The "Olsen way"... I applaud Michael but he is hardly the leader or pioneer. For newbies on here you may not know or if you don't care to recall, SJA was soundly chastised for moving up Ryne Cokeley and Taylor Moeder in various "IN STATE" tournaments just a few years ago. Heck, Ryne was a 140lber wrestling 152 his senior year. SJA knows how to find competition and to get better. I gave you the explanation why the line ups were the way they were this weekend yet you still criticize? Who cares what team you send? It is the prerogative of the coach and NO tournament contract states that you MUST bring your best kids and fill every weight. Heck, only 3 teams had 14 wrestlers in Eudora this weekend! JW, Kansas is NOT the best state and we all know this. Iowa is better, OK is usually better. They both sport far more D1 wrestlers coaching in their HS programs. Both states have multiple D1 opportunities to move on into after HS. I don't think anyone's feelings are being hurt when it is being stated that we travel to find better competition. Heck, look at the results for every KS tournament where out of state teams are invited. At Gardner last week three of the top four were from out of state. When was the last time a KS team won the Bobcat? Almost every year an out of state team wins Garden City. Newton has invited just one out of state team the past two years (Tulsa Union 2012 and Grand Island 2013) and both won their tournament. (BTW, Grand Island was in Council Bluffs this weekend. Bill doesn't count them as a hammer but they won one of the best tournaments KS has to offer in state...)

JV teams water down tournaments? Thats a glass half empty way of looking at it. How about Varsity tournament experience can help JV wrestlers improve?

Since we are just tainting your prized Eudora Tournament of Champions, next year we will send one team to Iowa and another team back to Tulsa.

Tongie might have won the Eudora tournament this year if their AD wouldn't have been an idiot.

Chanute, if they have all of their horses in the line up, would have contended as well.

The reason competitiveness is down is because football is taking away many from summer wrestling. We had a record low number of summer wrestlers last year and our Cadet team performed very poorly. The Schoolboy team was awesome and this year's freshman class is EXCELLENT. We are in a down cycle for a couple of years but it will pick back up.

SODDI. Some other dude did it. Sounds like a defense lawyer in a criminal law case.

Don't recall Tongie or Chanute ever winning a state title, plus not a consistent year after year top runner. Good, Kansas small school programs--good years and not so good years. Same type up and down history as lots of schools. For example, where has SFT been lately? Used to be feared by everyone in all classes.

Just an FYI - Seaman won the Bobcat last year, Will!

So Bill, what is it?? Was Eudora tough or not? You are contradicting yourself. None of the teams in it yesterday are traditional power houses or state champs. Maybe you missed the post earlier in the fall, only 3 teams have won a 5A or 6A state title from Northeast KS (Topeka, KC, JoCo, Lansing, Leavenworth)

1. Topeka Seaman 177.5
2. Blue Springs 172.0
3. St. James Academy 168.5
4. Collinsville 154.5
5. St. Thomas Aquinas 153.0
6. Junction City 131.0
7. Mountain Range 127.0
8. Bonner Springs 109.0
9. Tonganoxie 103.5
10. Glenwood 94.5
11. Platte County 90.0
12. Andale 86.5
13. Fort Scott 78.0
14. Pittsburg 74.0
15. Baldwin 67.5
16. Royal Valley 62.5
17. Olathe North 58.5
18. Rossville 54.5
19. Prairie View 52.0
20. Goddard 51.5
20. Shawnee Mission East 51.5
22. Turner 48.5
23. ACCHS 45.0
24. Oak Park 42.0
25. Paola 38.0
26. Columbus 36.0
27. Santa Fe Trail 30.0
28. Chapman 29.0
28. Piper 29.0
30. Basehor-Linwood 26.0
31. Lansing 24.0
32. Clay Center 21.0
33. Eudora 19.0
33. Olathe South 19.0
35. Blue Valley 17.0
36. Lawrence Free State 14.0

I completely forgot about last year. I wasn't there. Collinsville left some guys at home due to the flu as I recollect as I look up the results. Still 2 of the top 4 from out of state.

