Bishop Carroll is not a flash in the pan and does not have a soft schedule. I am the assistant coach as Bishop Carroll. I graduated from here in 1991 and have been coaching here since 1993.

In my ten years coaching we have finished in the top 10 in state 8 of those years. In 1996 we finished 3rd in state, in 1997 we finished 2nd (both times behind Ark City of course). Todd Porter left as head coach at the end of that season.

In 1998 Mark Stovall became our head coach. Since he has been here we won state in 2002 and got 2nd last year. As Prant will tell you, we had a great team in 2002 with 2 all-americans and one that was an overtime match a way (also Newton champs that year). I believe our reputation for choking comes from last year when be beat Ark City by 60 points at regionals and then lost to them by 10 at state. There is no way around that - we choked.

Stovall wrestled high school in Texas and for LSU in college. He was assitant for 3 years at Ponca City, then 2 years at Wichita North, before becoming our head coach. I don't think our schedule is soft. We won the Valley Center dual tournament beating Junction City, Clay Center, Derby and Valley Center. (By the way if you want consistency we are on 3 year old 52 match win streak in duals.) We then got fourth at the Perry Invitational within 8 points of 2nd beating the likes of Perry and barely losing to Choctaw and Midwest City. Then we won our tournament over Campus, Valley Center, Rose Hill and 7 other teams and last week we won the tough 19 team derby tournament by 80 points (derby was in second).

Will we beat Manhatten this weekend? Only if we wrestle very well and don't choke but no matter where we finish it will not be a flash in the pan or beacuase we have a soft schedule.