Question for everyone. How well attended was your League Championships last weekend? I don't have numbers, but based off of what I saw in the stands the EKL Team Championship was very poorly attended. The stands with the wrestlers in them were barely half full. Is this because the teams wrestle each other so often during the regular season either in a dual format or in local tournaments that it takes away the value or prestige of a league championship. I remember back in the day when I wrestled in Iowa it was almost standing room only for this type of tournament. I always thought that League Championships were suppose to be something special. Didn't look that way to me last Saturday.

Lots of factors, but one of the biggest IMO is that our point system allows for more tournaments. I don't know about Iowa, but in Kansas "Back in the Day" when a wrestler was allowed to enter no more than four regular season tournaments, going to a tournament was a BIG deal. Now, there is a tournament almost every weekend of the season. . .not such a big deal anymore.

The wrestlers on each team need to help promote it to their classmates, the parents, the coaches, the host school, some of the alumni and alumni parents need notification and let the kids club presidents and coaches know about the up coming events. I normally mention high school events that are close by to the kids club during practice. Some of the kids club wrestlers are off at their own tournaments.

I think most of the people were home following the tournament on track wrestling! We all know that it is so much better checking the dashboard than paying the entrance fee and attending a tournament! LOL


I have been pleased by the attendance at home events at GE. The admin has done a good job of promoting and including other events. ie- kids club dual with Bonner Springs, "Blazer Buddies" shadowing varsity during face off, Free GE wrestling t-shirs for first 150 at the door....

There is a fanatic group of fans that travel, but it is smaller.

I think leauge may have run its course - time for a Rethinking of the end of the season and use that weekend for a DUAL state tournament.

At the EKL, it seemed that once the finals started that it cleared out. Is that because at that time it was a 2 horse race between STA and GE? Maybe. I know there were a handful of BVW(i think) also. Mark is right about our fans in Gardner...our stands are packed for home duals and we have a smaller, loyal pack that will go anywhere. The difference is getting the students to go see a tournament away from the home turf. Our students pack the home events. The key is trying to convince them that is an event worth "being seen at" like football is. IMO, the student attendance is the key.

My son wrestled in the late 90s. IMO wrestling-certainly less than BB and FB, was almost totally a family only attending event--mom, dad, smaller kids, a few grandmas and pappys (same for HS soccer, VB, baseball, track). Very few athletes from other sports came to watch, no staff, no general public. My local HS had only one at home dual this year--parents night--everything else was tournaments--some 2 hours away--the regional will be 2++hours away followed by the State 3++ hours away. IMO lack of at-home matches kills local fan interest and participation. I like tournaments, but big 2 day events, or even far away one day tournaments (3 to 4 hours round trip driving plus sitting for 8-10 hours, are killers on us older fans/folks. Would like to see-attend more. Personally try to see the Leavenworth Challenger (5 miles), the Bobcat Classic (6 miles), a home match (2miles), the regional if held KC,KS local, and the Metro Classic 10 miles). But the mostly away match/meet/tournament system is working against most fans. Could not attend the KVL tournament at Mill Valley--helping wife administer The ACT on Saturday AM--otherwise would have gone.

The TV angle that Metro Sports used was mostly facing the side of the gym that had the least amount of fans. The opposite side was fairly full of GE and STA fans that were sitting next to each other. I was surprised to see the lack of attendance at this event all day but feel the coverage on Track and TV might have had something to do with it. It's a catch 22 when it comes to promoting sometimes. The more you open things up for alternative viewing the less you get in the stands. I hope Regionals brings out more fans to support the athletes efforts. We just have to keep doing what we do for our sport and eventually those efforts will pay off.

The Sunflower League Tournament was not well attended. I have the same experience as grandpa pops with the Iowa events but I'm from a small town where wrestling, and being a wrestler, was a big deal. The duals were always packed and post-season events were sell-outs.

I'm not sure you can compare the 70's and 80's to today. I am from Iowa as well but back in the 80's, you were luck to get in 25 matches. 20 win seasons were a big deal because you did not have the number of events you have today. Tournys were a big deal because there just was not many of them. I would bet overall attendance is not all that different. Just spread out over more events.

I have to agree with Contrarian here. Lack of home meets makes building the fan base for wrestling tough. Also, the tournament format is very difficult for a rookie to the sport to follow. Trying to understand how matches are scored in addition to how the team race is scored is confusing. You mean he gets 2 points for the take down, but if he wins he gets 2 advancement points and 1.5 points for a tech fall which is if he wins by 15 or more? That can get confusing pretty quick. Also a lot of sitting for not much watching if you are just there to support 1 team.

