I went to Danville, and while the program isn't as good as it used to be, there have been a lot of good wrestlers to come out of there. As far as the best while I was there, I would have to say Justin Johnston (4th at State at 112 junior year, 3rd at State at 119 senior year). Overall would be a tough one as well. Joedy Burke was great (2nd junior year in double OT, state champ senior year) and still helps out with the program every now and then. Todd McAnly was a 2 time state champ in the 70's. John Clay also won a state title back in the day, and Nick Barker was the first state champ ever at Danville. I know these stats don't match up to places such as Woodford, etc., but I would like to know who you guys think are the best to ever wrestle at your respective schools.

Probly Tim Whitfield, but I never got a chance to see many of our state champs other than Jeremy Hilger wrestle.

jphillips - One of my favorite wrestlers of all time happened to be from Danville. Dicky Casselman was a state champ in 1991 (I think).

I'm from Harrison County and my vote goes to Roy Gibbs (state champ '92 and 4 x state placer).

From franklin county i would have to say Chad Haydon state champ and got 5th at junior nationals . From woodford I'd say joe carr jr

Well since I only went here from 2003-2005 my votes are

2003 Derek Sawyer 2Xtime state finalist/Andre Bradford State Runner Up

2004 Justin Kolewe 4X state placer/Robert Smith State Placer

2005 Robert Smith State Placer

I have to say the best star was Lawerence County's Head Coach

Jerry Whelan 2Xtime State Champion(All American)

RonZale Piersey UNDEFEATED 140 State Champion

Too many to name at Union County. For several years had a great nucleus of kids coached by Mike "Loader" Thomas and Dennis Walls. Have to say these were the 2 best at our school, because without them we would not have been anywhere.

i went to conner in the early 90's and i would have to say at that time the best wrestlers we had were Pat martz ( 3x state Champ, runner up) and Crieg Burtleson (State Champ)...But the best from Conner ever would be either todd cole ( 2x state champ) he was an animal or Robbie Clarkston (4x state champ, runner up) Great wrestler R.I.P.

I remember Pat Martz. He was pretty scary. He could tie you up like a pretzel if you blinked.

I think here in hardin county the best i know is Josh Johnson an 8th grader

I attended McCreary central from 2000-04 and i would have to say the best wrestler to my knowledge here would have to be Delmar Watson he was a two time runner-up. Lost to Jeremy Chapman from Ashland his junior year and Kinane Hampton from Jeffersontown his senior year in the finals.

Still looking for that first state champion..

LaRue County's program is 16 years old this year and in those sixteen years I have been involved for the last twelve or so. Detre and Scott Cooper were both two timers but I would have to say that Todd Allen (runner-up and one timer) was the best. My main reason for that is that Todd has taken his game to the next level with much success and a possible national champioship this year. Banks will also be in that top tier and will graduate next year (barring any unforseen disaters) with school career records for most victories, most pins, most team points and could end up with some other yearly records and those will be in a SIX year varsity career.

I would have to disagree on LaRue County. While Allen and Cooper probably had the most prolific records, people were not afraid of wrestling them. However, people did not want to wrestle Detre they would forfeit to him, this even occurred during his senior year when he essentially wrestled with one-arm and eventually one the second of his two state titles. I would say Allen was the second best and then probably Jimmy Shaw. Although Jimmy only wrestled a couple of years, he was probably the quickest wrestler LaRue has ever had. I do not think that your best wrestler is necessarily the one with the most wins, because it is often the case that some years a team may not have wrestled in as many tournaments. In addition, there was a time during the late 90's and early 00's that middle school students could not wrestle varsity. A true measure of the best wrestler is probably medaling at the state (with more weight placed on being 1st), the competition they faced, and did that wrestle cause fear in his opponent and his opponent’s coach, i.e. forfeiting to a wrestler or not sending his best wrestler in a weight class to wrestle and instead putting a sacrificial lamb.

Pin to win I agree. That is why it is so hard to determine who is the best wrestler at any school. Larue Co. also had some good wrestlers earlier in thier beginings. I believe one was Jason LaRue. He was tough considering that he was on a first year team.

Your point is well taken and this is all just personal opinion; however, the wrestlers who counted wre not afraid to wrestle Detre (Drew Newman from North and Travis Bowman from Central both of whom beat him). I disagree with your point about some inferior wrestler being afraid of a superior wrestler because that is even the case today and is not the rarity that you try to make it out to be. My ONLY contention is that Todd has gone on to be very successful at the next level and IMHO it places him at the top of the heap simply because none of the other aforementioned people ever attained that distinction. Todd was ranked #1 nationally in NAIA pre-season and I know that has NEVER been accomplished by any other LaRue wrestler so I'm not going to change my vote.

If my memory serves me correct, Newman beat him in the match he dislocated his elbow and that was the only time, the rest of the matches resulted in Newman being pinned. Bowman beat him his junior year, and was notorious for stalling the entire match and did this to many aggressive wrestlers KOB finals (I think it was this tournament) against the kid from ST.X at 189 who finished runner-up in 1997 and 1998. You are correct that Allen has had great success at the NAIA level and I applaud him for that and hope that he has a great senior year. I also remember hearing at the state tournament that West Point (ARMY), a division one school recruited Detre. At the 2000, state tournament I asked some LaRue County fans about how he was doing at ARMY and they informed me he dislocated his elbow again and was given a medical discharge. Irrespective the question was about the best high school wrestler from a school not who did the best in college. I would be willing to bet that if you ask most of those, who have wrestled at LaRue County and are from what used to be their district they would tell you it was Detre.

If we are not going to use any after high school accomplishments or personal opinions to base our decisions on then there is no argument for who the best LaRue wrestler was and that's undeniably Scott Cooper. Four year accomplshments far exceed Todd's and Detre's both in so far as career wins, pins, and points. One time all american (same as Detre) two time state champ (same as Detre), four time regional champ, difference at state is Scott was third his freshman year and runnerup his sophmore year. I mean those stats don't lie and you can't really make up any excuses about them to try and compensate. My vote stays with Todd on reasons already stated.

From Holmes, it would have to be two-time HWT champion Frank Wolnitzek who won state in 1992 and 1993.

I do agree that the amount of wins a wrestler has does not determine how good they are. But if someone starts varsity in 7th grade i think that is something to look at, expecially from Larue. Pat Banks has already broken the school record for career wins at larue. By the end of his senoir year he will have shattered the old record and set a new, almost impossible record to break. I think he will be one of larue's best wrestlers.

something else to consider here, when you start talking about the "greatest of all time" is sometimes wrestlers may bump up or bump down to help the team out, and in the process hurting themselves. I know of 2 examples of this - Troy Cole from Conner (2X state champ, 2X runner up...his sr year, stayed up at 155 to make room for someone else at 145 to make his team stronger) Tommy Storms from SK...2X state champ, his sr year could have EASILY dropped 1-2 weight classes...but stayed up to make room and improve the team. These are just 2 cases I'm aware of...i'm sure this has happened quite often over the years....just something else to factor in on this.