1oldwrestler

what time does this start? Do they go with 103, 112, 119 etc or is it like a super dual format wheere they can start at any weight?

Fair enough. Like I said, I don't care one way or the other.

I don't know any of the players on either site personally but if this site wanted to extend a true olive branch to the guys at IHSWCA I believe you'd have to give a few of the key players over there some decision making power on the content and management of this site. I think the management guys on this site have to ask themselves if this site would have been as successful without the old site cutting the path that it did. Again, I don't have a dog in this discussion, I'm merely an unbiased observer but I do know what works in business.

Personally I believe wrestling is interesting enough as is. I don't think rule changes to the scoring system are going to make people want to come out and watch it. I believe that the way to increase participation is to first, create good clubs that will feed directly into high schools (I know most h.s.'s are either doing this successfully or they are trying to, at the very least). The next thing that has to happen is that head football coaches and A.D.'s have to promote it to their athletes. My son attends a big h.s. and, tho the football team is fairly average, the kids are so committed to the program that when the season ends, they go directly into off season conditioning. We lost one very promising sophomore because he was afraid that, if he wrestled, he wouldn't be able to put on enough weight for the following football season. In my experience, football coaches pay lip service to the benefits of joining the wrestling team but they actually prefer to have their kids in the off season weight conditioning programs immediatley after the season ends. If a position paper could be developed that would show kids are actually better football players when they wrestle during the off season, I believe that would go a long way to increasing participation. The sport needs more athletes. If the BMOC's join the team, then crowds will follow. I also think that, for the last 15 years or so, most kids join one sport and concentrate on it solely. That is also a major hurdle to overcome.

I have never really understood the argument that by keeping a weight class that has 30% forfeits it's really bad for wrestling in this state or any other. Why will the ills of H.S. wrestling start to be cured by eliminating 103? Now I agree that people would rather see action than a fft but I have never been in the stands of a wrestling meet and seen anyone storm out of the gym in disgust after a 3 lbr gets his hand raised for a fft. Never overheard a high school kid say "man, what a great sport, I'd go out for it if it weren't for those dang 103 pounders getting ffts AND varsity letters. Darn my luck, I weigh 140 pounds as a freshman but I'm just gonna be so mad that the freshman runt they pulled out of the hall to wrestle 103 will letter and I won't. I'll show that wrestling coach, I won't go out and it's all the 103 pounders fault." The reason the sport suffers in participation is because it's difficult. Flat out. End of story. Rarely does a wrestling match draw as many fans as a basketball game. Never been to a Mater Dei or Mishawaka match so maybe it happens at those locations but does it happen consistently or just during big rivalry matches? We live in an attention seeking age. The kids that wrestle are unique. Most thrive on the fact that they participate in a sport few of their fellow students know anything about. They pride themselves that, unlike the b-ball player, they toil in anonimity and are still excellent at their craft and are able to be so without the adulation of big crowds. It's an attitude of "nobody cares about my sport but I'm going to be so good at it that I'm going to force the school newspaper to recognize me and my team. I'm going to force an announcement before school about my accomplishments at a post season tournament over the weekend." I wrestled in Illinois in the early 80's and I don't think much has changed about the attitudes towards wrestling since then. How do other individual sports (swimming comes mostly to mind) make it? I know nothing about that sport but maybe someone could enlighten us as to how things work. I would imagine, like wrestling, the fans in the stands are mostly relatives of the swimmers. Does every school at every meet have a participant for every event? If not, is there a belief that that is hurting the sport? How do H.S. swim teams build their teams? I know enough that the swim clubs in the FW area are machines so the feeder system is in place, that's for sure. If replies to this e-mail come back and say say the biggest difference between swimming and wrestling is that it's difficult for a freshman to be varsity on a swim team, I don't buy it. There's more to the problems of wrestling participation than that. I'll end by saying that if raising the weight to 105 or 108 will take away a noticable % of ffts, then go for it but I think the there are other greater threats to the survival of H.S. wrestling than the 103 pound weight class.

Any results from this tourney