More home duals- and I think single duals would help build fans. That is much easier to understand and easier to attend. The problem is there is no incentive for coaches to schedule those competitions when we are trying to get our teams ready for regional and state TOURNAMENTS. If there was a Dual State tournament- I believe coaches would start to balance their scheduling between duals and tournaments because there would then be a reason to focus on dual competitions.

I personally miss the single dual format- we wrestled a lot of them in Norton in the 90's. The stands were usually full and very often rocking. We would generally out draw the basketball team. It was a great atmosphere- and I think a move away from that has helped get wrestlers ready for a state tournament, but has hurt the ability to draw new spectators to the sport.

To go off of 3HSWrestler's point - despite the fact that EKL boasts 2 of the better teams in the State as a whole, it also is home to some of the weaker programs. I think the skill-level and competitive balance in finals was clearly exposed. These teams have also seen each other how many times during the year between going to the same tournaments each weekend and just league dual schedules? Some matches the 2 kids in finals had seen the other 4+ this folk season.

Good matches bring fans out, regardless if it's on trackwrestling.com or on tape-delay on Metro. The issue at Aquinas last weekend was caused by lack of interest by over half (5) of the schools competing.

BTW - I was really impressed for BVSW program and fans. For a school that's only 2 years I feel like they were adding a nice change-of-pace to the Blue's of STA and GE. I hope that BVSW is able to continue to build on that every year and the other Blue Valley district schools continue to improve. Lord knows it's an uphill battle for most of those programs, for various reasons and those coaches are definitely busting their humps to change that culture.

I know this is an issue in Overland Park. Is that an issue for anyone in wichita?

I would highly doubt it.

It is true in Wichita. Wichita Heights has seen Wichita Northwest 5 times!

WH Dual
Bishop Carroll tourney
Newton
Junction City
GWAL

In Wichita we pretty much wrestle the same guys every weekend and I guess every week at duals for that matter.

I was going to post some this after High School State, but after reading some of the other comments I think I need to chime in. IMO, Some of this comes from the lackluster State High School tournaments in Kansas. 3 venues, 4 classes, come on! There is no excitement on the big stage! Have you been to the Iowa State tournament, Missouri and others? There all under one roof. Talk about excitement! Lots of people (students, Teachers and friends) go to these tournament because of the crowd. Osmosis! We, in Kansas choose to divide this up into 3 different venues. Why? If you have 8 mats going at the same time with great wrestlers in differnt classes you will draw a crowd! More over think of the money this would make? Not to mention what Kansas wrestling would save by not have to rent 3 venues. Look at kids state! I could go on and on. If the State tournament draws a Hugh crowd then that should filter down to the regional and so on. IMO

This is one of the better topics I have seen in a long time.

I must agree the League Championships for wrestling have different interpretations depending the conversation. Athletic Directors and other Administrative leaders "love" League...they cherish them.

As a wrestling coach, I cringe at League. My partner in crime and I believe in the same mantra: "League? Don't get hurt!" I have seen some pretty ugly injuries over the years at League tourneys, severely impacting a young man's ability to compete at State.

The concept of revising League or Conference titles, team or individual, for the sport of wrestling is something to discuss.

I believe the idea forwarded about changing, or even eliminating League for wrestling, and adding a Dual State Tournament is a great idea.

First, I will agree with Kale about duals. They are more spectator friendly and the competition is complete within a couple hours. For the average fan, it is difficult to commit a whole day to watching a few kids. It's tough to get kids out and keep them out when they know that most Saturday's will be spent away from their friends.

As for league, it is a bragging rights only tournament. Nice to win, but really doesn't mean much. Winning league just puts a banner on the wall, which isn't a bad thing, I just never placed much importance in the league tourney. Maybe that's why we always wrestled bad that weekend! Our goal was to peak at Regional's and State. Year in and year out there are teams who wrestle great at league and then fizzle out the following weekends.

Sounds like somebody ought to set up a "wrestling promotion" committee to make some recommendations to whomever controls these matters. There are some good ideas and comments, but how do changes get made? There are some long-time, well-respected coaches as well as ADs that might be able to get the ball rolling if they were asked to do so....

Coach O, during the high school season I cringe every day. My dad always told me, if you don't think you are going to get hurt, you won't get hurt (this is from a guy that once went to the other team's huddle at a football game after a play and didn't realize he was on the wrong side of the ball).

My point is, I try to remember what my dad told me, but I am concerned every day during the season about my son getting banged up in practice, during a dual, or during a tournament (not to mention making weight and eluding the skin infections). Wrestling is not the nicest sport one can compete in, and as I have seen with our team this year, not one that competitors will not get injured. One more thing, think like my dad and not like me, if you don't think that you will be hurt, you won't get hurt.