attack on Jeff. By the way Ward couldn’t report it because he never asked, the threat occurred when there was a blood time out in the 285 pound weight class. Cleveland didn’t think there was blood and our wrestler was gased. I won’t repeat what was said but I heard it as I watched the coach say it. I wiped the kid’s blood out of his mouth without gloves in order to speed up the stoppage. I even got blood on my finger and can be seen walking across the mat to the trainer during the match to get it cleaned off on our video, which should be very clear on Cleveland’s two cameras. The coach has even admitted that things were said that shouldn’t have and that’s why he talked to Jeff after the match. What was said is not really of importance but the fact that Ward is attacking Jeff’s character surely shows his lack of, and poor jourlistic abilities
When Jeff first told me that he wanted to stop hosting the event I told him, as I had Sharrock in the past, we needed to go another year as we have several projects that need funding and this event was one of several fundraisers we did to help us grow.
In years past the criticism from everyone was the gym is too small, the gym is to0 crowded, the gym is too hot, Clarksville is too far to drive. No unfair advantage there. Our guys got to sleep in their beds after hauling mats and placing them on the floor and setting up chairs and tables etc and then finally going to bed often quite late, no unfair advantage their. I thought Wards job was to report the news correctly and fairly. He did not tell you that Clarksville did wrestle on other mats, mats in the small gym, mats across the gym after wrestling their way back from a defeat in the quarter finals. He did not tell you that there are actually other padded chairs in the big gym , they were on mat three on the right side of the mat as you look at them from the stands. He did not tell you about the Cleveland coach telling Coach Jordan to sit down when he went to the side of one of his wrestlers when he was bleeding and he did not tell you about Clevelands Coach having to stop one of the people on his bench from going into the stands after the last match to fight? with a Clarksville fan after flashing the "Loser" sign on his forehead. Yes, it was a heated match, then it was over,except evidently for Ward Gossett who appears to like to encite his fans into a Hate Clarksville Coach frenzy.
Coach Jordan is a competitor but above all else he believes in the concept of a level playing field and is willing to give up something good for him to make it happen. What about Ward Gossett, what would he do in Jeffs place? If the possibility of a referee being put in a compromising situation exists, why not remove that possibility, that is all Jeff has asked, quietly in the past few years,is that unreasonable? Its not that Jeff thought that all Chattanooga refs would cheat us , but what if a Middle Tennessee ref helped us. Either would be horrible for the sport so just eliminate that very remote possibility by using the same neutrality rule used in every other TSSAA sport.
Is that too much to ask or Ward Gossett to understand , my answer to the first is no and only Ward can answer the second. What do you say Ward?
I'm a new resident to the Chattanooga area. I have been considering signing up for a subscribtion to the Chattanooga Times. Mr. Gossett now I see your jounalism tact, your aptitude to defame anybody you chose and your willingness to do so. You have crossed a line sir and until the Times Free Press demands you file a rebuttal or dismisses you of your duties I will not subscribe.
Sincerly,
a proud product of Coach Jordan, Coach Cobb and Coach Manning's tutledge.
Michael Hampton