Boycott Freestyle State

[GrecoISU]

If I send in $175 and at tomorrow's practice have the boys compete in a triple dual against members of the track team and the undertones singers, are the boys then qualified?

 

Sure. Do the track athletes have their USA cards? I think kids would love to have to wrestle against such an athlete like the Undertoner who won so many times at Wrestleminia. 

Sure

[AJ]

Sadly it looks as if it will be tough to crack the 500 mark this year. #GoodbyeFreestyle #NiceKnowingYou

 

One then has to wonder what the number would be if there was not a 2 meet requirement...  

 

I know rules take time to show success, but so far this rule does not seem as if it is helping increase freestyle participants..

[Y2CJ41]

Last year approximately 2674 wrestlers participated in freestyle events. This year we are looking at about 2541, but with about 100 less people with the two meet requirement.

 

Only three events that were held last year increased their participants.

Jeffersonville +8

South Bend +19

Columbia City Iron eagle +24

 

There were 16 events last year and 17 this year.

New Events this year
Hanover Central- 47 athletes

Tell City- 62 athletes

CIA Last Chance- 100 athletes

Midwest (Penn) Duals- 124 athletes

Warren Tri-Meat- 150 athletes

Warren Central Freestyle- 454 athletes

 

Events that were held last year, but not this year:

Center Grove(cancelled due to low numbers)

Mooresville

Portage

Columbia City

Mishawaka Duals

[Numberz]

Interesting factoid: 88.5% of the 2016 NFL draftees were multi-sport athletes in high school. We are still forcing kids to wrestle/play football/ play baseball/ et al year round. Where's the data to support the single sport indulgence?

[TripleB]

First I am not a single sport supportist, but I think Y2 pointed out at one time that double digit state champs from this year or last were one sport guys. 

 

Most of the parents only care about winning a state title, so they will see that and jump all over it to use it as ammo. 

[grappleapple]

Interesting factoid: 88.5% of the 2016 NFL draftees were multi-sport athletes in high school. We are still forcing kids to wrestle/play football/ play baseball/ et al year round. Where's the data to support the single sport indulgence?

 

I see very, very few people forcing kids to focus on one sport. Most of the coaches I know, including wrestling coaches, encourage other sport participation. But not all kids want to play multiple sports.

I have twins. They both wrestle. They both played football and baseball as freshmen as well. The next year one decided he has more fun wrestling and working to get better at wrestling year around. For him, it's not about a college scholarship or anything. He genuinely loves wrestling and wants to improve. He quit football and baseball and now solely focuses on wrestling.

His twin wrestles during the season, but also plays baseball, and football. He gets destroyed on the mats by his brother, but he doesn't care because he loves baseball and football and has fun with all three sports. In the end though, both made their personal choice on what they like. Some want to wrestle year around, others don't.

[Y2CJ41]

Basically what TripleB stated

 

Of our state finalists(top 2) here are the multi sport kids

Matt McKinney- football

Trent Pruitt- track

Burk Vanhorn-football(guessing)

Hunter Mote-football(guessing)

Tristan Tonte- football

Mason Parris- football

Shawn Streck- football

Gunnar Larson- football

Robert Samuals- football

 

So 9 of 28

 

Of our champs I know Pruitt, Parris, and Streck are multi-sport. I'm pretty positive about the other 11 that they are single sport athletes.

[Y2CJ41]

Per my master list I have 27 guys I can't confidently put at Chesterton duals, Carmel duals, Warren Mystery Meat, or the CIA last chance qualifier. I would love to know who to contact to get the list of all those wrestlers as I have a very sneaky suspicion that there are 5-10 that didn't get two local events in.

[Justin Ratliff]

They will be checking for that tonight.

[Y2CJ41]

My guess is they let the kids wrestle. 

[Justin Ratliff]

I do not believe so.  Last year they had some kids who did not have the qualifiers (but said they did) and did not have a waiver.  Those kids did not get to wrestle.  At least the ones my wife checked didn't.

[WaltHarris]

Did the numbers increase or decrease from last year according to Track?

[Y2CJ41]

Down by 46, but will be more as there are always scratches.

[Timeinandout]

Iowa has there Freestyle and Greco state this weekend.  Looks like Indiana has about 250 more kids at state(minus the Juniors). 

[Clint Gard]

I'm going to keep copying and pasting this because I think what I have listed are viable options...

 

It's been said a couple of times already I think but if Freestyle is something the ISWA wants to get back to in Indiana, then the focus and push will need to change.  I think Freestyle is great.  Loved it back in the late 80's and early 90's...it helped develop me at a very fast rate.  But back then, that's all there was.  Part of the problem is they started changing the rules and just made it really stupid IMO.  I think it is back to being what it once was, but all the rule changes turned a lot of people off to it.

 

Having said that...here is my 2 cents to pushing Freestyle again:

 

1.  Folkstyle Season for PeeWee-Schoolboy's will be November and December.  Tournaments can start the beginning of November and end just before Christmas Break.  We don't need to have a state tournament...we have too many "state" and "national' tournaments.  Just wrestle.  If you want to have a state tournament, then make the local tournaments a qualifier for the final one in December.

