ghughes1974

I think the larger population is absolutely a factor that helps large schools dominate. The reason I think the training partner issue is an even bigger factor comes from my experience as a youth coach. I have three sons and they all wrestled at elementary age level. I coached several ISWA club teams before I started coaching HS. I coached a number of kids back in the day that ended up at large schools in HS. I've seen many of those kids consistently outpace the small school kids who may have been just as good or better when they were younger. Second experience that makes me think the "room" is the greatest factor is that when I was in HS, I was on a team that was second in state in the 2A (large school) division in Illinois. I am a first generation wrestler and I got real good real quick in that environment. I had good coaches, but I learned just as much from them as I did from battling day in and day out with the other beasts on the team. When I started coaching in Indiana, I knew the room would be important, but I completely underestimated how important. There's moves and techniques, counters to counters and third/fourth moves in a series, that you can't even coach if your training partners can barely figure out move 1 or 2. Last argument, look at the success of the wrestling academies in Indiana. One of the core principles of those places is, put a bunch of studs in the same room and watch iron sharpen iron. I totally agree that population size is a factor. My experiences make me believe training partner differences is the greatest factor that gives large schools a huge advantage over small schools.

Indiana has an opportunity to grow wrestling, especially at small schools. If we want Indiana wrestling to be at its “best”, we should be pushing strategies to grow the sport. I define better as creating more kids embracing the ideals and life lessons of wrestling. But even if we define “better” as being more competitive against other states or when our elite guys succeed at the college level, then let’s recognize that elite wrestlers at any level; most of them come from “wrestling families”. Wrestling families are created from there being someone within a family that got a lot out of the sport and cares deeply about wrestling. Let’s call this person a “wrestling mentor”. Wrestling mentors stay involved in the sport and contribute to it throughout their life. Wrestling mentors end up coaching. Wrestling mentors are dads that get their kids wrestling at an early age and take their kids (and other kids) all over the place to wrestle. Wrestling mentors run youth clubs. Wrestling mentors start academies. Wrestling mentors may officiate. Most wrestling mentors had some success at the sport when they wrestled. This could be achieving big goals or at least achieving smaller personal goals. But either way, they came out of it feeling they were good at wrestling and valuing it. All you reading this post, does that sound like you? So how do we make Indiana wrestling better? Create more wrestling families and wrestling mentors. You can accomplish this by keeping more kids in the sport. Part of what’s fun about wrestling is getting caught up in and chasing goals. Give more kids who are wrestling a better opportunity to succeed at some level. Success is fun! Even if you fail, believing you can achieve a goal and pushing yourself going after it, that's fun. A classed state tournament gives this experience to more wrestlers. Give it 10 years and watch how many more “wrestling mentors” we create. But it won't happen until our wrestling coaches start uniformly asking for it…and we need to push the IHSAA to embrace it. My understanding is the IHSAA will consider changes if the sport’s coaches association is 80% in agreement on it. So when the IHSWCA sends out that survey about class wrestling, vote for it. You’re simply voting for a strategy to grow the sport by deliberately trying to increase the number of “wrestling mentors” are out there. Think of how much fun it would be to coach when you have more incoming freshman who have already wrestled for 3-4 years. Look at Iowa, half our population and three classes! Wrestling is great in Iowa because their participation level is significantly higher than the norm. If we want to be at our best, seems to make sense to do what the best do.

Anyone who believes Indiana wrestling isn’t classed, I disagree with you. Wrestling is classed all year. Small school programs generally have few opportunities to wrestle the large schools…maybe their JV team. Large schools typically don’t schedule dual meets with small school teams…why would they? Most of the time, it wouldn’t be competitive. Also, school conferences are typically set up among schools of similar size. Wrestling is classed all season. It’s just the IHSAA state tournament at the end of the year that suddenly isn’t classed. I've coached at a small school for nine seasons now. Having to face off against huge school programs in sectionals absolutely hurts our participation. I coach two types of kids. "True wrestlers" and "guys who wrestle." True wrestlers, they love it and are committed no matter what. But "guys who wrestler", newer/developing wrestlers, when they see the better guys on their team who have been competitive all year get smashed, many of them wash out or check out. They just chose to focus on other sports...guess what, they pick ones that have a classed state tournament, where their small school typically does well and gets a lot of attention. When the "guys who wrestle" start to wash out, then your "true wrestlers" have fewer and fewer training partners...it doesn't matter how hard they work. When they have no one to wrestle that can push them or no one to wrestle at all, you're not going to be competitive against wrestlers from large schools that don't face this problem. There's always rare exceptions, amazing kids, but this is the general result for small schools that are grouped with large schools at the sectional and regional level. It's a fact, large schools more consistently produce elite wrestlers than small schools. There’s a number of factors, but the single greatest factor is rooted in the nature of wrestling. Wrestling is the only sport where you compete as an individual, but the training and development aspect of the sport is 100% a TEAM activity (you cannot train alone). Large schools with large rooms full of talented wrestlers can train at an “academy level” within their own program. This is a significant advantage and allows large schools to more consistently produce elite wrestlers.

