Maryland Wrestling

First off, I would like to humbly thank anyone and EVERYONE who has supported my family and I throughout this very unfortunate situation. It has meant a lot for my family and I to have gained so much respect both on and off the mat from the wrestling community. Given this situation again I would have done many things differently, but at the same time there are many I would not. I would like to apologize to anyone whom I may offended during my unacceptable behavior AFTER I was already asked to be removed from the building, ending any opportunity that I might have had of finishing out my high school wrestling career and achieving goals that I have had since I was a little kid. For people that know me this is completely out of my character and for this I am sorry. I ask you to understand the sport of wrestling means far greater to me than just a sport, and to see my career flash before my eyes after all of hard work and dedication I have put into it triggered a very passionate and emotional reaction. Having said that, I am however not apologetic for standing behind my family, they mean more to me than anything in this world and I would never stand around to watch one of them be unfairly miss treated. They have been in my corner since day one and I could not possibly repay them for all that they have done for me. If I was put in a situation to defend my mother again I wouldn’t hesitate.

While I am extremely upset and disappointed about the outcome of this situation, I have learned a lot from this experience and will hopefully move on to bigger and better things at the next level. Please know that this is not over and my family and I will continue to fight this because we feel this was not only handled unprofessionally but it was unfair.

Again, I would like to thank everyone for all of your help and support. It really means a lot and my family and I appreciate it greatly. Good luck to all coaches and wrestlers this weekend in your regional tournaments. Make the most of every opportunity you are given because there are no guarantees that you will have it again.

-Collin Harrell

Well put Collin........Well put and Good luck to ya on your journey into the next level of life!

You seem to be a fine young man Collin and by no means would I fault any kid coming to the defense of their mother! You and I have never met, however in my humble opinion you did the right thing by defending your mom.

As one passionate has been athlete to a current passionate athlete I say this, there are exceptions for every rule. I don't care if the state had no provisions for allowing you to wrestle, no harm would be done to pigtail you in at regionals under the circumstances. The fact is you were not allowed to complete a sanctioned event for reasons other than a foul and/or behavior during the course of a wrestling match. As adults, again in my humble opinion, adults need to be reasonable in extraordinary circumstances. The powers that be also could have handled this situation differently all the way from the lady who put you out of the event while you still had matches remaining to the governing body who claimed they had no provisions to allow you to pigtail into regions.

Good luck in life young man, stay strong and remain positive. Use that passion for wrestling to help propel you to bigger and better things in life and always keep the faith!

Stay true to your heart - and give both your parents a big hug!

Stand tall and keep your head up, you've got our respect for doing so!

Mel

Son,
You should know that I couldn't be prouder of you than I am right now. You have followed all the rules your entire life. You have brought so much pride to our family and your mother and I have always felt that our measure of success was not by what we as your parents thought of you but what others out in the community thought of you. Now you know and your humility is evident.
No state/regional title or lack there of can change that.

Knowing what was at stake you saw a wrong being committed against your mother and you investigated the situation. I would not want a son who would do anything less. I'm sorry this happened to you but with character such as yours you'll be just fine and anyone who knows you, knows that too. People only want to focus on your behavior after the fact but what they don't want to talk about is what lead up to that and the role that others played in it. I'm glad to see that you have accepted your role in the matter and attitude like that will take you very far in life son. Continue to be who your are, Please!

I have always taught you, Family first, School second and wrestling a very close third. You have clearly listened.


Your Dad

Great post from father and son, dad you should be very proud, it seems like you raised a fine young man.

I am sure someone can pull a few strings and pig tail him into the Senior Allstar match.

To the Harrell family- I would just like to say that I believe in the road of life that the good breaks will always even out with the bad ones as long as you have faith and live life as well as you can.So although a bad hand has been dealt you will rise above it and a good break will happen .Maybe this happened for a reason,maybe a serious injury was aborted or some other thing that we can't know.Just have faith and do your best to get through this difficult time.It will be over before you know it.

I along with all the other disappointed wrestling nuts will seek you and your family out at States [if you care to come]to show respect and admiration for you and your family. Im sure youve discussed not coming ,but you can do more good for MD. wrestling by coming and allowing some face time regarding what can be done in the future ,near and far . My hat is off to you and your family . Oh, by the way , you always won when you wrestled my son ............ GOAT

Sorry this happened Collin Good luck with your future plans...Nick Cross

Collin and Scott:

I appreciate both of your heartfelt letters and thank you for sharing them with us in the community. Collin, You are an outstanding young man. I remember when you pinned Joe in Freshman year and I thought " Dang That boy can wrestle"
From there, you and Joe became friends and I got know you somewhat from seeing you and Scott out and about at all the wrestling tourney's and events over the last couple years. You are intense on the mat, Kind and humble in person, supportive of the guys around you, great for the little guys to be around as they look up to guys like you, and you always extend a hand for a handshake and any of us Dads and dad/coaches would be proud of you and hope that lessons you demonstrated you learned in all this, would be the same for our kids and that our kids would handle this kind of eventwith such class and poise. In my first post, thses are the lessons of the sport i referred to.

I hope you do come out regionals and states so I can shake your hand agian.

Your Dad is right...You will go onto much bigger things in life on and off the mat..I wish you all the best in all of it, but its clear you dont need luck.

All the best--
Carl Kendrick