IUPsych

No doubt. We have some very good youth wrestlers in this state. I was assuming that a couple of those tough kids currently registered at 65 will move up to 70 by the time weigh ins are over, making it a ridiculously tough bracket. But perhaps I am wrong.

This is really a rough event for spectators...there is no denying that. Set an example for the local tournaments and split the sessions by AM (pee wee/Bantam) and PM (intermediate/novice). Another idea for alleviating the congestion inside the fieldhouse would be to use Matside pairings. That would at least give you the opportunity to set up camp outside the gym and fieldhouse as you would have an idea of how much time you have between matches.

60- Nick Vogt 65- Logan Bailey (or Alex Mosconi if he decides to actually enter at this weight) 70- Alex Mosconi - If he decides to enter at 70 for the competition as I think he will (or Alec Viduya if Alex M. goes down to 65) 75- Luke Davis The 70 lb. division will be a VERY tough division to even medal as quality participants flee Alex M. in the 65 lb. division. In contrast, 65 and even 75 should be a relatively easy medal compared to 70.

I disagree...if you want to strengthen the sport you should be thinking about the attrition rate much, much earlier. At the elementary level, the attrition rate in youth wrestling is substantially higher than other sports, especially for first year wrestlers. I'd bet my house on that. Shoot, I'd say the percentage of new kids that leave wrestling DURING the season is higher than the attrition rate between seasons in Little League baseball, football, basketball, and soccer. Yes, wrestling is a hard sport, and I think life long wrestling folks like to point to that as the primary reason kids quit...but from what I have experienced that is not the primary reason young kids don't stick with it. In actuality it is the families that quit. I have seen many, many families drop wrestling because of the awful tournament experiences. They go to one or two tournaments and say enough is enough. There are some very good athletes with very committed and supportive families that leave the sport early. If my son didn't like wrestling so much you can rest assured that I wouldn't subject myself and the rest of the family to another Sunday in Hades. I'm not going to list the horrors of the Sunday wrestling experience (and I'm talking about the stuff not associated with the actual matches) because you all are familiar with them. This is coming from someone who didn't grow up wrestling so perhaps my view of the sport and the youth tournament experience is different that most of you. I respect the heck out of the sport and am in awe of what it takes to get good and stay good. I suppose I am representing the group of parents who could give two turds whether their kid becomes a state champion wrestler. Having said that, I hope that he sticks with it for a long time because there are so many positive aspects of the sport. In terms of the challenge and competition, there is no other sport like it. To me the solution to improving the attrition rate is to improve the youth tournament experience. If I had a vote, I'd say that splitting sessions (AM/PM) for the young kids and the older kids would improve the experience substantially for the kids and the families. IUPsych

Or it could be that girls and boys are physiologically different, last time I checked. Yes, I can confirm that that is still true. ;D

I think it would be more analogous to Sandy Koufax refusing to pitch to a Muslim.

Parallels? Here are a few of the familiar sounding arguments sampled from this board...I'm paraphrasing these: "Women should wrestle against their own type"..."Black Athletes should stay in their own leagues" "Women are inferior and too delicate to wrestle the boys"..."White athletes are superior to black athletes" "Letting Women wrestle against men will ruin our sport"..."Letting black athletes participate in professional sports will ruin the leagues" Even the argument made on a religious basis (especially in regards to women serving specific roles in servitude of men) was made repeatedly during the civil rights movements in regards to the roles of blacks and whites in society and in sports. I guess what I'm saying is that our beliefs should stand the test of time. Those who shared those beliefs about black athletes 50/60 years ago were wrong. Perhaps those who share similar beliefs about female athletes today are just as wrong. Maybe not, but it at least deserves some thoughtful analysis. The formation of core beliefs and principles...like the selection of wives, tattoos, and hair styles...should be considered with the future in mind. IUPsych

Interesting discussion...quite revealing actually. I'm sure similar rationalizations were offered during the civil rights movement in regards to the participation of athletes of color in sports with white athletes. Note: I'm not calling anyone a racist, but the parallel's in the debate are noteworthy. I shudder to think what the response would be on this forum (and in the wrestling community at-large) when an openly gay male wrestler competes in Indiana. IUPsych

Indeed, as great a sport that wrestling is, the youth tournaments in this state can use some restructuring. Why don't more tournaments use a split session (i.e., young kids in the moring, older kids in the afternoon)? The two worst things about tournaments are the long waits between matches and the amount of people in the gyms, especially in the morning hours. I have a young wrestler who last year often wrestled 3-5 mathces from 9-6pm. That is a long time to be in a gym for so few matches. Throw in the fact that the other family members, including young children, had to hang out for that long and it makes for a less than enjoyable experience. In fact, I know of at least 5 families that gave up wrestling because of the tournament experience. Making the tournaments more efficient might be a nice way to defeat attrition.