On the sixth day of Christmas, IHSAA gave to me, random draws determining advancement Several of you have made this point already. But here it is again. In regionals, we have 2 rounds of wrestling to determine seeding at semi-state. At semi-state, we have an additional 2 rounds of wrestling to determine seeding at state. However, the seeding from both regionals and semi-state is randomly drawn against the other 3 regionals or semi-states. That’s 4 total rounds of wrestling to determine seeding only to feed into a random draw. If your regionals and semi-states are not balanced, what is more important, your seed or your draw? Seeding definitely matters if you’re the first place finisher. But let’s say you didn’t win your regional. If you’re still one of the best four in your semi-state, your advancement may depend on a random draw. Here’s a scenario. Let’s give the wrestlers names to make it easier to follow. · Wrestler 1 – First name “State” Last name “Champ”. You guessed it, STATE CHAMP is the best wrestler in the state. · Wrestler 2 – First name “State” Last name “Placer”. STATE PLACER is a top 4 kid in the state. · Wrestler 3 – Frist name “Your” Last name “Son”. YOUR SON is easily top 8 in the state. All three wrestlers are in the same semi-state. If YOUR SON and STATE PLACER are in the same regional and STATE PLACER beats YOUR SON there, YOUR SON is a 2 seed coming into semi state. STATE CHAMP won a different regional so he is coming in as a 1 seed from that regional. The fact that YOUR SON was second in your regional and a high seed, may not matter. To advance, YOUR SON needs to NOT draw STATE CHAMP. YOUR SON has the same chance as the 3rd and 4th place finishers from his regional of NOT drawing STATE CHAMP even though he finished higher than them. The draw is more important than YOUR SON’s seed. In this example, the draw could determine YOUR SON’s ability to advance, and YOUR SON could go home early even though he’s better than others who advance. Isn’t that unfair to YOUR SON? I’ve seen scenarios like this play out at New Castle, top wrestlers not progressing to state because of their draw. We just had a post confirming it happens in Evansville as well. At state, to get on the podium, you need to win your first match. If you’re 2nd, 3rd, or 4th out of your semi-state, your seed may be important, but with imbalanced semi-states, your draw is potentially more important than your seed. We do a lot of wrestling for seeds that often don’t matter. We can solve/reduce this issue by better balancing sectionals and regionals or by instituting wrestling backs or by seeding the top seeds using additional criteria. Without this, we somewhat consistently send home higher caliber wrestlers due to a random draw. Does the wrestling community want a draw to be a significant factor in advancement and placement?

On the fifth day of Christmas, IHSAA gave to me, uneven semi-states Indiana wrestling has consistent imbalance at the semi-state level. Use the same criteria in the last post and same year as a case study. Percentage of advancers, 4 seeds beating 1 seeds, and concentration of large schools. CASE STUDY (using 2021 tournament results data) Semi State Advancing to Top 8 % East Chicago 28 25% Fort Wayne 20 18% Jasper 33 29% New Castle 31 28% Percentage of advancers supports that East Chicago his highly balanced and there’s imbalance between Evansville/Jasper, New Castle and Fort Wayne. Also, in 2021, 21.4% of 1 seeds from Fort Wayne (3 of 14) were defeated by a 4 seed from one of the other Semi States. Fort Wayne has a lot of good teams, especially a lot of good small school teams. But what it’s missing is the same or similar level of large schools that are present in the other semi-states. Here’s the numbers from 2021 using IHSWCA class criteria. 4A is Indiana’s largest 35 schools and 3A is Indiana’s next largest 61 teams. Semi State East Chicago Evansville Fort Wayne New Castle Teams 72 83 76 75 1A (smallest 1/3rd) 25 22 32 28 2A (middle 1/3rd) 23 30 26 23 3A (next 61 largest schools) 15 23 14 9 4A (largest 35 schools) 9 8 4 15 When it comes time for realignment, wouldn’t it make sense to attempt to shuffle some large schools to Fort Wayne semi-state? Maybe the Northeast corner of Indianapolis? Better balance could also be achieved by shifting more highly competitive teams to Fort Wayne. IHSAA did the opposite. Instead, they moved one of the top teams, Rochester, out of Fort Wayne to East Chicago. The IHSAA may say that regional and semi-state advancement metrics change from year to year. They do at some level, but tracking the data allows one to easily spot patterns. When there’s a consistent pattern, I believe it would make sense to attempt to address imbalance when there’s a state tournament realignment. Instead, the IHSAA appears to have ignored the data and made changes that go in the opposite direction. When you have among the lowest success rates in the country and you don’t allow wrestlebacks, it makes fair/balanced sectionals, regionals and semi-state even more important. BTW, I think classing wrestling creates balance. It wouldn’t be my first choice to send a bunch of large schools up to Fort Wayne so their small school programs experience what it’s like for small schools close to Indianapolis. But if the wrestling community is against classing, then it seems to make sense to spread out large schools more evenly. Members of the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association have been asking to better balance semi-state. Several proposals on this topic have been submitted. Ideas for better balance are not acted on by the IHSAA. Is that what the wrestling community wants? If you think a reasonable level of effort should be applied to balance sectionals, regionals and semi states when it’s time for realignment, click like.

