randalllynch

Will the brackets completed brackets be posted on Track?

I believe Sliga beat Stein at freestyle state when he went up to Juniors.  Granted it was freestyle where anything can happen, but it does show how he can stand up to the top tier in another weight class.

Having retired from the military with children I can tell you there is a huge difference between moving for sports and the military life style.  There is a HUGE family support system of help with the effects of moves on children.  To move a family on a military move the you stay in that location for 3 years (normally), military familys do not move every year. 

I have a son in the 8th grade, wrestling schoolboy, and he has wrestled first and second year cadets when the tournament is based on school grades.  If you really believe it doesn't matter then you are not looking very close.  A boy who has not gone through puberty yet is at a very distinct and obvious advantage compared to one who has not.  Also, someone mentioned kids needing twrestle high school kids because junior high kids are no longer a challenge, that is because they should be in high school.  My brother and I both coach youth football, and the problem is even more rampant there.

Just my opinion, but part of the problem is who gets punished.  If you want teeth in the enforcement the wrestler would need to be ineligible for not staying within the guidelines.  I was one of those guys who played my weight like a yoyo (definately the wrong thing to do) and my coach never once told me to put weight on then take it off and would be willing to bet no coach does that now.  The weight management program is meant to protect kids (and from when I wrestled I see a very large improvement in the weight loss process), but realistically wrestlers and parents have more control over compliance thn the coaches do.  Yet the coaches are in a no win situation, they can get penalized by the IHSAA in the state tournament for letting a kid wrestle who vialate the 1.5% per week, or have the wrath of parents and fans come down on them for holding a kid out.

Does anyone know if a wrestler has ever been made ineligible for the state tourney for not staying within the guidelines of the weight management program?  The IHSAA bulletins mention schools being reprimanded for it on more than one occasion.

Rule 5 concerning weight loss is the applicable guidance for week to week weight loss

A coach may enter his wrestler in the IHSAA tournament series in any weight class that

wrestler may be eligible for provided that wrestler has adhered to their individual weight

management program that states a wrestler may never lose more than 1 ? % of their body

weight per week.

The wear and tear of weight loss over time can be as difficult and starving yourself, maybe even more so since it takes so much discipline over a long period of time.  Just look at society as a whole, how many people do you see (outside of a wresting tourney) who are at 7% body fat?  I came back into the sport in the last few years and I am hugely impressed with the physical abilities and strength of the majority of kids now.  When I wrestled in high school (78-81) there might be 2 or 3 guys in an area who looked like body builders, now there are 5 to 7 at any given match.  These kids work their tails off in the weight room, summer clubs, and with their diets (lets be real weight loss and weight management is the same thing, your not eating the same things as someone not wrestling) so it will always be difficult and at some point a kid may just start thinking it just isn't worth it anymore.

McDonalds fries are awfully tempting!

Question came up at a Chertow camp - his reply was preasure to drop weight

Kennedy is a really thick 103 and will not get out muscled by anyone at 103

It could be made a qualifying event; take returnees from Conseco, ISWA state winners, or national event placers, this way you would also get the new freshman accounted for  especially in the lower weight classes.

That way it would not limit the entries, but still keep a high level of competition.

As a parent and coach I think this could be an event with the potential to increase overall participation numbers.  Kids want to be recognized, other kids want to achieve what someone in their school has already accomplished (or be the first), and every kid wants to be invited to the "All Star Team". 

Since many excellent wrestlers know they will never win the state title (due to the simple fact their are some super studs in their weight class) I think it has the potential to  help keep those kids who are losing interest in their Junior/Senior years in high school by knowing they could be invited to a "State All-Star" event.  A recommendation would be to coordinate the event with another event such as the Indianamat.com preseason (it would be the "All-Star" division) or coordinate with ISWA to have a joint venture to keep the cost down.