Andy, I think his intentions were mostly for the improvement of Kansas wrestling. He did post some great things like his topic on how to become a state champion and the one on how to conduct yourself at the state championship in Wichita. It was just that the methods that he used to encourage and promote often crossed a line. He really irritated me with his post about the quality of the wrestling and its effect on the spectators at the 2006 SM North tournament. It is just not appropriate to insult high school kids and their coaches that way on a public forum.
He probably did not mean to be that inappropriate and it was no doubt part of his overall goal to elevate Kansas wrestling to a higher level like he was when he posted something like the next time he saw Andy Hurla it would be at the Metro and you would be on your back kicking like a junebug. I must admit I thought that remark was funny. I am not sure if you did. I remember talking to you a little about it right before the Metro last year and you told me about how he had given you some good advice before your Metro match in an e-mail. I thought that he was wanting you to win and trying to honestly motivate you towards that goal. It seemed to me that he had got your attention. I do believe he wanted Kansas to win against Missouri at the Metro.
At times he could be amusing. He reminded me of my old football coaches who would often use some humorous expletive filled commentary to motivate the troops to a higher level of performance. Often I did not find their motivation to be so funny. In the end I guess that is how I viewed him and what he was trying to accomplish. To me he was like one of my old coaches who would shout, cuss, embarrass, harass, joke, instruct and sometimes even positively encourage my teammates and myself to do better. It was just that too often he crossed that line that my old coaches did where he went to far to achieve his goal. That doesn't work or go over as well on a public forum most of the time preaching to dedicated adults.
It is too bad that he was unable to do a better job of not crossing that line as often as he did on this forum. I hope he is now actively involved developing young Kansas wrestlers to a higher level like he was preaching to the rest of the Kansas wrestling community leaders.