On the fourth day of Christmas, IHSAA gave to me, unfair regionals In wrestling, Indiana has a high level of imbalance at several regionals. How do you identify unfairness/imbalance? Here’s three ways: 1. Percentage of advancers. Each semi-state is fed by four regionals. If your regionals are balanced, each regional would produce roughly 25% of advancers to state. However, if a single regional starts to consistently produce more than 40% of advancers, that’s a sign of significant imbalance/unfairness. 2. 4 seeds beating 1 seeds. If you have a regional who’s 1 seeds are consistently beaten by 4 seeds, it’s a sign of significant imbalance. If a 4 seed beats a 1 seed, that could mean there’s a 5th place guy who was eliminated who may have been able to beat ALL advancing wrestlers from a different regional. 3. Concentration of large schools. Large schools more consistently produce elite wrestlers. If a significant number of large schools are grouped together in early rounds, it is likely to produce imbalance. CASE STUDY (using 2021 tournament results data) New Castle Semi State Regionals (2021) Regionals in New Castle Advancing Wrestlers to state % Frankfort 12 21% Pendleton Heights 11 20% Perry 24 43% Richmond 9 16% 43% of advancers supports that Perry is loaded. Richmond produced only 16% of advancers and 21.4% of 1 seeds from Richmond (3 of 14) were defeated by a 4 seed from another Regional in 2021. When it comes time for realignment, wouldn’t it make sense to attempt to shuffle some highly competitive teams out of Perry and into Richmond and vice versa? IHSAA did the opposite. Instead they shifted four highly competitive teams from Pendleton Heights to Perry to load the Perry regional further. Evansville Semi State Regionals (2021) Regionals in Evansville Advancing Wrestlers to State % Bloomington South 13 23% Evansville North 12 21% Jeffersonville 7 13% Mooresville 24 43% 43% of advancers supports that Mooresville is loaded. Jeffersonville produced only 13% of advancers and 14.2% of 1 seeds from Jeffersonville (2 of 14) were defeated by a 4 seed from another Regional in 2021. When it comes time for realignment, wouldn’t it make sense to attempt to shuffle some highly competitive teams out of Mooresville and into Jeffersonville and vice versa? In this example, the IHSAA made a positive move. They moved Franklin Community to the Jeffersonville regional. This is a great move, but I would argue more teams should have been reshuffled. When you have among the lowest success rates in the country and you don’t allow wrestlebacks, it makes fair sectionals, regionals and semi-state even more important. Members of the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association have been asking to better balance regionals. Several proposals on this topic have been submitted. Ideas for better balance are consistently denied by IHSAA assistant commissioner Robert Faulkens. Is that what the wrestling community wants? If you think a reasonable level of effort should be applied to balance sectionals, regionals and semi states when its time for realignment, click like.

On the third day of Christmas, IHSAA gave to me, poor philosophy: “crowning a champion” is their only responsibility The IHSAA will make statements that their responsibility is to “crown a champion” or “identify the top 8 wrestlers in each weight class.” These statements are generally made when you’re questioning the fairness of an IHSAA practice. I believe statements like this represent poor philosophy. Is the champion or top 8 the only ones who matter? What about the responsibility to create a fair, positive environment for competition that allows our athletes to learn and grow as young men and women? What about the responsibility of fostering sportsmanship? Often times the word “fairness” comes up in conversations about sectional alignments. The IHSAA openly states that it makes no attempt to separate programs based on competition level in a sport. Is it good for the sport for top teams or athletes to eliminate each other early? Perfect fairness is impossible. However, does this mean the IHSAA should make zero attempt at improving fairness? Should they turn a blind eye to scenarios that are completely unfair? I believe this happens today in wrestling. I think of fairness as a scale. On one side is perfect fairness and the other side is complete unfairness. Perfect Fairness________________Middle__________________Complete Unfairness Realignment activities could easily make improvements to create a higher level of fairness, somewhere between the “middle” and “perfect fairness”. The IHSAA simply needs to try. The IHSAA preaches sportsmanship to our athletes. Ironic that abandoning fairness contradicts sportsmanship by definition. Sportsmanship definition: fair and generous behavior or treatment of others, especially in a sports contest. OR conduct such as fairness, respect for one’s opponent, and graciousness in winning and losing. So if the IHSAA doesn’t advocate for fairness, does that mean they’re not advocating for sportsmanship? Does the wrestling community believe in the pursuit of fairness, or do we think that crowning a champion is all that matters? If you agree fairness for all wrestlers should be a priority, click like.