 

2.  January to IHSAA State Finals- Training for freestyle/Greco technique and rules interpretation.  Train your officials and pairings people.  No tourneys.  It's a proven fact that our kids wrestle too much and don't practice enough.  Ask any other country in the world and they will tell you we do the exact opposite of what they do.  We do not get the results other countries do...hmmm.

 

3.  February - March: Freestyle/Greco tournaments only.  

 

4.  April - Freestyle and Greco State

 

5.  Late April - ??: Training and more training for those kids that make the Fargo teams or any other types of teams.

 

I'm still thinking through some things but those are some rough toughts.  I'm telling you right now, kids will train freestyle if they want to get better.  Those that don't, will see a noticeable difference in their HS seasons and they will get on board.  If they don't, they will get passed by.  

 

Thoughts??

[Y2CJ41]

I do not believe so.  Last year they had some kids who did not have the qualifiers (but said they did) and did not have a waiver.  Those kids did not get to wrestle.  At least the ones my wife checked didn't.

I can say that per my research there are a few kids there that didn't do two qualifiers(not including university and up).

[takedownartist]

Well after seeing mini tournaments sanctioned as a qualifier at the big clubs/academy, I had an idea.

Most of us are short on time to squeeze qualifiers during the short F/S season. Parents make the time for the wrestle offs for ISWA Heartland team. (Perhaps ISWA will send teams to Kingsport in the future as well)

Just maybe, during the wrestle offs for these teams..require the kids already there wrestle free style bouts after their folkstyle wrestle offs.

This would be a win-win situation.

Lose an extra hour there, gain a freestyle qualifier.

Two Birds, One Stone.

Edited May 7, 2016 by takedownartist

[Justin Ratliff]

I can say that per my research there are a few kids there that didn't do two qualifiers(not including university and up).

 

I believe there were about 10 that were turned away because they didn't have the qualifiers.  So they were looking.  I guess some took a chance on getting through and lucked out.

[Y2CJ41]

I'm gonna call a bluff on that one.

 

There were 8 people who preregistered that didn't wrestle. There were two that I am fairly certain didn't have two locals in and another that was questionable.  The other 5 all had two events in.

 

By my count of the wrestlers that were in the brackets on Saturday about 27 I could not confidently place at the events that were not on TrackWrestling.

[Justin Ratliff]

_{Sorry, that number was from last year.  I'm not sure how many they kicked out but they definitely made phone calls to people informing them that they didn't have the qualifiers so they were checking.  There were also 36 Greco only wrestlers that didn't wrestle Freestyle so those were probably kids that didn't get the qualifiers in.}

 

_{I'm don't think there was a grand conspiracy on this.  If some kids got in it was because it was missed.  Not because they were not checking.  They did not let kids wrestle because they were worried about numbers.  With Mother's Day and some schools having prom I'm sure the numbers were going to be lower than usual anyway.}

 

_{I'm not sure what the big answer is for boosting Freestyle (I think Greco actually increased?).  I have my son in Freestyle and Greco.  He likes it better than playing baseball or soccer in the spring.  We make it work but our situation is different than others.  Kids are still going to wrestle at big Folkstyle tournaments out of state during Freestyle/Greco season.  I'm not sure you can change that now.  Pandora's box has been opened.  It would take a unified effort nationally with coaches, states, and organizations to change that.}

 

_{Another thing I have thought of is that in Folkstyle there is a small percentage of wrestlers who even make it into a D1 program and actually wrestles for the team, not just a room guy.  There is even a smaller percentage of those wrestlers who make it internationally.  Maybe people are just playing the percentage and putting their effort into Folkstyle for that reason?}

 

_{Obviously, America's preoccupation with Folkstyle affects us as a nation when it comes to the international styles in some respects.  Now with the prospects of MMA careers there is another blow to Freestyle/Greco in our country.  The situation is definitely something unique to our wrestling culture.}

[Y2CJ41]

I'm don't think there was a grand conspiracy on this.  If some kids got in it was because it was missed.  Not because they were not checking.  They did not let kids wrestle because they were worried about numbers.  With Mother's Day and some schools having prom I'm sure the numbers were going to be lower than usual anyway.

 

It shouldn't have been missed. I didn't have access to Carmel, Chestertown, Warren, or the CIA events and still was able to pinpoint about 30 kids who needed checked. Having it missed whether it was an accident or not is not acceptable when people put the sacrifices they did just to wrestle in the event.

 

If they let even ONE kid wrestle it tarnishes the whole event. I have 27 kids I can't confidently place at two events, thus the odds are great that someone slipped through the cracks.

[Justin Ratliff]

If you know of the kids that got in then send them those names.  Then however it was missed can be addressed.

[Fabio Jr.]

Deflect deflect deflect, its not an organizations problem its folkstyle is ruining wrestling. Folkstyle cannot continue to be a scapegoat for the downward trend of decisions that were made...members can only give so many second chances

[Y2CJ41]

If you know of the kids that got in then send them those names.  Then however it was missed can be addressed.

I highly doubt the ISWA would respond to my request because if there was an error found it wouldn't exactly make them look too good.

[Justin Ratliff]

Even if they do not respond to you, maybe they could take a look at why they missed those kids?