Y2CJ41

Being a state qualifier or placer at a small school is a big deal. It would be celebrated and bring recognition to the program and individuals. Central Noble had a pep rally for their wrestlers. West Noble announced during the orange thingy game that their wrestler won and it was the first time in 40 years they had a state placer. Small towns and communities live through their high school athletes and love to follow their successful programs.

Let's take it a step further... The 1A kid's school celebrates the award, kid gets his picture on the wall, he get a big plaque, he brings recognition to the school and community. Maybe a few of the youngsters now try to emulate this guy when they are playing pickup football games. All positives in my book. Do people tell him that there are 6 DI Quarterbacks in 6A and shame him for his 1A award? Does he throw away his award? Do people tell him, "that's cool, but you wouldn't be that good in 6A?" Those are all statements I have heard in regards to class wrestling. The 6A quarterbacks still get exposure, they still get recognition and in all honesty I bet they could care less about the 1A award.

Just the same as the 1A Quarterback gets All-State honors while a 6A Quarterback that is just as good or better gets none because there are 6 DI Quarterbacks at 6A.

So you are fine with the current state of small school programs? You are fine that they are basically there to be the whipping boys of the big schools?

If they are in the race or on the mat, they have a shot at winning. Everyone has to win the same amount of matches to be a state qualifier/placer/champion.

From out of state or only Indiana?

Glad to see you weren't on that brinks truck headed to Fort Wayne!

Interestingly looking at Ohio in 1978 they had 919 schools with wrestling and over 32,000 wrestlers. IN 1979 it was...580 schools and 20,000 wrestlers. That is quite a dropoff.

I have seen that for years, it's nothing new to see non-state qualifiers in Indiana beat placers from other states. However that placer is still getting more attention from college coaches.

I guess I didn't realize that there is not an equal chance of making it to state. So winning two matches(three with a rattail match) at sectional, one at regional, and two at semi-state and you advance to state. I think that is pretty standard throughout the state isn't it?

How many high school students in those respective years?

So by what you are saying big school parents are about 7 times more dedicated than small school ones...right? True or false 1. Wrestler A and B who enter sectional have the same shot at being a state champion/placer/qualifier. 2. Big schools SHOULD have more state champions/placers/qualifiers. 3. In most cases a 106lbs wrestler cannot compete with a 285lbs wrestler 4. The premise for classed athletics is that playing schools of the similar size creates a more fair environment.

Whether it's PR like you want to say, it still works. I promise you a college coach would be more interested if you are a state qualifier in a classed system than a semi-state qualifier in a one class system. http://indianamat.com/stuff/statebreakdown.html This is not updated for a while, but this is a general look at who has class and who doesn't. Hint...almost everyone has class.

So only 22 kids at the small school level have dedicated parents, while 140 kids at big schools have dedicated parents?

11-12% of the students make up 29% of the entries that have a chance of making it to the state finals. If they had 29% of the state qualifiers/placers/champs then we'd be equal.

Kids will have added state qualification and placement added to their resumes earlier. Our kids are competing with others in neighboring states that are achieving those credentials earlier. It is not easy to market yourself compared to those other state's kids.

The premise behind class wrestling is small schools in general cannot compete with their big counterparts. The premise behind single class wrestling is everyone is equal and there is no difference.

Picking out extreme examples doesn't help your argument. If you use the forfeit data from sectional here are the participation percentages 1A 28.76% 2A 33.23% 3A 37.84% Even with that, only 5.35% of the state placers were from 1A, 25.89% from 2A, and 68.75% from 3A. There were more 3A wrestlers wrestling in the FINALS, than 1A wrestlers that even qualified for state.

Only 5 1A schools had more state qualifiers than Richmond. Even at what you are describing as a poor 3A school, they are still getting more state qualifiers and placers than 95% of the 1A schools.

So you can't answer it, that's fine. I understand you think based off of a dual score that Portage and Ben Davis are horrible programs. When you start encouraging kids to specialize at a small school it gets really ugly, REALLY fast. I can tell you from experience that if you want to build a program at a small school, encouraging your kids to quit spring and fall sports is the worst way to do it. You will make yourself the enemy of the rest of the coaches and they will work against you like no other.

Basketball is a different beast in this state. It is interesting how we always hear about class basketball "ruining" the sport here, yet we don't hear that about softball, baseball, volleyball, etc. Danville has recently had state champions and placers within the past five years. Brownsburg also beat #4 Portage 42-9, what's their problem?

How do you expect say a school like Danville or Cascade to build a program when they have a sectional dominated by the likes of Brownsburg and Avon? How do they build excitement around their program when they are getting beat 72-3 by the big dawgs and birds.

Worst case it does not look like New York was affected by having class wrestling. In all honesty I think you need a 10-15 year period to see how it affects a state. Much like our class basketball we had initial backlash, but since then the numbers have steadily improved.

The fan vote is worth two votes for the top 5. We have about 40 other media, coaches, and administrators that vote for Mr. Gorilla. If you have a write-in include it and we will add them to the list. Profiles of the listed people. Alec White- New Palestine http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/alec-white-r12 Alston Bane- Richmond http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/alston-bane-r198 Andrew Davison- Chesterton http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/andrew-davison-r518 Ben Stewart- Indianapolis Cathedral http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/ben-stewart-r343 Boone Welliever- Southmont http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/boone-welliever-r77 Brad Laughlin- Yorktown http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/brad-laughlin-r108 Brendan Black- Hobart http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/brendan-black-r110 Breyden Bailey- Indianapolis Cathedral http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/breyden-bailey-r2 Colton Cummings- Lowell http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/colton-cummings-r6 Corbin Maddox- Daleville http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/corbin-maddox-r312 Eli Stock- Monrovia http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/eli-stock-r9026 Evan Ellis- Eastern (Greentown) http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/evan-ellis-r422 Gunnar Larson- Avon http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/gunnar-larson-r417 Jacob Gray- Delta http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/jacob-gray-r290 Jeremiah Reitz- Griffith http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/jeremiah-reitz-r14 Kyle Hatch- Warsaw http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/kyle-hatch-r8 Robert Samuels- Lawrence North http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/robert-samuels-r949 Skylour Turner- Warren Central http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/skylour-turner-r61 Tanner Webster- North Montgomery http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/tanner-webster-r267 Tristen Tonte- Warren Central http://indianamat.com/index.php/page/wrestler_detail.html/_/active/tristen-tonte-r336

New York is probably around 10 years Texas within the past 3-5 I believe, however they have sanctioned wrestling for at most like 20 years