On the second day of Christmas, IHSAA gave to me, no wrestle backs Indiana is one of the only states that doesn’t use double elimination format with full wrestlebacks in its state tournament. We have a total of 5 single elimination rounds in our state tournament series. We are a state, possibly the only state, that eliminates half of its state qualifiers in a single match. Here’s a comparison to other states: The Outlier State Population Wrestle Backs? Placement Indiana 6.8 million first round single elimination Remaining 8 wrestle for placement to 8th The Norm (8 state comparison) State Population Wrestle Backs? Placement Iowa 3.2 million full wrestle backs (no single elimination) Placement to 8th Pennsylvania 12.9 million full wrestle backs (no single elimination) Placement to 8th Illinois 12.5 million full wrestle backs (no single elimination) Placement to 6th Michigan 10 million full wrestle backs (no single elimination) Placement to 8th Ohio 11.7 million full wrestle backs (no single elimination) Placement to 8th Missouri 6.1 million full wrestle backs (no single elimination) Placement to 6th Nebraska 2 million full wrestle backs (no single elimination) Placement to 6th Tennessee 7 million full wrestle backs (no single elimination) Placement to 6th Part of wrestling is wrestlebacks. Wrestlebacks allow a wrestler to deal with the adversity and bounce back from losing a match. Colleges scouts want to see how wrestlers handle failure. Also, if they are scouting at state, they want to see their prospects wrestle more than one match. ISWA tournaments use wrestlebacks. NCAA tournaments use wrestlebacks. Other states use wrestlebacks. Not having wrestlebacks is changing a fundamental part of the sport. It’s like not allowing the forward pass in football (go back to 1905), not allowing 3 point shot in basketball (go back to 1966), not allowing a designated hitter in baseball (go back to 1972). When you have among the lowest success rates in the country, it makes using wrestlebacks even more important. Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association has been asking for wrestlebacks (especially at semi-state). This request is consistently denied by IHSAA assistant commissioner Robert Faulkens. Is that the right decision? If you agree Indiana should have wrestlebacks, click “Like”.

Tried that already. More to come on experiences with Mr. Faulkens in a future post.

I spoke to Jim Tonte. He confirmed he was not on the sectional realignment committee. I’ve also talked to a couple folks who were on the committee. What was described was that Robert Faulkens dismissed feedback from the committee and proceeded to execute the changes without their input. If there are any other committee members out there who feel this is incorrect, I'd be happy to hear from you. One sectional change I believe was a good one was moving Franklin Community out of Mooresville. Mooresville regional is ridiculously loaded. Moving a good team out is a step towards better balance. If anything, they needed to move more top teams out of there. ,

On the first day of Christmas, IHSAA gave to me, lowest success rates in the country. Indiana qualifies a significantly lower number of wrestlers to their state tournament annually when compared to other states. Here’s a comparison to 8 other nearby states: The Outlier State Population Annual State Qualifiers Classes Qualifiers per Class Indiana 6.8 million 224 1 16 The Norm (8 state comparison) State Population Annual State Qualifiers Classes Qualifiers per Class Iowa 3.2 million 1008 3 24 Pennsylvania 12.9 million 840 3 20 Illinois 12.5 million 672 3 16 Michigan 10 million 672 3 16 Ohio 11.7 million 672 3 16 Missouri 6.1 million 896 4 16 Nebraska 2 million 896 4 16 Tennessee 7 million 616 3 16 (12 in 1A) A big part of wrestling is setting and pursuing goals. The IHSAA does a great job at its state tournament of putting on a great show…the wrestling state finals is an amazing event. However, it is an event that very few Indiana wrestlers get to experience. Think of some of the positives that occur when a wrestler makes it to state: 1. The community gets excited about wrestling and their wrestlers 2. The school makes announcements about their accomplishments and hosts student pep rallies for wrestlers 3. T-shirts are made with the wrestlers name on it “road to state” 4. Coaches recognize the accomplishment by putting a wrestler’s name on wrestling room wall (list of qualifiers) 5. Young athletes see all of these activities and are inspired to want to be wrestlers (youth and middle school participation numbers get a boost) By qualifying so few to state makes these types of positive activities a rare occurrence for wrestlers and wrestling programs (except for powerhouse programs). Also, the IHSAA consistently eliminates amazing athletes at semi-state. We have college level wrestlers coming out of Indiana who never qualified for a high school state tournament. Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association has been asking to take more to state. This request is consistently denied by IHSAA assistant commissioner Robert Faulkens. Is that the right decision? Given we don’t have classes, should we only take 16 wrestlers per weight, which appears to be the minimum when compared to other states? If you agree Indiana should take more to state, click “Like”.

IHSAA Wrestling Grievances – The 12 Days of IHSAA Christmas This post is designed to be an opportunity for coaches, wrestlers, parents and wrestling fans to share grievances with IHSAA practices around high school wrestling. I have several grievances that I plan to roll out one at a time over the next 12 days. For fun, I’ll do it 12 days of Christmas style. I’m a wrestler, a parent of wrestlers and a high school varsity wrestling coach. I also coach elementary and middle school teams. I’ve coached in Indiana for 15 years and I’m in my 9th season as a head wrestling coach of a small high school in Indianapolis. I also coach off season teams for small school wrestlers and coordinate wrestling tournaments for Indiana’s small schools. I am frustrated with how the IHSAA administers wrestling. A recent poor sectional alignment decision that is completely void of equity is the tipping point for me. The goal of this post is to be a dialog with the wresting community. Are the IHSAA’s practices I bring up in these posts what is best for our kids and our sport? I don’t think so. I’d love to hear what the rest of the wrestling community thinks. Greg Hughes Wrestler, concerned parent and coach 317-753-7786 greg@continuumgames.com

I'm going to continue this post with a new post called "IHSAA Wrestling Grievances – The 12 Days of IHSAA Christmas". Check it out.

