Isn’t That What We Want?

[casualwrestlingfan]

2 hours ago, CFleshman said:

I am not down  grading The Fort or Warrior Elete. The kids hitting these places are working thier butts off. You have provided the opportunities for all levels of kids. As we have talked the the high end wrestlers in our area just don't work out together like the Indy area. The next few years will show what those kids are doing. The Fort is the best place to train in Northern Iniana hands down.

It's all to do with school size. FW SS has more small schools than large. Those kids participate in their schools' fall & spring sports. Basically leaves them with Summer & in season during the winter. It is what it is at this point.

[Galagore]

For the record, I am in favor of a classed individual tournament, and I am in favor of wrestle-backs. 
 

Couldn’t nearly all of the same arguments against classing the individual be made against wrestle backs? 
 

Bad draw? Should have gotten into more rooms, then YOU’d be the bad draw. 
 

Live in an area with tons of good schools and have to face kids from relatively easier sectionals, regionals, semi-states? Should have worked harder so you would just win your preliminary level anyway. 

[BrodyHardcastle]

9 hours ago, nkraus said:

It has to be built.   It’s being built.  I know for a fact there’s multiple ISWA state placer winners at the youth level at The Fort every practice.

 

 

I also know Warrior has the same thing.   Both main places in Fort Wayne are drawing from different areas, which is going to work out very well for our semi state in the very near future.   I wouldn’t be surprised to see Fort Wayne with more top 4 placers (consistently) in the near future.  
 

Not to mention area programs with their schools clubs have tried to work around the schedules of the bigger “academies.”

 

10 hours ago, aoberlin said:

Love ya Chuck. Don’t forget every Monday and Thursday at The Fort we had practices all spring, summer, and up to the wrestling season. There were always State qualifiers, medal winners, and semi-state qualifiers. Those same kids are doing great this year. Heck you helped do the wiring. Not to mention national level camps and clinics. Then live nights to sharpen the last couple months before season started. 

The Fort has something on the rise for sure, it is is going to completely change the Ft.Wayne area and our semi-state will reap the benefits. My guy @CoachDuke2.0 has been been telling me all about it. If anyone on here has elementary kids and are looking to get them into a club, I highly suggest you go see him at The Fort with all the other great coaches. Nick coached me in high school  for a couple years, and I wish I had more time to learn from him.

[Rugger44]

I grew Up in Indian, going to every state championship since 4th grade(1996) until I moved to Nebraska in 2008. For 2009-2010 season I was excited to go watch the Nebraska state wrestling finals.... until I got there. The finals had 4 mats wrestling( 1 for each class), and I asked a few spectators what mat was for 1st and 2nd? They replied with all 4 mats are wrestling for a state title at the same weight-class. Then the awards in between each weight-class took foreveeeer. As for the competition, it seemed completely watered down. I went into this not having an opinion one way or the other about class wrestling, but I never went back to the Nebraska state finals as it was like any other "ordinary" tournament. Id say winning a Nebraska state title is about like winning an Indiana Semi-state! Nothing to laugh about but not the same as winning an IHSAA state wrestling title. I'm happy to say that I moved back to Indiana in 2016 and have been to every IHSAA state championship since. It is simply the best! The only thing I would change about the individual IHSAA Wrestling tournament is to have full wrestle backs for 3rd place starting at sectionals.

 

 

Nebraska Class A (big class)Finals 5-pins 2-techfalls 1-MD 1-OT

Nebraska Class B Finals 4-pins 0-techfalls  2-MD  0-OT

Nebraska Class C Finals 1-pins 3-techfalls  2-MD 1-OT

Nebraska Class D (Smallest class) Finals 1-pin 0-techfalls 1-MD  1-OT

56 state champions crowned...….. The matches from the smallest schools were the most competitive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dafar]

