OK, I am going to post this knowing there will be quite a few who disagree, but just getting tired of a few things:
I have been around this sport for the last 46 years of my 50 years and wrestling is missing the boat for 90% of the wrestlers. I read all the posts here and people talking about why numbers are down. Here is my assessment.
The top 2-3% of wrestlers in Indiana are better than they were when I was in high school. I officiated this weekend and have watched my son wrestle this year. There is plenty of blame to go around. This weekend as well as almost every other weekend, I have seen more kids raking kids faces, punching kids in the face, ribs, and pushing them after they go out of bounds, and trying to torque a knee after the whistle blows amongst other things. I am not soft, but I am quite sure a good hard cross face is ok when trying to pick up the far arm or fight off a shot, but the re-rake and subsequent rake is ludicrous. The coaches say he is just being physical. Totally crap, it is not a move and you are not working anything but trying to intimidate the other opponent or injure your opponent with brutality.
If you watch the best kids in the state, I rarely see this happen. It is with the second tier kids and/or programs. Teach your kids how to wrestle, the above is not wrestling. This is not college, this is high school where 90% of the kids may not even wrestle in college. They are out because their parents told them to get involved and be a part of something, or were talked into it by a teacher or another coach. Why would these fringe kids (70%) even want to be a part of a sport where some "heavy hands" have been equated to punching, raked faces lead to bloody noses and lips, and the extra pull on the knee or shoulder equates to stretched ligaments or eventually worse. When the whistle blows, stop wrestling the best you can, coaches lead by example and let the kids know they did something wrong instead of arguing he is a good kid and would never do this.
These fringe kids will either quit during the season or worse yet, never come out the following year. No fight shorts or uniforms will change that. So by all accounts wrestling is a great sport and can hep teach kids a lot about life and to be great workers and citizens of this country. As I always was told, "I will never miss an opportunity to teach or guide you whether you like what I say or not and you may not always come out on top, but life is not about short cuts, but about what kind of person you are in the long-run."
With this being said, I love wrestling and what it has done for me in my life and hope that others will enjoy it also. The more who experience what wrestling is really about and the hard work, it will pay dividends for life. Those who don't understand will still be making excuses for their kids and rationalizing where we are going.
I would challenge the wrestling community which includes the coaches, parents and officials to make the right calls and do the right thing. Maybe it will bring in more kids to the sport and maybe it won't. One way, I am pretty sure we will head down the same road, the other, it will not get worse, but maybe a chance for more to experience this great sport.
TP