Here's an interview on the topic of sectional realignment in Indianapolis. Scroll forward to minute: 117:30.

My understanding is that some schools are starting a letter campaign from parents.

I believe reasonable equity is important. I think of it as a scale…one side is perfect equity, other side is complete unfairness. You’re right that we’ll never get perfect equity. It’s impossible. But we should be shooting for somewhere between the middle and perfect equity. That’s reasonable and achievable. Perfect Equity_______________Middle_________________Complete Unfairness Perry regional has always been tough…one of the toughest in the state. Loading it further like this just puts things on the complete unfairness end. IHSAA created another Mooresville regional. It’s not good for wrestling.

Where do you go for help when IHSAA won't listen and appears to answer to no one? The data in the post above was sent to the IHSAA by the coaches association. Letter was supported and crafted by coaches of all 19 teams in the impacted regional. The coaches association shared the letter and asked three specific questions and assistant commissioner Faulken's responses as reported by the coaches association were: Can the sectional be changed back? Answer: No Who made the changes to the sectionals? Answer: the sectional realignment committee How does it work/why were these changes made? Answer: the sectionals were updated based on participation rate I've talked to folks on the sectional realignment committee and what they described suggests the changes were made by assistant commissioner Faulkens. The data shows that the statement about participation rate is inaccurate.

Here's the data you're looking for. I came up with 74 in tech but did that by roster and not by bracket, so perhaps 2 of the 74 ended up forfeiting...not sure. The 2023-24 wrestling sectional realignment swapped 4 teams from the former Arsenal Tech sectional (Mount Vernon Fortville, North Central, Lawrence North and Lawrence Central) with 4 teams from the former Southport sectional (Indianapolis George Washington, Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter, Indianapolis Crispus Attickus, Providence Crystol Rey). In evaluating these changes, it appears they may have been made in error or without critical information. The participation rate is polar opposite among the group of schools moved to Arsenal Tech vs those moved to Southport. If we put last year’s teams into the new Arsenal Tech sectional, there are 74 total wrestlers in the sectionals. This creates a scenario where: · 4 weight classes would have 4 or less wrestlers. This means 16 of the 56 advancing wrestlers, 29%, would advance to regionals without having to wrestle a single match. · 1 of those 16 spots would be a forfeit that advances instead of a wrestler. · As many as 17 additional wrestlers, another 30%, only have to wrestle one match to advance. ~60% of wrestlers either don’t have to wrestle or only wrestle once to advance. · If a forfeit moves on to Regional, a wrestler will qualify to semi state without having to wrestle at regionals. Also, if there are weight classes with 4, there are no alternates should a wrestler drop out. If we do the same thing with the Southport sectional: · There are now 120 wrestlers in this section. Almost double Arsenal Tech. · 80 of the 112 (71%) regional qualifiers from last year’s two sectionals are now in Southport. 56 wrestlers advance to regionals, so 24 of 80 of last year’s regional qualifiers would be eliminated at the Southport sectional. 24 more skilled wrestlers would lose a week of their season and the experience/accomplishment of advancing to and competing at regionals. Regional and semi state implications look negative. · For example, if we look at last year’s 220 weight class at the New Castle Semi State, 6 out of 8 “blood round” wrestlers from last year would now be in the same regional. This means that 2 wrestlers who completed in the “blood round” (one round away from making it to state) would have been eliminated at the regional level. We checked drivetime and the change in these sectionals creates longer drivetime for schools overall, with significant greater milage for schools moved to the new Southport sectional without saving the schools moved to Arsenal Tech significant mileage. The four schools added to Southport will literally drive by Arsenal Tech on their way to Southport. Our coaches, wrestlers and parents are uniformly unhappy and frustrated by these changes as they can’t see how they are good for our student athletes or Indiana wrestling. APPENDIX New Arsenal Tech Participants Per Bracket using 2022/23 Participants Providence Cristo Rey* Indpls George * Washington Indpls * Crispus Attucks Indpls Cardinal Ritter * Brebeuf Jesuit Prep Indpls Arsenal Technical Indiana School for the Deaf Indiana School for the Blind Indpls Bishop Chatard Indpls Cathedral Total in Bracket 106 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 3 113 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 5 120 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 5 126 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 6 132 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 6 138 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 6 145 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 5 152 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 4 160 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 7 170 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 7 182 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 4 195 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 5 220 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 7 285 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 4 Total Wrestlers 9 5 1 0 10 11 10 0 14 14 74 Bracket Size Notes · 4 wrestlers in each bracket advance to regionals. · 106 is a 3 man bracket – all wrestlers advance to regionals without having to wrestling a match and 1 forfeit advances. There are two total matches at sectionals in a 3 man bracket. · 152, 182 and 285 are all four man brackets – all wrestlers advance (even if they don’t wrestle). There are four total matches per bracket at sectionals in a 4 man bracket · 113, 120, 145 and 195 are 5 man brackets – The winner of the match between the 2 and 3 seed advances with only one match. Assuming the 1 seed beats the winner of the two lowest seeded wrestlers, that wrestler also advances with only 1 match. There are six total matches per bracket in a 5 man sectional bracket. · 126, 132 and 138 are 6 man brackets – If the top two seeded wrestlers win their first match against lower seeded wrestlers, they also advance with only 1 match. 2022-23 Teams Placed in the New Sectionals – Net Change Result of the Change Participant Change Total Participants Regional Qualifier Change Total Regional Qualifiers Semi State Change New Southport +37 120 +28 80 +12 New Arsenal Tech -37 74 +4 32 +1 Delta 46 24 48 11 2022-23 Teams Participants, Regional and Semi State Qualifiers New Southport Sectional 2022-23 Participants 2022-23 Regional Qualifiers 2022-23 Semi State Qualifiers Beech Grove 14 8 2 Perry Meridian 14 14 9 Roncalli 14 14 8 Southport 14 12 3 Christel House 9 3 0 Victory College Prep 3 1 0 Lawrence Central* 13 3 1 Lawrence North* 12 8 3 Mt Vernon (Fortville) * 13 8 7 North Central* 14 9 1 Total 120 80 34 New Arsenal Tech Sectional 2022-23 Participants 2022-23 Regional Qualifiers 2022-23 Semi State Qualifiers Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory 10 3 1 Indpls Arsenal Technical 11 3 1 Indiana School for the Deaf 10 1 0 Indiana School for the Blind 0 0 0 Indpls Bishop Chatard 14 8 5 Indpls Cathedral 14 13 12 Indpls Cardinal Ritter* 0 0 0 Indpls Crispus Attucks* 1 0 0 Indpls George Washington* 5 1 0 Providence Cristo Rey* 9 3 1 Total 74 32 20 * Team newly added to the sectional