Team Scores
1. Blue Springs 219.5
2. Collinsville 191.0
3. Andale 159.5
4. Oak Park 153.0
5. Mountain Range 138.5
6. St. Thomas Aquinas 119.5
7. Lansing 105.0
8. Junction City 95.5
9. Platte County 94.5
10. Goddard 90.0
11. Tonganoxie 87.5
12. Bonner Springs 87.0
13. Baldwin 85.0
14. Fort Scott 76.5
14. St. James Academy 76.5
16. Topeka Seaman 75.0
17. Pittsburg 74.5
18. Shawnee Mission East 74.0
19. Clay Center 66.5
20. Glenwood 63.0
21. Piper 52.0
21. Santa Fe Trail 52.0
23. Paola 51.0
24. Rossville 44.5
25. Lawrence Free State 43.5
26. Olathe North 43.0
27. ACCHS 40.0
28. Columbus 37.0
29. Thomas More Prep 29.0
30. Turner 25.0
31. Blue Valley 21.0
32. Olathe South 19.0
33. Basehor-Linwood 18.0
34. Chapman 13.0
35. Eudora 3.0

Four out of the top five were non KS teams in 2012.

Team Scores
1. Oak Park 211.5
2. Goddard 185.5
3. Blue Springs 181.5
4. Andale 161.5
5. Mountain Range 125.5
6. Lansing 124.0
7. St. James Academy 122.0
8. Glenwood 104.0
9. Junction City 101.5
10. Bonner Springs 96.5
11. Shawnee Mission East 89.0
11. St. Thomas Aquinas 89.0
13. Rossville 82.5
14. Pittsburg 80.5
15. Baldwin 79.0
16. Topeka Seaman 78.0
17. Fort Scott 76.0
18. Turner 74.0
19. Tonganoxie 72.0
20. Eudora 67.5
21. Paola 67.0
22. Santa Fe Trail 62.0
23. Columbus 58.0
24. Thomas More Prep 49.5
25. Olathe South 39.0
26. Blue Valley North 38.5
27. Piper 35.0
28. Basehor-Linwood 31.0
28. Chapman 31.0
30. Lawrence Free State 29.5
31. Blue Valley 28.0
32. Perry LeCompton 19.0
33. Olathe North 12.0

Three of the top 5 in 2011.

Don't know! Can't evaluate the Eudora TOC now that we know that it was a mixed varsity/scrub/JV tournament. I do think it would have been tougher if all the SJA team would have been there. Lansing probably would not have won, nor Mill Valley take second. Now we will never know! Ifa, coulda, shoulda, mighta!!!!

Bill, I still dont know why you are offended.

Lansing did great. Sounds like they wrestled their butts off.
No one can diminish their accomplishments because a wrester was not there or what ever.


If your mad because the Eudora tournament is not as tough as it used to be, then talk to your Coach/Ad and ask if they think they need to go somewhere else.

there is an eb and flow - as coaches try to find the teams they want to see before the state tournament.

Or mix it up with people they will never see again, to measure where they stand.

Will,
Sorry I called you a saint.

Not offended. Have no reason to think the Eudora TOC is not still one of the better tournaments in East Kansas. But, if coaches and hyper-active parents are micro managing the who, when, where they are going to wrestle, they will shortly harm the quality of Kansas HS wrestling. We may already be in serious trouble when the state ranker publicly says we are not competitive, that a named tournament is not competitive, and its OK for coaches and hyper-active parents to split their team and leave their second team for those slug Kansas tournaments. Don't understand how this expands the competitive base and improves Kansas HS wrestling.!

Bill,

You are having cognitive problems and misquoted me. I did not say that we are not competitive. I said national competition is always better than local. It's true of any state. Read that slowly and then retract your misquote.

Shut up!

I really have trouble believing this...you have a good tourney with what appears to of been a great finals match at 152 and no one is talking about it. Too many times there is a big build up on this forum about 'big' upcoming matches which don't happen due to some reason or the other. Both of these kids deserves alot of credit for showing up and putting on a good show and not finding a reason to back out. However, their match appears to have taken a back seat to some lame argument.

Well said John! Shut up was my version of what you said.

Damn Patrick, go to bed already!!! Take a sedative to slow the adrenaline.

It's 9:30! I'm not some old fart like Willy M. Got another hour in me.

Last comment from me on this topic...

We asked the Eudora Head Coach and AD if we could send a few kids over to fill in for byes. We told them it was okay if they just let us know on Wednesday. We were fine with not having a team score and did not attempt to represent that SJA was going to send a full team. We were told to sign a contract, pay the fee, and send as many as we could. That is what we did. I still do this for the kids and ALL kids were better off because both ours and some other wrestlers got matches that would have been byes. I don't see the logic in how that made the tournament less tough.