Coach Brobst

Mr. Buttler, I agree Whiteland could be very dangerous this year. We wrestle you all tomorrow and I've told my team how prepared we need to be to compete because y'all will bring it. That said, the above rankings are just a reflection of the individual rankings and how teams might stack up at state based on the individual tourney. This is not dual rankings. Those will come out later, but I'm sure that if you guys have a great weekend this weekend, waves will be made and the state will be put on notice. They put you in a good pool to show something with Ben Davis being better than normal, HSE, and it appears Homestead is on the rise too. None of us are in Team state yet though, but win the pool and you'll get a crack at Carmel to prove yourselves! Best of luck to the Warriors this weekend. I look forward to competing.

I probably should have sent this in early, but Emily Anderson is not going 106, she is planning on 120 for State. Was at 121.2 this past weekend at Clinton Prairie and wrestled 126.

We do have more openings in tourneys than I remember. Perhaps with the addition of girls wrestling teams are restructuring the boys too so that they can cover coaching? We have 47 boys and 10 girls this year. About average for us but the weird one is we have 16 freshman and 7 of them are first year wrestlers. We usually only have 3-4 total brand new kids to the sport. Glad to have them though!

For years, we would go to the John Hurrle at Tech and they allowed multiple entries per school. At the seeding meetings, I had to clarify the first year, but the interpretation was that as long it is a VARSITY level event, every athlete there is considered Varsity EXCEPT if your wrestler wrestles their teammate. For example: Wrestler A wrestles against 3 other schools, then Wrestler B from his own school, then finishes against a back-up from a different school. Wins all 5. In the sectional entry, however, he would be 4-0 with the one not counting being the one against their teammate. Rationale for it was that how is someone entering two athletes any different than when I dual against Zionsville, my 145 pounder had the flu so I had a JV kid in. That would still count as a Varsity win for their opponent or for that athlete if they won.

I believe the automatic qualifiers are Top 3 at your state finals or Top 3 at a Regional Qualifier (such as Central Regionals). Then ISWA gets so many bids they can use on kids who aren't already qualified at their discretion. At least that's who I understand it. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

That is correct. Solid group of Middle School athletes already and a few good HS kids returning in a strong Small School conference that includes Frankton and Oak Hill. They also just started including Wrestling as a league for the elementary school and numbers were pretty solid. Great AD that is supportive of whatever you need and a great group of alumni parents that are working to make MG a premier small school athletic program. Contact Ryan Plovick, AD at Madison Grant if you are interested at rplovick@mgusc.k12.in.us Madison County is a great place to coach wrestling because the coaches all want to see each other succeed and help each other learn and get better. This could be a great job for a young guy that wants to learn to build a program as many of the pieces are already in place, they just need a captain for the ship!

Per the ISWA email they sent earlier this week, it appears the 2 qualifiers are back this year. That's how I read it anyways.

Intriguing for sure. First step to NFHS adopting those rules would be NCAA adopting those rules. Until that happens, HS will continue to be Folkstyle to match what they do collegiately. Growing up, I’d always heard that HS didn’t want to adopt Freestyle because the lack of a controlled throw rule (you can suplex without controlling to the mat with no penalty, in fact, encouraged with the Grand amplitude point) I can see how people with limited Wrestling knowledge would be scared of the insurance implications, but I’m not certain if that was a real reason or just made up because after all schools still hosts these tourneys in the spring. Ultimately, it’s a preference. Some like Folkstyle because they’re used to it and there’s definitely an art to mat wrestling. I, like you, prefer the action of freestyle but I appreciate Folkstyle for what it is too.

You can wrestle any weight you want, up down or the same as semi-state or the qualifier.

