randalllynch

Should the system work to the determine the best 14 on a given tournament, or to test the skils of as many individuals as possible. I saw kids this year celebrate excessively when they qualified to regional in 4th place and those kids looked much happier than the kids on the podium at Indy. Their accomplishment to them will be the highlight of their athletic career, the "best of the best" argument only rings true to a VERY small minority of kids in the tournament or even in Indiana.

I am a little curious where the thought of everyone having an equal chance of winning a state title came from. My son was at a large school, but was at 152 this year, tough Evansville semi-state (3 state placers) and Forte among others if he got through Evansville. We had 6 quarter-finalist and a state qualifier on the team, trained hard, kept his body fat down all year, wrestled 13 top 10 ten opponents this year, he had everything in his favor to perform well this year but lost to Dunn who placed 4th in the go round (they had a tremendous match just before sectional). He had an equal opportunity, but we knew it was an uphill battle and he had to be on the top of his game. He went the weight that he was best at and best for the team as well, but we were under no delusion that he didn't need some breaks to get to the podium and a lot of good luck to get to the highest steps. But he trained hard for 4 years to take advantage of every opportunity he got, no regrets, it just didn't happen for him. Not a defeatist attitude or lack of confidence, but a reality the same as life, sometime life is hard and that is the thing about this sport, it molds young men to be more prepared for life. I do believe that classing the individual tournament will get more kids out, most kids want an opportunity to win, and by having more classes we could provide more opportunities.

These numbers are pretty revealing. If a classed tournament is what the majority want perhaps the IHSWCA discussion with the IHSAA should be tied to the team and not the individual. If the average is roughly 9.9 wrestlers in the tournament for a 1A team and 13.6 for the 3A schools, the 3A school has a huge advantage for winning a sectional title. Taking for granted the talent is evenly dispersed as many on this discussion line believe.

I thought I saw the stats on # of schools with wrestling per state but I am not sure. But if a comparison with other states states is made it should be participating schools not population, the population would identify the number of possible participants in each school that would then dictate the class divisions, not the other way around. So if the logic of population size is proposed as the reason Illinois is classed (and if the presumption that all kids and programs are equal) then Illinois would need 900+ schools to have 3 classes to have an equatable distribution of talent in their tournaments to be equal to Indiana. Found some info: Illinois 2015 Series:Total 441: Class 1A @!152; Class 2A @ 144; Class 3A @ 145 http://www.ihsa.org/documents/wr/2014-15/wr-qf.pdf

A lot of the questions about how well they do against opponents they don't meet in the tournament get answered at the ISWA/USA tournaments. Some of the great matches I have seen at ISWA are Lahue/Hughs and James/Cash or even James/Red durinng the summer jump out to me for starters. If wrestlers want to know they will find a way to measure themselves against the others. Does it have to be in the IHSAA tournament?

Gotcha, we have some guys interested in making the trek up, so I wanted to give them the right advice. Congrats on the year too! Randy

Does an RWO get the same acceptance as the RTC's from the IHSAA? You mention open mats, and it is my understanding there are limitations on high school wrestlers on attending those.

Jennings County has been strong for several years.

Once the Booing starts it is gets really confusing who it is directed at. I once officiated a HWT match at our conference duals (Triple B was a coach for one side) and I am quite sure that I got it, both sets of coaches got it, the 2nd official got it, one of the wrestlers got it, and Triple B's guy was probably the only one who didn't but by the end I am quite sure he felt like he got it.

Seniors?

TripleB knows about having a kid BBBBOOOOOOOODDDDDDDD out of a gym. Worst situation I ever saw, and really felt bad for his coaching staff then. But it is pretty funny now.

The blood time boos may have been generated by the wrestlers going to the official and showing they were bleeding. Crowd may have mis-understood and thought it was a "request" for blood time.

what is the twitter account and I will post it, I dont see it on the IHSWCA twitter

New Albany has 1 and 2/3 mat space, bench area, and a small office, This year we had 35 - 38 kids.

Nah, constant themes cutting weight, moves guys used to beat us, and always how tough our practices were. Everyone beat someone to get to regional, semi state, and state; only 14 end their career with a win. Respect for doing what we all had to do to compete has made the accolades less important and fellowship strong. Do what ever we need to do to get more kids involved and 35 years after it is all over they will still be thanking and remembering their coaches!

Nope, semi state, and conversations always went straight to story telling next. Most of us don't go D1 or even wrestle in college, even fewer go into coaching or make a career from the sport. So what we have is the brotherhood of wrestlers, it molds our thinking and approach to life, that is the end result for most of us. How far we got in the tourney, classed or unclassed, is the introduction and I have appreciated and enjoyed every story after. Meet someone from Ohio who went to state at the NCO club in Japan, you won't care to ask if it was classed, I didn't, I just appreciated talking wrestling.

I have traveled around the US and the world, our brotherhood always finds each other and two questions come up what weight did you wrestle and did you make it to state. Never was asked if Indiana was classed or not, and no one ever comented that state appearance doesn't count because it has 3 classes. I have traveled around the US and the world, our brotherhood always finds each other and two questions come up what weight did you wrestle and did you make it to state. Never was asked if Indiana was classed or not, and no one ever comented that state appearance doesn't count because it has 3 classes.

Some symmetry there Quinn and Tre getting interested in the sport all those years ago and meeting in a gym on a November day and ending their careers same day, same round. Good luck in both your futures! Randy and Tre Gingers from New Albany

I agree with you, not defending, but I know the reason why these things are happening. Recruit your kids graduating to get their licenses, increase the numbers available, hire these new officials for local events and the quality will improve.

I am not defending the officiating this year, but I accept it, because kids I coach (to include my son) had the opportunity to wrestle this year! I originally only officiated in emergencies or so events would not get cancelled and I got a lot of calls. I did this for three years and the number of matches I worked kept growing. I did not officiate this year for several reasons, but mostly to be with my son for his senior year, I let people know last year I would most likely not be available and I still got a lot of calls and requests to work events. I did not renew my license this year just so I would not accept matches out of guilt for kids not being able to wrestle or having events last all day since only 2 mats were used instead of 3. All this attention was not because I was good but because the schools couldn't find any officials for their events. If there are not enough officials with our current group of Great/Good/Indifferent/Inexperienced/Bad officials how can we place additional limitations or regulations on who deserves to do what events? There were 12 officials at Evansville (guessing the other 3 were the same), and as always some officials will be better than others, but how do we know these are not the best 48 available? You may think that is a sad state of affairs, but unless we as community start growing the pool of officials this could be the standards our matches will see for a long time. There also should be some perspective added to the view of who is qualified. At some point in time each official will have the first sectional, regional, semi-state, or state when would our community like that to happen? Two, three, five, ten years experience what if there are not 48 officials with 10 years experience, would you prefer to cancel a semi-state or use what we have? A question I would pose to people is would you cancel a wrestling event before you would use a less experienced official or one you know to be lacking skills? Why do you think the same officials are scheduled for your local events each year? Ask yourself these questions at the beginning of the season when excitement is high and kids are ready to go, not when the season is over. Someone already said they disagree with the argument that they should put a striped shirt on and grab a whistle, well if not you then who? And yes it looks like I will get my license again next year, but I am not looking for any events. : )

we saw him at Golden Corral after, he had it immobilized but he was walking

5 March is a Thursday