Last post shows what looks like a contradiction in policy. Below is the data that shows how ridiculous the change is. They put this many highly competitive teams all together early. IHSAA says they don't consider competition level. THEY SHOULD! We don’t expect sectionals to be perfectly fair, but WE DO EXPECT THEY NOT BE PERFECTLY UNFAIR. Regional view gets even worse. Why is IHSAA doing this to our wrestlers? New Southport Sectional 2022-23 Semi State Qualifiers Beech Grove 2 Perry Meridian 9 Roncalli 8 Southport 3 Christel House 0 Victory College Prep 0 Lawrence Central 1 Lawrence North 3 Mt Vernon (Fortville) 7 North Central 1 Total 34 New Arsenal Tech Sectional 2022-23 Semi State Qualifiers Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory 1 Indpls Arsenal Technical 1 Indiana School for the Deaf 0 Indiana School for the Blind 0 Indpls Bishop Chatard 5 Indpls Cathedral 12 Indpls Cardinal Ritter 0 Indpls Crispus Attucks 0 Indpls George Washington 0 Providence Cristo Rey 1 Total 20

IHSAA says sectional alignment is based on participation rate. This change creates the following divide using last year's teams.

Thanks for letting me know you were on the committee and providing information that the sectionals are aligned based on participation rate. Did you vote on and approve the changes made between Arsenal Tech and Southport. This change was not based on participation rate. Take a look at this information: If we put last year’s teams into the new Arsenal Tech sectional, there are 74 total wrestlers in the sectionals. This creates a scenario where: · 4 weight classes would have 4 or less wrestlers. This means 16 of the 56 advancing wrestlers, 29%, would advance to regionals without having to wrestle a single match. · 1 of those 16 spots would be a forfeit that advances instead of a wrestler. · As many as 17 additional wrestlers, another 30%, only have to wrestle one match to advance. ~60% of wrestlers either don’t have to wrestle or only wrestle once to advance. · If a forfeit moves on to Regional, a wrestler will qualify to semi state without having to wrestle at regionals. Also, if there are weight classes with 4, there are no alternates should a wrestler drop out. If we do the same thing with the Southport sectional: · There are now 120 wrestlers in this section. Almost double Arsenal Tech. · 80 of the 112 (71%) regional qualifiers from last year’s two sectionals are now in Southport. 56 wrestlers advance to regionals, so 24 of 80 of last year’s regional qualifiers would be eliminated at the Southport sectional. 24 more skilled wrestlers would lose a week of their season and the experience/accomplishment of advancing to and competing at regionals. Regional and semi state implications look negative. · For example, if we look at last year’s 220 weight class at the New Castle Semi State, 6 out of 8 “blood round” wrestlers from last year would now be in the same regional. This means that 2 wrestlers who completed in the “blood round” (one round away from making it to state) would have been eliminated at the regional level. I checked drivetime and the change in these sectionals creates longer drivetime for schools overall, with significant greater mileage for schools moved to the new Southport sectional without saving the schools moved to Arsenal Tech significant mileage. The four schools added to Southport will literally drive by Arsenal Tech on their way to Southport. Any idea what happened? Did the committee approve this change?

