randalllynch

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.  
 
 

Unless WC has a valid explanation, they shouldn’t be eligible for Team State next year. Others have mentioned this but this is the type of shenanigans that the IHSAA used to justify eliminating the team portion of the post season. Fortunately the IHSWCA can hold schools accountable for this type of tomfoolery.  

This is one reason we lost Team State from IHSAA to begin with. Hope there is a good reason other than coaches not wanting their wrestlers to face possible tournament opponents.

Yeah makes absolutely no sense on why Floyd and new Albany aren’t in that sectional. 

The best part is that Corydon, North Harrison, and Crawford County drive past Floyd Central and New Albany to get to Jeffersonville, while Floyd and New Albany drive through Corydon to get to Southridge.  
 
 

Am I the only one that feels like it’s weird New Albany area goes to Bloomington when Jeffersonville hosts a regional?  Or am I just not seeing this right? 

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.

113 Tom Nguyen (New Albany) Dec #1 (106) Henry Koller (south Oldham, KY)  7-1

As a lover of wrestling history especially within our state, I must ask how can we do better with our coaches' association website? The vast majority of the website are old outdated google docs and picture less profiles with no bio of our Hall of Fame members. We can do better than this to promote ourselves. Can our officers bring this up anytime soon???

Obviously Y2 has the official word but it’s almost always came out the last week of Oct. or the very start of Nov.  

If you search on YouTube by name it may come up, there are a considerable amount of old matches out there.

New Albany and Floyd Central are still going to Southridge

New Albany and Floyd Central are still going to Southridge

We will have the Golden Corral ready. Lol. 

This illustrates why I don't like the 3 pt takedown idea. It would only take 4 TD's/Releases for a wrestler to mount a MD lead.

I have enjoyed all I my interactions across the mat, walking down the hall, and especially the seeding meetings.  Larry will always be remembered and talked about with a smile for years to come!  
 
Thanks for the great memories.
 
Randy

September 9-10 at the War Memorial Coliseum
 
Likely same or similar schedule to last year.

I probably missed the announcement, but what is the date/place this year?  Getting our pre-season stuff lined out.

Sectional and Regional realignments are reviewed and changed every two or three years is my understanding, and was told that it is done to balance the strength of the regionals. 
 
That drive for sectional and regional is not a moral builder.

It truly is sad. Not only is it turning down overall participation, it is turning what used to be a fun, fond memory of childhood into a job. Or maybe something obscure that you did as a child. We didn't even get fully exposed to organized sports besides baseball and soccer until 6th grade. And then, baseball and soccer were pretty much: Play the park league for a couple months, select an all-start team that plays for a few weeks, then move on with your life until next spring/summer. You played football because you got enough people together to get even teams. You played basketball because there was a hoop behind the elementary school. You figured it out on the fly and it was fun. That does not happen for kids any more. Not much, anyway. If someone shows aptitude, they are shoved camp brochures, travel league schedules, and personal coaches. No matter how good we get at any of them, they are still just games for 99.999% of the population. We can't pay everyone to play sports and we can't let everyone represent our country in diplomatic sporting events.
 
Wow, that ended up being about four times longer than expected. If you read to the end, thank you. I am man enough to admit it was written more for my benefit than anyone else's.

Who cares if more kids are getting a trophy? The best kids will still get theirs regardless. You just have other kids getting one as well because they work hard just as much as us from big schools, but only few will reach the top, if any sometimes. How are small school kids getting their own tournament hurting anyone up top? The crappy arguments everyone makes are, “It would ruin the best state tournament in the country.” Shut up with that. You all are so concerned about living vicariously through kids and wanting the sole spotlight to be on them that you can’t imagine another kid getting his or her fair share of the light when BOTH get a trophy. It is not such a bad thing for others to succeed to the same level as you do, and when you have no reason for why they shouldn’t be allowed to beyond “our cool state tournament will be ruined,” you really just look lame.

Congrats Coach Litherland... Much deserved

Congrats to Joe Litherland- Tell City on being named State COTY and Zackary Johansen- Hobart on being named assistant COTY.
IHSWCA Regional COTY 2023
 
Regional
Coach
School
Hobart
David Maldonado
Merrillville
Crown Point
Bobby Whitnack
New Prairie 
Penn
Steven Sandefer
Mishawaka
Logansport
Hunter Hickman
Rensselaer Central
Goshen
Tanner Boman
Dekalb
Carrol (Fort Wayne)
Nick Kraus
Garrett
Peru
Clint Gard/ Bill Hoover
Rochester/North Miami
Jay County
Eric Myers
Jay County
Frankfort
Wes Mikesell
Western Boone
Pendleton Heights
Gary Myers
Hamilton Heights
Perry Meridian
Jake O’neill
Warren Central
Richmond
Gary Black Sr.
New Castle
Mooresville
Maurice Swain/Anthony Meister
Center Grove/Whiteland 
Bloomington South
Joe Litherland
Tell City 
Jeffersonville
Matt Joyce
Columbus North
Castle
Adam Zollman
Heritage Hills