Very interesting. I made a much more complicated move this summer when I was bored that involved a HUGE overhaul that I knew had no chance of ever being done. Because this keeps Sectionals the same but flips a few, it is a better start already. I do question how "balanced" these semi-state would truly be. Moving Carmel, HSE, Westfield, and Fishers all up to the Northwest is intriguing, but they gain 4 4A schools and lose only 1 with Penn leaving to go to Ft. Wayne. I know that EC wasn't as deep as most years but that's a lot of 4A teams in one semi-state and leaves Ft. Wayne still with just 4 total (Homestead, Carroll, Northrop, and now Penn). New Castle doesn't change in talent either. 4A Breakdown would look this way (just a quick count, could be off by 1-2): EC: 10 FW: 4 NC: 13 EVV: 5 New Castle meanwhile gains Brownsburg and Avon (not to mention Plainfield, who will bounce back, Ben Davis--who will only get better and Pike--who has the potential to be good with their size) AND takes on the Delta Sectional with those small school hammers. New Castle becomes the deepest in the state by far and EVV would become one of the easier 2 by far--as far as depth goes. This plan makes Evansville more manageable, but Makes New Castle and EC much harder and keeps Ft. Wayne exactly as it is by only gaining Penn and Mishawaka while losing an up and coming Delaware County who is very talented and will be doing very well in the future with Delta, Yorktown, Cowan, and Daleville. I just look at this as trading one problem for another. I was pretty gung ho that we needed to redistribute programs for the semi-states this summer, but as I've seen this year develop, I am more inclined to let it be because I see how cyclical things have been. I wouldn't hate moving some bigger Northern Indiana Schools or Indy Schools to Ft. Wayne so that it's a little more even as far as where the 4A schools are competing so that the depth disparity isn't so great, but I'm okay as it is now as well.

I think DP was a 3 seed, but you might be right. Hit a nasty headlock on Simone of HSE in ticket round when he was down 4-5 points and hit another nasty one on Friday night against Cole Ross of MD on his way to a 4th place finish.

Totally normal. I think not having total control, like when you were a wrestler, makes it nerve racking as a coach. We want them to reach goals they've worked for and feel helpless sitting in the corner watching. No matter how hard we work to prepare them and train them, ultimately, they have to go perform and some do, but some don't. Like anything else, it's about framing it for me. You will always question whether you did enough to prepare a kid when they fall short of their wrestling goal, but rely on the fact that you have instilled in them many life skills, including the very tough lesson that hard work and effort does not always equal reaching your goals--just the opportunity to achieve those goals. That's what gets me through these next two weeks. Have to know that regardless of how many medals we win as a team, the seniors that leave are better off for having wrestled and will be better young men and women because of it.

In 2020, at 120, Jacob Simone of HSE was ranked #4 or 5 (I don't recall exactly) and drew #1 Zeke Seltzer (Who won state) in the ticket round after having lost by 2 to #2 and eventual runner up Carson Eldred from Westfield at Regionals. I believe that Diaz from Wheeler took 3rd that year and he and Simone had split that offseason in two tight matches. Obviously no way to predict what he would have placed, but worst draw I've ever had dealt to a wrestler in my program for sure.

I think it was the 2017-18 year that they changed last. They moved Plainfield to Avon and Indian Creek to Bloomington, then brought Cascade to Mooresville. There may have been another small change, but at the time, that was to "balance them" more because Indian Creek was sending 4-5 kids to Semi-state annually and Plainfield would be very solid. With Plainfield down recently and Avon on a down swing, the disparity there is large as well. To answer your second question, the next restructuring of sectionals was supposed to be this year, but the IHSAA held off on any redistricting because they wanted non-Pandemic numbers for schools for sports that class. I would imagine that next year or the following, they will look into redoing sectionals again.

They’ve actually wrestled 4 times and it’s 3-1 Burgett. Won 3-1 in SV at Shamrock Duals 3-2 In TB-1 at Paul Logan Duals 2-1 at Sectionals and then the 1-0 loss at Regionals Certainly anyone’s match this time around, will be fun to watch if they both take care of business first.

Right. That's kind of what I was thinking coming from a small school myself, getting to Regionals was a BIG deal for my teammates. I do wonder how that affects recruitment and retention at like Clinton Central or Rossville when kids know just to get to Regionals they're going to have to be better than at least one kid from HSE, Carmel, Westfield, or Fishers. Now to Maligned's point, if they keep all the teams in the same regional, it kinda doesn't matter as to how many Semi-State qualifiers you're going to get, but for Regional Qualifiers, it certainly does. I can see that argument for sure. For HSE personally, a change in Sectionals won't mean much other than maybe 2-3 more Regional qualifiers annually (not a big deal for us), but 2-3 more for Sheridan or Frankfort could make retention and recruiting easier.

HSE with 9 this year, one short of school record set last year. Shout out to some smaller schools in our sectional that sent the highest numbers they've had in a while: Frankfort has 3 Sheridan has 2 Rossville has 2 Clinton Central has 2 Congrats to those programs!

That's what I figured. It's a ton of work I'm sure to try to figure out who is deserving a whole year in advance and it quite honestly doesn't affect the team I coach often. Just interested in the process. Thanks for re-explaining. So in conclusion, the only real effects of the imbalanced sectionals are 1) Easier team title for one sectional and 2) slightly more than your fair share of Regional qualifiers for that same sectional while slightly less for the other sectional.