http://www.kansas.com/2011/02/20/1728410/sooners-strike-gold-in-wichita.html

Sooners strike gold in Wichita

"Kansas wrestling has been very good to us, and Wichita in particular,'' said Spates, the national coach of the year in 2006 who is stepping down after 18 seasons at Oklahoma. "We're tough as nails and these guys are playing a big part.''

Spates didn't intentionally go about luring Wichita wrestlers to OU, it just happened. He's a champion for high school wrestling in Kansas, saying it has passed Oklahoma in quality and quantity. Think about that statement for a second. Oklahoma has two of the country's most traditionally successful college wrestling programs, yet Spates believes Kansas is at least comparable in high school wrestling.

"Kansas wrestling just keeps getting better and better,'' Spates said. "Those high school coaches there are doing a fabulous job. And the great thing about these Kansas kids is that they're not only great on the mat, but great off the mat, too. They're polite, respectful and absolute warriors on the mat.''
OU Sooners Coaching legend Jack Spates

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Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/02/20/1728410/sooners-strike-gold-in-wichita.html#ixzz1EnJueKcA

Someone should repost this on the "Will Ks. ever really compete" thread!

I posted two items to different threads on this earlier in the week. This video contains information on the subject at hand. Scroll down to the "Big Show" and then fast forward through the other sports talk to wrestling.


http://blogs.varsitykansas.com/

I think it's great that this story made the TV news and print news, but am I the only one that thinks it's odd that the Eagle published it so close to the news coverage? Did Lutz just happen to catch the news and jump aboard, or do these media outlets share ideas? I guess it doesn't matter in the end.

The cynical one.
Ryan

Coach, KSN and the Eagle have a close working relationship since Varsity Kansas was started. They work hand-in-hand, to what degree I'm not sure, but they do. It is odd to see Lutz write about anything wrestling! I hope this is the beginning of an editor telling the sports divisions "you're going to write about local sports more often than not".

Sportsfan02,
Thanks for the clarification. I forgot about their shared interest. Taylor Eldridge is a good, young sportswriter that does a good job of covering wrestling for the Times Sentinel (west Wichita paper) and occasionally for the Eagle. He's a Goddard grad that cares about accuracy of the event and accuracy quoting the coaches and participants.

I'd give some cash to help send him to the NCAA's to cover our DI wrestlers. Probably enough to get him a Philly Cheese steak and root beer! Aw, heck...maybe even some fries!

Yes, I thought about that too and I am glad that you said something about it.
And don't forget, Klein, Murry, McCormick, Gardner, Johnson, Luedke, Kriegbaum, Roberson, etc. just to name a few recently.