Does anyone know who specifically was on the State Tournament realignment committee? I'm sure Mr. Faulkens but not sure who else. Given Franklin Community was moved out of Mooresville, maybe Jim Tonte was on the committee too? Not sure if coaches are on the committee. If anyone knows specifically, thanks for responding. Many of the changes don't make sense to me. But this post is going to focus on one. Here's facts regarding changes to Southport and Arsenal Tech sectionals: The latest sectional alignment swapped 4 teams from the former Arsenal Tech sectional with 4 teams from the former Southport sectional. Here's what participation rates look like pre and post: I looked at participation (defined as total wrestlers competing at sectional) from last season and noticed that the four schools moved from Southport to Arsenal Tech all have a low participation rate and the schools moved from Arsenal Tech to Southport all have high participation rate. There was previously a divide in participation rates between the two sectionals. However, the changes to the sectionals create a much more significant divide than what existed before. Sectional Participants 2023 Teams in Old Southport Sectional 83 Teams in Old Arsenal Tech Sectional 110 Participant Divide 27 Teams in New Southport Sectional 120 Teams in New Arsenal Tech Sectional 73 Participant Divide 47 Low participation results in forfeited matches and wrestlers advancing due to forfeits and not competition. If last year’s wrestlers competed in the new Arsenal Tech sectional, there would have been only 17 total matches to determine advancement to regionals. With only 73 total participants in this new sectional and 56 advancing, that means that as many as 39 wrestlers (70% of advancing participants) will qualify for regionals without wrestling a single match. Also, in the new format, some weight classes would advance forfeits to regionals from Arsenal Tech. For example, last year’s wrestlers now in the Arsenal Tech sectional would advance forfeits in both the 106 and 285 weight classes. Forfeits advance to regionals instead of wrestlers! This means two wrestlers qualify for semi state without having to wrestle a match at regionals! Will better wrestlers advance? I looked at the regional qualifiers from each of these sectionals last year and put them in the new sectionals. The change in sectionals would mean that 80 of the 112 total qualifiers (71%) would now be grouped together in the same sectional. Regional Qualifiers 2023 Teams in New Southport Sectional 80 Teams in New Arsenal Tech Sectional 32 Qualifier Divide 48 With 56 wrestlers advancing from each sectional, this means that the new format would eliminate 24 of 80 of last year’s regional qualifiers at the sectional level because they are now all in the same sectional at Southport. These 24 more skilled wrestlers would be eliminated early, thereby losing a week of their season and the experience/accomplishment of advancing to and competing at regionals. What is the impact to drive time? The change in these sectionals creates longer drive time for schools overall, and significant greater mileage for schools moved to the new Southport sectional. According to GPS, the new proposal requires Lawrence North, Lawrence Central, North Central and Mount Vernon to collectively drive an additional 42 miles to attend sectionals. The schools moved into Arsenal Tech sectional save only 23 miles in drive time. Are there Regional and Semi State Implications? There are additional impacts at the regional level and Semi State level. For example, if we look at last year’s 220 weight class at the New Castle Semi State, 6 out of 8 “blood round” wrestlers from last year would now be in the same regional. This means that 2 wrestlers who completed in the “blood round” (one round away from making it to state) would have been eliminated at the regional level. We are dangerously close to eliminating state caliber wrestlers at the regional level with this sectional realignment. 106 is another weight class where you will see a similar dynamic. I think the current committee is making mistakes and not using data that's available. I also think they're not listening to feedback from coaches who have good ideas. No system is ever perfect, but there are parts of this realignment that don't make sense...at least not that I can see. Would love to hear from the committee why they would change Southport and Arsenal Tech the way they did. Coach Hughes 317-753-7786

Thanks for mentioning the 1A/2A Individual Wrestling State Championship that is hosted at Southmont. We had our second “small school” state tournament this year. The tournament is currently a post season invitational to wrestlers who attend 1A and 2A schools (per IHSWCA criteria used for the dual team state tournament). This means it is open to wrestlers from roughly 200 of Indiana’s 300 schools that offer wrestling. The 1A/2A cut off is enrollment of ~1000 and below. The tournament grew by 26% over last year. We had wrestlers attend from roughly 60 schools. We added a girls division this year. The tournament is competitive tournament. We have anywhere from 5-10 semi-state qualifiers in each bracket. We had 7 IHSAA state qualifiers from small schools attend. 4 of them won their bracket, 2 placed 3rd and 1 placed 5th. The goal of the tournament is to help small school wrestling programs grow and be successful. The concept is simple…have a tournament that’s more FUN for small school wrestlers. It’s FUN to compete on a level playing field. It’s FUN to have a better chance at achieving recognition for the work they put into wrestling. It’s FUN to wrestle against small schools from other parts of the state that we don’t normally see. For me as a coach, it is FUN to have success to take home to our school and community. When I had an IHSAA state champ a few years ago, wrestling was all the buzz at our school and my youth program tripled in size. That was FUN…I like the idea of that being something that happens more often than once in my career. It is uncommon for a state to not to offer a state wrestling tournament to its small school wrestlers. I understand Indiana is one of only three states that doesn’t. We’ve had our second tournament now and I believe it has been a big positive. I appreciate the debate on class wrestling. If you’re against classing, consider this. If there’s one thing I think everyone would agree on it is that the wrestling academies in Indiana are a highly effective way for wrestlers to get better. The concept of the academy is to put a bunch of hammers in the same room and let them go at it…and they get better from it. When I wrestled in high school in Illinois, I went to a large school and that’s what we had…a room full of state champs, placers and qualifiers. I had good coaches, but the opportunity to bang away against guys at that level everyday was a HUGE part of what made me a good wrestler. Large schools have the numbers to more consistently create this type of environment (academy level training within their own programs during the regular season). Its certainly not automatic for large school, but then compare that to a small school like mine (enrollment 225), it’s damn near impossible to create that environment. That’s the reason I believe wrestling should be classed. I don’t care how hard I work as a coach, large schools will always have a huge advantage because of the training environments they can create. And then there’s the drawback of not classing…mainly loss of participation at small schools. My greatest challenge has been keeping newer wrestlers engaged in the sport. My new guys consistently wash out after they see our sectional which is stacked full of large schools and top programs. They don’t stick with wrestling when they come to the conclusion they have no chance of having success. And when the new guys wash out, then my more committed guys don’t have anyone to train with. They then fall short of their potential, vicious cycle. I’m an advocate of classing wrestling because of the reasons and experiences noted above. But no matter what side of the fence you’re on, if you’re a coach of a small school, I hope you bring your guys to a future 1A/2A state wrestling tournament. I take the results of the tournament home to our community with the same level of importance and recognition as the IHSAA tournament. Most people in our community know next to nothing about wrestling. They don't even know its not classed. The news of success at 1A/2A state is big for our guys. Next year, I have more incoming freshman wrestlers than ever before. I think the tournament is helping us grow. But if nothing else, the experience of 1A/2A state is FUN! If you would like more information about the 1A/2A state wrestling tournament, please contact me at greg@continuumgames.com or 317-753-7786. Coach Hughes Lutheran Wrestling

