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Out of state tournament rule


Steven Morgan

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I believe this to be the rule{s} but if I?m wrong, I apologize profusely.

Indiana {IHSAA} allows schools to compete out of state but only if that Indiana school doesn't travel more than 150 miles from the border, I can understand that, a little, I think their intent is to put more emphasis on education. The rule prohibiting an Indiana team from going to a tournament where there will be schools that travel more than 150 miles to get there to compete, even though your team didn't, seems to go against common sense, why have this rule in place? Wouldn't it put our best wrestlers in a position to be recognized/noticed by college coaches? Isn't this an impediment on the opportunity to get national collegiate attention/exposure for Indiana wrestlers, in order to possibly get recruited? Wrestlers in some states can do this but others cannot? An educational and economic opportunity for some Americans, but not others based solely on their geographic location seems to be unconstitutional.

Being able to participate in tournaments like the "Iron man?,""The Beast of the East" or "The Clash", could possibly help get Indiana wrestlers noticed by college coaches. I know there is Fargo but some wrestlers get noticed at these tournaments, as evident from the many college coaches that attend them. Could we as a {wrestling} community, work in conjunction with another sport or two, one being female for political reasons, get the IHSAA to consider repealing the second rule mentioned. Thoughts? Once again, if I am incorrect on these rules please forgive me and disregard above comment.

 

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The rule is that no team can travel over 600 miles roundtrip from the Indiana border and may NOT compete against teams outside of a 600 mile roundtrip from the Indiana border.

 

I don't mind the travel restrictions, some states have no travel restrictions, while some have different levels of them.  My biggest thing is that no team or individual they compete against can be from outside that area.  So, say we go to a tournament in Columbus, Ohio, which is well within the 600 mile roundtrip.  No team there could be from Florida or California, even though we did not go out of the travel zone.  I think the rule should be changed to be able to compete against schools from outside the area, but in the reality of things it wouldn't affect many kids or teams if it was changed. 

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600 miles, thats better, I thought it to be much less but we still couldn't go to the Iron man or Beast of the East tournaments according to the rules of the IHSAA.

 

I think taking Indiana teams to where the toughest kids/teams are will make us better as a state and get our elite kids, as well as those bordering elite, some looks from schools that probably wouldn't have noticed them before.

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We could take kids to the Ironman, but not the Beast.  BUT, big BUT here, since there are kids from California, Pennsylvania, Florida, etc. they cannot wrestle there since those schools are out of the boundary. 

 

The rule also means that if say Perry Meridian in Indy wants to start a big 32 team tournament they cannot invite teams like Blair(in New Jersey), Brandon(Florida), etc. because they are out of the boundary too.  If teams and their states allow them to travel that far to within our restrictions I think that we should be able to participate against them.

 

Remember 600 miles roundtrip, meaning 300 miles one way. 

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Coach Y2, it is 386 miles from Blairstown, NJ to Stow, Ohio, Walsh Jesuit H.S., the site of the Iron Man tournament. I realize the mileage rule doesn't kick in until you get to the border of the state you are leaving but Blair is less than an hours drive from the N.J. border isn't, that's what I was told. That would put them over the 600 mile around trip rule which would make against IHSAA rules for an Indiana team to go to the Iron Man to compete. I thought their were some teams that traveled even farther than Blair to go to the Iron Man as well, I will have to check on it. If it wasn't against the rules why hasn't any Indiana team gone to the Iron Man before? I think it would really give some of our kids here in Indiana some needed exposure and great comp. for our H.S. teams.

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The distance is 300 miles from the INDIANA border, not from the site of the game/match/meet.  New Jersey is a little more than 300 miles from our border. 

 

The Ironman has teams from California, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wyoming(I think), and many other states that participate. 

 

The only way I could see a team or wrestler get to go is get a special exemption such as Alex Tsirtsis did for the Midlands.  Of course that most likely would not be able to be done EVERY year, so it wouldn't help to just go once every few years.

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That is why the rule needs to change. If your team is going to a tournament out of state your miles start at your border. Teams at that tournament can not have traveled 300 miles {600 miles round trip} from their border. We have had wrestlers who could have competed at this event and we will in the future, shouldn't we fight for the right to be able to go if a Indiana H.S. coach wants to take his team to such an event? What would it hurt to be able to just have that option?

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I agree it should be changed that you can face any competition as long as you are traveling over the 300 miles one-way.  My feeling though is that its not a top priority for the IHSAA because it would affect very few schools and teams. 

  I agree....

 

There are some schools in Indiana who are getting shot down from traveling to other schools in Indiana, due to travel costs, hotel costs and so on....  But I guess if you have the resources and you feel your program could compete....by all means, the restriction should be lifted....who knows, maybe if there was not a restriction, more programs would do more to get the resources....It'd be a huge motivational factor to know your team was going to get a great opportunity like that!  There would have to be quite a few chaperone's on any trip we'd go to! 

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Couldn't wrestling in "The Clash" either there are teams from California, Oregon, new jersey and South Dakota  there other states include Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, missouri, Illinois, Virginia, Ohio, colorado, nebraska, and georgia.

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When I was at North Central we hosted a soccer tournament which featured some of the best teams in the midwest (all within the 300 mile limit- I think one was Cincy Moeller, one from MO, etc...) and one team from California.  At the time the California team was ranked 1st in the nation and NC was ranked 2nd.  The school from CA made the trip as I guess everyone was told/believed the ISHAA would grant a waiver to NC if need be.....  but they never did.

 

The tournament was played, NC made it to the finals, as the team from California... and that is where it ended.  The finals ended with a handshake and the #1 vs. #2 soccer match never happened.

 

Lame.

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