Jim Tonte Quotations

I was speaking at the middle school wrestling banquet in 2002 after we'd finished second in the state tournament. I passed around my (runner-up) ring and told them that we were going to get the other ring, the champion ring, before they left high school.

I'm still a firm believer that if you have a quality kid and he wants to wrestle in college, you can get him in school and get help whether it's financial aid, Pell grants or college scholarships. It obviously helps if you're a good student, because you can get some other finances through academics as well.

I still feel that our team was the best team at Center Grove. It's still pretty hard to get over. But we had a lot of positives this season. We felt we let one slip away, but I couldn't have had a better group of kids. They were fun to be around and fun to coach. I couldn't ask for anything more from them. It just didn't happen for us this year.

The team sectional can take care of itself this weekend if each kid goes out and puts himself in the best position for the following weekend. These kids know the better they do this week, the better off they are in the regional. There's no chance of losing focus (today).

IU has done a great job of keeping some in-state talent lately. Purdue was doing a good job before that. It seems to go in cycles.

We tell our kids that every round in every tournament gets tougher. The good thing about having a tougher match so early is that you get one of the pressure situations out of the way. Now you know you're going to be standing on the podium at the end of (tonight). Now you can go out and go after a championship.

We've had seven or eight kids sign Division I or II scholarships, so we've been pretty fortunate.

Eric is on a roll. He's wrestling as well as I've seen him wrestle in high school, and it's happening at the right time.

This is really a great dual-meet tournament. There's a lot of parity, and not parity in the sense of mediocrity. There's parity in the sense that there are several very strong teams. Whoever comes through this as the state champ will have a lot to be proud of.

I told them that they were champions. They had a great year, and they're state champions in my mind.