To anyone who really cares, pirateville included:
Boone Grove is a small rural school in south Valparaiso that has some inherent wrestling problems, and I know we're not alone. While we're in the general vicinity of "The Region," we're not fortunate enough to have an established tradition in our sport where "numbers" really aren't an issue. We're a member of the PCC, Porter County Conference, where basketball rules, baseball and soccer are pretty good, football is virtually non-existent, and wrestling is still believe it or not in a "grassroots" stage. It's a great place, don't get me wrong, but it's very traditional and very resistant to change, particularly from an administrative and a "community" standpoint.
Our high school program, like most, is a direct reflection of our middle school program, which also suffers from pretty poor participation. It's not from a lack of effort or bad coaches in my opinion, but rather from, quite literally, an athletic administration that won't cooperate. This year, our middle school basketball program has 60+ players, with an A, B, and C team at virtually each grade 6-8. When MS wrestling has low numbers, you can't help but see how low HS numbers will suffer the same fate. Until we figure out how best to solve this problem, I don't see any long term solution. We're hoping that by competing in our first season of varsity football next year, wrestling participation will improve, but 60+ MS basketball players in such a small school, 80% of which will never see the floor in HS, isn't helping.
Wolves Wrestling Club, our youth program, is alive and well, but we're still a few years away from seeing the fruits of our labor at the HS level. We have a bunch of elementary kids who have been at it for several years, and we're trying to build on them. I hope Coach Line sticks it out long enough to reap the rewards he deserves, again, but only time will tell.