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By Anna Kayser
 
Mere seconds after securing his second consecutive IHSAA State Wrestling title in February, No. 2 Jake Hockaday ran over to his coaches’ corner, hugged assistant coach Kyle Ayersman… and flipped him down onto the mat.
 
“We planned that far before,” Hockaday said. “I had to win it first, but right after I won I called him over and we had to do that. That was the first time [I had ever done that], I saw it on TikTok, so I thought I had to hit it.”
 
With his Saturday night victory over No. 1 Ashton Jackson of LaPorte, Hockaday became Brownsburg’s second two-time state champion following now-Minnesota standout after being the first freshman in school history to win it all in 2022. As part of a cohort of a program-record four finalists, Hockaday’s win followed freshman 106-pounder Revin Dickman’s title, marking the first time in school history that Brownsburg has crowned multiple champions in a year.

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As @GenHeavyHandz posted… Gunner not getting enough love. The kid is really good. Hopefully gets that national ranking that he deserves. He’s got a great off season schedule this year. Look for him to continue to impress. 

Parris was the first wrestler from Indiana to win a world title at any age group. He has a seat at the table of the greats and has very strong arguments for best ever from Indiana.

You talking about Tony Vaughn of Ft Wayne Snider? Man, I had to wrestle him in regionals back in the day. He was a beast!

You talking about Tony Vaughn of Ft Wayne Snider? Man, I had to wrestle him in regionals back in the day. He was a beast!

Shenandoah, Silas’s alma mater, also produced AJ Black(runner-up x 2), Scott Gross(runner-up) and Jordan Slivka cut his teeth there before moving on to Cathedral. This doesn’t include Gee, Surguy, Lohrey and Pugsley as state qualifiers and placers. 
 
I agree that the “big” schools have a lot more depth but I still feel that small schools can compete. I had the pleasure of speaking with Jordan Burroughs this week and one of the first things he mentioned was the fact Indiana had 1 true state champion per weight class, not multiple like class systems. 

A few questions...:
1. What's the problem statement?
2. What's the hypothesis?
3. How will a "change" potentially solve the problem?
4. How will success be measured?
 
I'd also surmise that a little more data aggregation and analysis would be necessary to come to a decision point that  "problems" exist and need to be addressed. Additionally, a further definition of what the goal of the IHSAA Championship actually is would help further help define courses of action or inaction...
 
For example, is the goal to identify a champion or is it crown a champion and maximize gate/ticket sales or is it to have parity and/or equity or is it TBD?
 
The Team State provided by the IHSWCA has done quite a bit to provide better equity in a team race already. So, would a solution for a classed individual tournament lie with a group outside of IHSAA? 
 
I think these type questions would help answer what an alternative would look like and potential impacts.

And add one other... Leighton Jones (IFCA OL of the Year)

I see a lot of talk about mason parris but let’s get Silas some clout in here also. 
Back to back wins over returning NCAA champion Dean….. 

Hang on...let me see if I got this right. 
 
So IN wrestling talent/skill has increased, which I agree with (see College Board for the IN dudes doin' work). That has happened in a non-classed system. So now that increased skill is somehow a problem and we "aren't being fair to our kids" so we want to class it to decrease our skill level statewide? I'm really #Confused. 
 
Did @Galagore hijack your account? Gee I sure hope this class thread gets to 10 pages!!  
 
I vowed to never do this again..but here we are. 
 
Anybody pumped for Parris vs Davison in the quarters? 

A few thoughts...
 
I grew up in Wabash County and my wife in Fulton County and have raised my family in Purplesburg. We chose not move back north after college because of job opportunities and when we had kids, the educational opportunities that exist in Brownsburg Community School Corporation vs. what the wife and I had in the late 80's up north. Some of the student athletes who attended Brownsburg HS when their siblings attended an other HCC rival have spoken volumes about how those opportunities in educaton were best for those kids...
 
Almost every single football visit my son took his junior year, the football staff spoke to him/us about wrestling almost more than football in all cases. They recognize the grind, discipline, etc. it takes to be an elite wrestler while being a P5 football recruit. He visited multiple footballs camps and even met the Red Cobra contingent at an exit in Iowa City following a football camp to catch a ride to Lincoln, NE for a week of wrestling camp during summer football workouts...
 
While being a multi sport athlete, you have to continue to train for wrestling while practicing football, track, baseball, CC, etc. You can't just pick it up in season... That requires A LOT of sacrifice of time, effort, etc.
How many are willing to do that? How many coaches of those other sports are willing to at least look the other way while the wrestler still trains? And if the coach doesn't like it, are the parents and student athlete willing to continue with their plan/goals? (experienced this) One of my son's future #SWARM23 classmates is a guy some may have heard of... Name is Ben Kueter - 4x Iowa State Champ, U20 World Champion, etc. He drives from Iowa City to Sebolt's Academy a few times a week. Check the distance if interested... And he plays baseball. Iowa's high school association has it set so that kids can do FOUR (4) sports seasons - as track and field is in the spring and baseball follows it into the summer and some of their best athletes are 3 or 4 sport kids and those coaches acknowledge that sometimes you need to let those elite athletes participate/train concurrently. Another walk-on classmate played basketball for his high school and wrestled AND made their state tournament! Another young man you will hear more about in the future, Aaron Graves - gatorade player of the year, 1000 career basketball points and 4th at state in wrestling - he will be a B1G DL of the year and likely a 1st rd draft pick in the future.
 
