From my previous post....
"In smaller schools especially, all sports are in essence competing to attract the most athletic kids to be in our programs. This challenge is now even harder when most every other sport in our schools now are competing against 31 teams for their state trophies....especially our winter sports counterpart, basketball."
So you are saying kids will only participate in sports they feel like they have a chance to win a championship in? Your rationale is that kids will find the path of least resistance to winning and that will motivate them to compete?
The selling points for wrestling are that YOU earn your own spot by being the BEST at your weight class. The coach doesn't handpick and it doesn't matter if you are cutting or not cutting THE WRESTLER gets to pick what weight he wants to compete in and establishes that through the wrestle off. There are no politics or booster clubs in the coach's ear whispering who should start for the betterment of the program.
Your competition, now more than ever, is the almighty DOLLAR. Kids want to work to have material things and impress their peers not through athletic prowess but by being the one most with the best or most toys. Not many want to push themselves beyond their normal limits as athletic greatness. The solution is to market and glamorize these accomplishments. A wrestling coach has to highlight ALL of the pros and he has to partner with the football coach, as we all know KSHSAA's rules have made football the king (along with TV and the attraction to violence), in order to fill a team. It is up to parents and educators to push our kids because it is a tough world out there. The only easy way is the unemployment line. Selling, marketing, motivating, and instilling strong values is the only way to go. Watering down and pussifying is sure fire formula for destroying character building and individual work ethic.