Thanks everyone for your posts on 1A/2A individual state. I wanted to thank Ryan Williams, Jamie Welliever and Juan Grino for their support. Ryan Williams came up with those amazing plaques for the guys and brackets for the champs and brought his expertise, gear and crew. Thanks Jamie and Juan for hosting and providing a great facility, expertise, crew and putting together amazing tourney shirts. Also special thanks to all the people at Beech Grove, Southmont and Lutheran who helped run tables, hand wrote out each bracket, and did all the work that makes a tournament of that scale work. Thanks to my dad who drove all the way up from Tennessee to see this thing and worked a table the entire day. You guys are awesome. Also thanks to all the small school coaches who encouraged their kids to come out and wrestle. Without the support of all these people working together for our wrestlers, that day wouldn’t have happened. No matter what your feelings are on class wrestling, the tournament was a great day for small school wrestlers. Seeing wrestlers from Tipton, Beech Grove, Cloverdale and so many other small programs have wrestlers at the top of the podium and win some recognition, fantastic positives! I have all these great podium pics. What you see in these guy’s faces is that they had FUN! If the wrestlers walked away loving wrestling a little more, then we were successful. We used the definition of 1A/2A that the IHSWCA uses for the dual team state. The tournament was open to over 200 of Indiana’s 300 wrestling programs. Our promotion of it consisted of two email blasts to the head coaches of those 200 schools and I told every small school we wrestled this year about it. Year 1, we had wrestlers from 45 programs/clubs. The competition level was high and that likely surprised a lot of coaches and wrestlers. Based on the feedback I received so far, I expect this tournament will grow. I think wrestlers came for a lot of reasons. For some, it was just an off-season tournament and opportunity to get some mat time. For others, it was another chance, another shot at achieving goals. A lot of wrestlers who made the podium were guys who lost in regional or semi-state rounds to wrestlers from large schools. We had several IHSAA state qualifiers there as well. I know the wrestlers from Lutheran were pumped about it. I had more wrestlers from my program participate in 1A/2A state than participate in our sectional…and I’m not talking JV guys. We don’t have JV guys at Lutheran. The goal of the tournament was to give small school wrestlers an opportunity to compete on a level playing field, gain some credentials that may help them at the next level, and help grow wrestling in Indiana. There’s a huge growth opportunity for wrestling in Indiana at the small schools. My personal motivation was to help keep Lutheran’s wrestling program going. I’m wanting to “end” the season with an experience that’s much more fun for our wrestlers than the IHSAA state tournament series. Our sectional is generally a demoralizing experience. We face 5 huge schools...then add 3 more at regionals. They have an unfair advantage over us (if you don’t agree that large schools have an advantage, please challenge me on this post). Getting tanned by big school programs makes my wrestlers think they’re not good, and that our program isn't good, and a lot of our wrestlers wash out and focus on other sports where they are having success…classed sports like football. And I’m left trying to pick up the pieces each year; set back again and again in my efforts to build a quality room with training partners. At Lutheran, we need something better than that. I know I’m not alone. The plan is to keep offering 1A/2A state as a post season tournament. Those from small schools who see the value in it can come out and wrestle. Hopefully it will help small school wrestling programs grow and thrive. I’ll keep you posted if it has that effect at Lutheran. Hopefully one day the IHSAA and IHSWCA will see the value in it and get behind it. Thanks again to all who supported it! Greg Hughes Lutheran Wrestling

I haven't been on the forums in a while so I am catching up. Lot of good ideas shared here. My understanding is the sectional realignment discussions already occurred. I also heard that no significant changes were being made...that changes were delayed and would be considered next year. Can anyone confirm if that is true?