I'm truly not trying to start anything negative, just wondering out of curiosity if the 5a and 6a brackets always have this many losing records in them. I have never really paid attention to them because i am in 321a. I saw a record of 0-2 and im guessing that it was entered into track wrong at regionals. I know that the best of 5a and 6a are some of the best in the state but all the losing records made me curious if it was a down year.

I can't speak for everyone else but in the case of my youngest boy has a record of 11-22. He is a freshman wrestling at 170 and he has definatley taken many beatings this year as he is giving 10 to 15 pounds to everyone he wrestles. He has started wrestling better this last month due to getting that first win and finally building some confidence! I hate to say this but I don't expect him to go far at the state tournament but the experience for this young wrestler is what we need for some of these young wrestlers to stay in the sport. I hope after this year he will continue to wrestle because his heart is baseball.

This question (statement) comes up every year....I guess I'll take the bait this time!

I've been around 4A, 5A, 6A wrestling for a long time. I am now the head coach for a 3a team. I will say, without a doubt in my mind, that comparing records from the larger schools to the smaller schools is "apples to oranges"!

I am not downgrading the records of the smaller schools because the wrestlers have earned that record based off who ever is put in front of them, but from my experience the competition throughout the year is much different compared to a larger school. I guarantee that a 24 team tournament that consists of mainly larger schools is going to be WAY MORE competitive than one that consists of only smaller schools.

That being said, I also know that there are many great wrestlers that come from smaller schools, but it's RIDICULOUS to compare the records from large schools and smaller schools.

One of the reasons this happens is regional assignments. There are previous state placers with good records that failed to qualify because the region was loaded with talent. Then other regions with weaker teams have some losing records qualify because majority of the wrestlers had losing records.

Bigpin, I suggest you look at little old Rossville, 3a, there schedule this year competed with the big schools week in week out, they pulled way more then there own. Beating many a big.scbools, ranked big schools along the way. Got to battle test these kids, State sHoule NOT be the toughest tournament of the year.

Dig a bit deeper to find out reasons. Some of the kids with loosing records wrestled JV all season and stepped it up to fill open weights their team would have had. I would rather see all teams fill the weight classes as opposed to the bye. The brackets where kids do not have to win a match to make it to state are the ones that annoy me. "Hey coaches try to fill a roster with whoever you can" you never know how they will do.

Obviously there will be exceptions to the norm and coaches that seek out better competition.........but most teams compete against other teams in their class or close to it.

Why do you think Rossville chooses to compete against bigger classes?????????

The more teams in a regional, the more opportunities for better records to work their way through the bracket. This is not rocket science.

Rossville chooses to compete at good tournaments. Bigger schools as well as smaller schools compete at tough tournaments. I do not think the coaches plan there tournament schedule based on the size of the schools that are competing at it. I may be wrong, just a parent sticking up for small schools is all I was doing.

Its like this every year, it has nothing to do with competition or better kids. Its all about numbers. 3a/4a has 64 schools. They fill 16 spots at state = Top 25%. 5a/6a has 32 schools they still fill 16 spots at state = Top 50%

We voted on a change this year, to switch to 2 regionals for 5a/6a and take the top 8 from each. It wont change that 50% of kids still compete but it would not leave a good wrestler at home, I am all for it.

On average at my regional you win one match you are going to state. this would fix the problem.