This is a topic I have discussed with our coach exhaustively over the years. There really is no right or wrong answer, just what works best based on the personal goals of the wrestler. The only definitive answer that we have come up with is that there has to be more of a desire and true teamwork between wrestler, coaches, and family in the smaller school setting. My son had goals of going to state when he was in 5^th/6^th grade. We worked as a team to get him to the right training, learning the Olympic styles that lead to multiple trips with Team Indiana, and working with other coaches. There were always other coaches willing to help a kid that wanted to learn and wrestle like Jake O’Neil and Quinn Harris. We have worked out quite a bit when time allowed at the Warrior RTC. If you want a look at who was in that room, there are around 9 boys in the number 1-3 positions in a lot of the weight classes in the current Fort Wayne Semi State ranking. Many will be going to Gainbridge in a little while, hungry for better results than last year. Those kids traveled to GFC and to Super 32 together as well, constantly getting better for this season.  It definitely helps when you have some college kids around to help and wrestle, helping cement those goals that there is wrestling life beyond high school. When they went on a hiatus, we went to a different wrestling room in Indy. The biggest difference versus the bigger school is we had to do a lot more traveling. Sometimes our coaches went, a lot of times we had help from the others. The greatest thing about the wrestling world versus other sports I have been with, is that if the kid has the desire, there are people who will give of their time to help along the way. However, like everything else in life it has to start with the wrestler and their support team. The main question is how do you get the wrestler to not only have the right goal, but the willingness to do what it takes to achieve that goal. Yes, it is much easier to find opportunities in the bigger cities, but in the end isn’t wrestling the instrument to teach we get what we put into it?

[Matt Time]

The one class system definitely makes a more exciting tournament for the viewer. Unfortunately, I have to agree that classed wrestling might do more to grow and promote the sport, especially at smaller schools. So I guess it depends on the goal. Indiana is decidedly mid-pack on the national scene. I would be open to seeing some innovation and experimentation in our statewide approach to scholastic wrestling. But I like change and trying new things.

[D-train]

I wouldn’t want to see any changes, I think the team State duals make a nice compromise. 
 

the only change that I could see being kind of cool is run a big school bracket and a small school bracket, the winner of each face off under the lights. call it whatever, something resembling the NFC and AFC in the Super Bowl. 
 

run it like that for a few years and if it’s not good, go back to the one size fits all bracket. 

[CoachDuke2.0]

11 hours ago, bigballerb said:

 

The Fort has something on the rise for sure, it is is going to completely change the Ft.Wayne area and our semi-state will reap the benefits. My guy @CoachDuke2.0 has been been telling me all about it. If anyone on here has elementary kids and are looking to get them into a club, I highly suggest you go see him at The Fort with all the other great coaches. Nick coached me in high school  for a couple years, and I wish I had more time to learn from him.

Thank you for the kind words. Mon and Thurs 630-8 is a great environment. Carroll, homestead, EN, Leo, garret, prairie heights, dwenger, snider kids all in the building. When our middle schoolers are in its often 40-45 deep. Pull up. If you dont like it, you wont get your money back but you can have a popsicle! 

[Websterk149]

Keep it 1 class, anything else is blasphemy. I'm from a super small school and would be totally against classing state tourney.

 

If you need an example, take one look at Silas Allred. 2x state champ, 5th ranked nationally, wrestling for Nebraska now; from little po-dunk, not even a real town out in boonies Shenandoah. Other examples are Cody Phillips, Michael Duckworth, Stock brother from Monrovia and others from there and all the other guys I'm forgetting from the "small schools". All those kids did that for their communities and schools, all those kids are top notch athletes/wrestlers, and if you had a class state tourney I believe it would drive those kinds of kids away to bigger schools more quickly than keeping it 1 class is. They would get bored way quicker and be ready to transfer after sophomore year.

 

The greatest thing about this sport is you can line up toe-to-toe with someone and prove you're better than them, you don't need coaches or parents deciding for you. Add that with the greatest thing about this sport in this state is that it is 1 class and you can be from the backwoods of northeastern to the hollers of switzerland county to the lakes of Angola and prove you're the best and better than the guys from perry, warren, bburg, crown pointe, mater dei, etc.