State Dual meet- Will it ever happen in Kansas?

Just curious to see if there is any current effort by coaches or the KWCA to implement a dual tournament to recognize the best dual team. A lot of other states have one with various formats. Of course this would be a cool thing, but is there a strong interest in Kansas? What's the KSHAA perspective? Just curious to see what peoples opinion on pros and cons and what roadblocks exist to stop this from happening.

Dual state would be a big boost for Kansas wrestling!

Agreed! I think this would be a great one-day event that would be extremely fan-friendly. As participation and attendance numbers continue to decline, this would be a step in the right direction!

Not to dissuade you but this topic has come up before. In fact the KWCA put up a proposal to KSHSAA once before and it was soundly rejected. What many fail to understand is KSHSAA is YOU in a manner of speaking. It is in many senses controlled by YOUR school administrators which make up the Board of Directors and the Executive Board. The previous proposal was brought up and defeated by a group of principals and superintendents because not enough of them thought this would be a worthwhile event. I know part of that was that if they allowed wrestling to have such an event then every other sport would want another state sanction event similar to it.

What is interesting is that certain individuals such as Will Cokely have in years past tried to organize similar events outside of the KSHSAA sanction and there has never been enough interest generated to really make it happen. So one has to ask themselves, is this really something the wrestling community wants, or is it just the really die hard fans and perhaps a select group of competitors/coaches who want it?

Just this year I've seen a ton of teams who can't even fill a regular season dual lineup so this event would really only cater to a relatively small group of schools, mostly larger classifications who could actually compete in it. I love the idea but I'm not sure we have the mentality or the drive to actually get it done. Just my two cents.

I think it would be a cool thing. But do it mid-season. Injuries happen, grades, and end of season most are done, or moving on to spring sports.

Agree, going to duals, or, dual tourneys, having LOTS of holes in their line-up is disappointing. IMOP, at a HS level FILL your roster, even if it means putting a JV wrestler in that open spot. All are in HS and will have to face the music at sometime.

Been to varsity dual tourneys with 5+ teams and only get 2-3 matches. Why? Fill your line-up.

I would say most athletic associations like the KSHSAA are very reluctant to change, and not sure of the makeup of KSHAA, but I bet most of these administrators have a basketball or football background and maybe don't understand the dynamics of wrestling. It also would create more work for the KSHSAA and potentially could cost more money to run the event than revenue brought in. It would have to take a big movement to really change something in Kansas and sell an idea to the KSHAA. And probably the idea of wrestling have two state champions (dual and tournament)might create jealous feelings for other sports.

You have to admit that a dual championship is more representative of a team effort vs. a tournament championship. In the dual format, the whole team contributes. Everybody can help, from the strongest to the weakest. Bonus points are relevant and nothing is more dramatic than a close dual. In the tournament format, just a top teams wrestlers score the points. The average guys on the team really do not affect the outcome. On the comment about that it would only cater to schools that can field a team, but these are the same teams that can compete for the tournament state championship. Lets be real. 95% of schools at the current state championship have no chance of placing in the top 3. Shouldn't the programs that field full teams be the ones that get rewarded.

The KWCA has proposed a dual tournament several times- and is currently working on one to propose again. KSHSAA has seemed very reluctant to change in almost any regard let alone Dual State Wrestling, but we are working.

To address the filling a line-up issue, I agree that we as Coaches should, whenever reasonable, to fill our line-ups. However sometimes things aren't what they seem. When I was a freshman getting thrown to the wolves at 135 I had already wrestled for 5 seasons (this was a late start compared to most of my peers). At my current high school the majority of my team has their 1st wrestling experience when they come out in High School. I generally don't throw out 1st year wrestlers to varsity level tournaments because they will get eaten alive, not be able to defend themselves, and not provide any semblance of a fight to the older, experienced wrestlers. Their time is better spent at the JV meet learning how to wrestle instead of taking a beating. If I can get them back for another year or 2, we may be able to make something out of them- but if they are getting pummeled just because they are varsity by default they most likely won't come back. At a single dual, I may fill a hole or 2 with a kid that can fight a little, but sometimes we have to way what is best for the long term development of the kid and team, as opposed to what the short term benefit of filling a spot in the line-up that will end up being a quick 6 anyway.

Just a quick summary of my thought process when I look at filling the line-up. BTW, barring any injuries/illness we'll have a full line-up of at our league and regional tournaments.

how about this. we have 4 classes correct. lets take the teams coaches that win each class team points and make them coaches. you take every state champ of each weight in all 4 classes. the coaches have a meeting and draft each weight class to make 4 teams for a dual. we all get what we have always wanted. the best of each class to face off and now you get to do it in a dual format. you host it in park city at that tournament on Friday night possibly. sorry for those other towns but Wichita is centrally located and have a tournament that weekend. you can always rotate it.