FormerHornet Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Texas population: 25,674,681 based on 2011 census. Texas is a "third tier" high school wrestling state yet has a great population than Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and New Jersey. Numbers can be deceiving. Indiana is a basketball state. Bottom line. Indiana is clearly not the most populated state in America and no one in their right mind who is educated on the sport of high school basketball would honestly believe that we are not the best state for basketball. Last year we had 12 or 13 of the ESPN's top 100 high school basketball players. Indianamat has done an amazing job in advertising and promoting the sport of wrestling. When the state removed the team tournament coaches by communicating through Indianamat (and other means) established a solution with the dual tournament to be held at Westfield High School. Also, they have started the Indianamat preseason open- among other things. Indiana athletes do not have to look very far to find a basketball camps filled with former Indiana High School athletes. Also, youth are constantly reminded of the consistent great players that come from the state of Indiana that have compete at a high level at any stage in their careers. This was established through years and years of tradition. Indiana wrestling is catching up. We are definitely getting better. Tradition in this state is becoming deeper and deeper among teams. Individuals like Andrew Howe, Angel Escabedo, Reece Humphrey, and so on are deepening our Indiana wrestling roots and tradition as well as pride. We may never be better than Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Illinois but we are getting better. Our coaches are getting better and part of that has to do with tradition and pride in programs developing, promotion of our sport, the increase in popularity of UFC, increased understanding of weight training techniques, and so on. I am excited for the future of Indiana wrestling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1oldwrestler Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Texas population: 25,674,681 based on 2011 census. Texas is a "third tier" high school wrestling state yet has a great population than Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and New Jersey. Numbers can be deceiving. I think texas is a bad state to use in this example as they have only had a state association sanctioned high school state individual wrestling tourney for, I believe, less than 10 years. If recent progress is any indicator, texas will blow by indiana and into top tier state status within 5 to 10.years. I agree that indiana h.s. Wrestling is getting better for all the reasons you state, however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.G. Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 State Populations: Indiana: 6,501,582 Illinois: 12,864,380 Pennsylvania: 12,734,905 When you have twice the number of people you are undoubtedly going to have more good athletes/wrestlers across the board. I dont know how much 'cathing up' we can do unless we double our population. I understand that Indiana doesn't pull in international wrestlers to coach the high school level too often, but the comment that someone was suprised he would come to indiana is putting our state down a little bit don't you think? I'm sure he will be an excellent coach and that there were plenty of opportunities out there for him, but it's not like he was going to walk in and take over a contending D1 program. In many respects i feel coaching high school is much more rewarding that coaching college kids, and perhaps building a program in a good community is his goal. Best of luck to him and I am certainly glad he came back to Indiana wrestling. If this is the argument you are using to prove your point then it would greatly help those who argue Indiana should go to a multiple class wrestling state. From what I have seen it seems a lot of people are against going toward multiple classes but the argument could be used for it's proponents except on a in state high school level. I'm not necessarily saying I think Indiana should jump at the idea of going to a classed system but that this argument can't be used as a valid explanation of Indiana not being at the same wrestling level and depth of other states if you aren't willing to accept that the same would qualify as a great reason for Indiana to become a classed wrestling state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMAWRESTLER Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 New Jersey 8,791,894 one class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2CJ41 Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 New Jersey 8,791,894 one class. New Jersey doesn't also have a huge disparity in small schools vs big schools success on the wrestling mat. The reason being is that they don't have the mega schools along with the extremely small schools like in Indiana. Indiana has an average enrollment of 816 with a standard deviation of 727 New Jersey has an average enrollment of 776 with a standard deviation of 490 Here is a definition of Standard Deviation in case you have forgotten. In statistics and probability theory, standard deviation shows how much variation or "dispersion" exists from the average (mean, or expected value). A low standard deviation indicates that the data points tend to be very close to the mean, whereas high standard deviation indicates that the data points are spread out over a large range of values. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FormerHornet Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 If this is the argument you are using to prove your point then it would greatly help those who argue Indiana should go to a multiple class wrestling state. From what I have seen it seems a lot of people are against going toward multiple classes but the argument could be used for it's proponents except on a in state high school level. I'm not necessarily saying I think Indiana should jump at the idea of going to a classed system but that this argument can't be used as a valid explanation of Indiana not being at the same wrestling level and depth of other states if you aren't willing to accept that the same would qualify as a great reason for Indiana to become a classed wrestling state. I am not too sure how the wildcatcountry97's statement helps to strengthen the argument for a classed wrestling tournament. However, if you are barking up that tree it is an privilege for the 14 young men from Indiana to be crowned state champions- that is one beautiful thing about a single class wrestling state. But... I do believe Indiana should give some serious consideration to classing the state tournament. I hate to bring politics into this but our current system does help big schools (big business), the small schools even when they have a great amount of talent are overlooked, and the "middle class" seems to get hit hard. Classing a state tournament would provide more wrestlers from Indiana the opportunity to wrestle in college then hopefully come back to Indiana coach in the state, or even at their high school. With the knowledge gained from more of our high school athletes getting to wrestle in college it would really deepen the roots of tradition and talent throughout the entire state of Indiana in turn growing Indiana into a stronger wrestling state. I know the above ^ statement could have been fleshed out more but I do stand by it. Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, and so on are all classed states and darn good states. Indiana as I have stated before is without question getting better but ultimately classed wrestling would only help our state become one of the "best wrestling states." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2CJ41 Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 I am not too sure how the wildcatcountry97's statement helps to strengthen the argument for a classed wrestling tournament. However, if you are barking up that tree it is an privilege for the 14 young men from Indiana to be crowned state champions- that is one beautiful thing about a single class wrestling state. But... I do believe Indiana should give some serious consideration to classing the state tournament. WC is stating that Indiana can't be as good as those states because they have more athletes to choose from. Thus, Indiana is at a disadvantage. That is the same thing some "idiots" on the board have been saying when a school has twice as many students than another school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.G. Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 WC is stating that Indiana can't be as good as those states because they have more athletes to choose from. Thus, Indiana is at a disadvantage. That is the same thing some "idiots" on the board have been saying when a school has twice as many students than another school. I agree. the argument that Indiana isn't as far along as other states because of population size fits perfectly with the argument that smaller schools have less of a chance of success due to a smaller number of potential athletes. I understand if people don't support the idea of going to a classed system but to deny the existence of the fact that smaller schools have less athletes to choose from is idiotic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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