There was a lot of discussion about the process of the selection of our duals' teams and everyone agreed that there isn't a prefect way to select the teams. There is unlimited scenarios that we can make up where something isn't 'fair'. Is a chance that a triple crown winner gets beat in a wrestle-off 2 out of 3? Yes that is a chance, but I'm not sure statistically how often that will/could happen. What about the year Andrew Howe, Cooper Samuels, Kyle Ulrey showed up at Junior State in the same weight. Should only one of them be allowed on our duals team? What about Tsirtsis and Wright? They finished 1st and 3rd in the country, but because they were the same weight we could only take one on our duals teams? That was the case those years. I think the scenario of outstanding individuals in the same weight will happen more than a triple crown winner losing a wrestle off 2 of 3.
I think in 2007 that IN had more Cadet/Junior National All-Americans than they've ever had in one year. We have had one dual team make the championship pool of national duals (schoolboy, cadet, or junior) since 2006 and it was Greco Roman Cadet Nationals and they got 8th...or last in the championship pool. We thought something needed to change.
The discussion I brought up at a board meeting was similar to what Joe just said. Does Indiana want to use the fairest way to make a team, or use a way to make the most competitive team.
The fairest way to make the team would be to have ISWA State determine the team. Once a kid weighed in for state, he couldn't change to make the duals team. Imagine if high schools had to pick their lineup that way.. There's not an high school coach around that would say to a kid, "you lost your wrestle off at 119, so can't wrestle varsity even though you might be able to beat the 112 or 125."
If we wanted to make the most competitive team then I think we should form a comittee to pick a team. That's how the teams that have the most success do it. I know that for schoolboy duals that Minnesota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin hand pick their own team. I asked the MN coach at Flonationals about their duals selection and he said that they didn't want their kids getting down to weight that early before the duals tourney. (I also understand that there are a lot of other factors besides dual selection that makes PA, MN, an OK better duals teams than ours.)
We think the IWSA tried to come up with a way that is somewhere in the middle. The ISWA State tourney gives you the ultimate leg up to make the duals team (he must be beat 2 out of 3 to lose his spot) and camp gives IN a chance to move guys around to give us an opportunity to compete with the best.
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