Some would say this is easy for someone from Purplesburg to say, but the training  he did consisted of  private sessions with C-Red outside of normal team or academy practices because of other time committments...
 
I guess what I'm trying to say is something along the lines of if you want something bad enough, are you willing to put the time and sacrifices into trying to achieve it...?
 
Class wrestling probably would help a few things - maybe shortening up the tournament series length by a week or two, shortening distances for driving to the regional/ss weekend, too. 

Will be interesting. Ben is driven. If anywhere it is possible to do both, then Iowa would be the place. The relationship between football and wrestling is extremely good in Iowa City. The linebacker corp is pretty deep and if he gets bigger, then playing EDGE comes into play.
Iowa rotates its DL and to a degree, the LBs, so he may not be taking every snap when he gets to that point. I imagine we will see him first on special teams for football...
 
The football training table is dope. Iowa spends the most $$ out of any B1G program on food/nutrition. Ben at a lean, mean 245 lbs will be very scary...

Will be interesting. Ben is driven. If anywhere it is possible to do both, then Iowa would be the place. The relationship between football and wrestling is extremely good in Iowa City. The linebacker corp is pretty deep and if he gets bigger, then playing EDGE comes into play.
Iowa rotates its DL and to a degree, the LBs, so he may not be taking every snap when he gets to that point. I imagine we will see him first on special teams for football...
 
The football training table is dope. Iowa spends the most $$ out of any B1G program on food/nutrition. Ben at a lean, mean 245 lbs will be very scary...

A few thoughts...
 
I grew up in Wabash County and my wife in Fulton County and have raised my family in Purplesburg. We chose not move back north after college because of job opportunities and when we had kids, the educational opportunities that exist in Brownsburg Community School Corporation vs. what the wife and I had in the late 80's up north. Some of the student athletes who attended Brownsburg HS when their siblings attended an other HCC rival have spoken volumes about how those opportunities in educaton were best for those kids...
 
Almost every single football visit my son took his junior year, the football staff spoke to him/us about wrestling almost more than football in all cases. They recognize the grind, discipline, etc. it takes to be an elite wrestler while being a P5 football recruit. He visited multiple footballs camps and even met the Red Cobra contingent at an exit in Iowa City following a football camp to catch a ride to Lincoln, NE for a week of wrestling camp during summer football workouts...
 
While being a multi sport athlete, you have to continue to train for wrestling while practicing football, track, baseball, CC, etc. You can't just pick it up in season... That requires A LOT of sacrifice of time, effort, etc.
How many are willing to do that? How many coaches of those other sports are willing to at least look the other way while the wrestler still trains? And if the coach doesn't like it, are the parents and student athlete willing to continue with their plan/goals? (experienced this) One of my son's future #SWARM23 classmates is a guy some may have heard of... Name is Ben Kueter - 4x Iowa State Champ, U20 World Champion, etc. He drives from Iowa City to Sebolt's Academy a few times a week. Check the distance if interested... And he plays baseball. Iowa's high school association has it set so that kids can do FOUR (4) sports seasons - as track and field is in the spring and baseball follows it into the summer and some of their best athletes are 3 or 4 sport kids and those coaches acknowledge that sometimes you need to let those elite athletes participate/train concurrently. Another walk-on classmate played basketball for his high school and wrestled AND made their state tournament! Another young man you will hear more about in the future, Aaron Graves - gatorade player of the year, 1000 career basketball points and 4th at state in wrestling - he will be a B1G DL of the year and likely a 1st rd draft pick in the future.
 
Some would say this is easy for someone from Purplesburg to say, but the training  he did consisted of  private sessions with C-Red outside of normal team or academy practices because of other time committments...
 
I guess what I'm trying to say is something along the lines of if you want something bad enough, are you willing to put the time and sacrifices into trying to achieve it...?
 
Class wrestling probably would help a few things - maybe shortening up the tournament series length by a week or two, shortening distances for driving to the regional/ss weekend, too. 

W-R-E-S-T-L-E-B-A-C-K-S-!

Plus a lineman going to Iowa which is a HUGE accomplishment and indicates a big commitment to football to get to that level

I don’t know the exact number but I know for a fact at least 3 state champions are multi-sport athletes so they would not be wrestling all year round

As far has hosting State, yes. State should be located to lower the over all amount of travel as possible. By having it in Evansville you'll be asking a good chuck of the state to increase traveling to state by anywhere from 1 to 3 hours more than they already travel. The fact is State should be in Indy but if it can't the goal should be to keep it as close to Indy as possible. As stated theres a hand full of teams that compete in the Evansville Semi-State that are close to Mackey than the Ford Center. 

Not the case this year, at semi state. Hardly knew they were there. (Except at the scorers tables) 

Is Evansville  in Indiana????

Super big bummer if it is held in Evansville. 

Purdue threw their hat into the ring late in the process per what I gathered while at the IHSAA. It sounded as if they had a location ready to finalize and Purdue made a strong late push that the IHSAA is considering.

Let us dream.  Slow week.  We don't want to drive for 5 hours.  I can't decipher the dialects below Marion County.  I had designs on influencing the results by the shear decibels I can cheer at.  Now you want me to except that I'll be drowned out by those pesky Wildcat Fans? Sheesh!