Anyone that would make that comment is an idiot. It's not even a discussion!!

Chad Beeson

I went to a 5A regional, I understand the comment. The top end may be better in the bigger schools, but a true grand state w/ all the placers would show the depth of 4A and 321A. Did you see those records in 321A?? Virtually, no losing records. Or, should they be considered inferior because they are small shools. At least in 4 and 321 - no one goes to state just because they made weight. Going to State should be a big deal by itself.

What makes me suspecious of the 321A ibndividual records, less so for 4A, is the ability of the smaller schools to provide a full 14 wrestler varsity team roster. Walk overs should not be included in the wrestlers win record. Saw several tournaments this year with all classes. 321A tems seldom had more than 6 wrestlers. Most 5A and 6A come with more wrestlers. Exception is some of the KCK HSs, and that is a locally recognized problem they are trying to overcome.r

I think 5a and 6a schools usually have more kids in them.

So your saying 4 and 321A records are so good because they receive the majority of their wins from byes? I find that somewhat hard to believe. Even so, how many of the 5 and 6A wins came from respectable oponents? Im not putting down anyone here, but you cant make an argument against smaller schools for having fewer kids....just my two cents

In my opinion 4a/321a is tougher depth wise in regional and state competition. when i look over state brackets i rarely(sometimes do) see sub .500 records. when i look at 5a/6a i see great top talent wrestlers but little depth what so ever. i noticed records below the .25 mark. i am not attempting to single out or put any wrestler down because wreslters are the most respectable athletes but i saw records in the top 2 classes with only 3 or 4 wins, those could all come at a regional tournament, yet i saw over 3/4 of every small class bracket wrestlers with at least 20 wins.

Seems like 5A and 6A have put out more DI athletes in recent history...


Tyler McCormick (AA)
Tanner Gardner (AA)
Shawn Bunch (AA) and US Freestyle Champ
Joe Johnston (AA)
Zach Roberson (NC)
Stew Bogart
Josh Carrol
Romero Cotton
list goes on...

Hey don’t just get the idea that DI wrestlers only come from big schools in big cities. Here is a list of small town wrestlers who were not too shabby at the highest level:

Matt Murray-Colby (Nebraska, NCAA Runner-up)
Eric Ludke-Colby (Iowa, NCAA All-American)
Billy Gabel-Saint Francis (Oklahoma State)
Kelly Gabel-Saint Francis (Oklahoma State)
Travis Baker-Hoxie (Nebraska)
Austin DeVoe-Columbus (Missouri, NCAA Qualifier)
Clint Freeman-Ellsworth (Missouri)
Michael Sprigg-Norton (Army)
Jesse Strawn-Holton (Old Dominion)
Neil Eirisman-De Soto (Oklahoma State)
Chris Pursel-Effingham (Iowa State)
Josh Lawrenz-Herington (Northern Iowa)
Alex Thomas-Norton (Nebraska)

blaise you do the work, and i will stand by my statement, shawn bunch, beau maynes, zach roberson, come on you know year in and year out the top is the top. it doesn't matter what class. there have been studs in other classes too (matt murray), but year in year out there is no clear cut favorite between the classes. do your homework.

ricky, knows his biz. name those big class studs too!! here's an idea, it's all kansas.

This 43rd annual thread is getting old, how about just having one class,one state tourney, one state champ in each weight class. Just do away with 123456a. Big bracket, come on lets settle it. Then lets have an old timers tourney right after, after that i'd like to see some of the refs wrestle and let the kids ref their matches....:-)

HA! Amen to all the above. However, the KSHSA never thinks 'outside the box' and most likely will never break up its good ole boy network. I imagine having the tourneys scattered across the state brings them in more money . . .

Cokeley mentioned these ideas (well, not the refs wrestling each other but I imagine Don King would be ALL FOR THAT!)just yesterday to the powers that be. They had a million excuses why it 'couldn't be done'. Will had excellent arguments against all their lame excuses . . .

i cant imagine having 4a state by itself would be cheaper than having it with 5a and 6a. dont they have to rent that building for the weekend also. to me it makes more sense in these hard times if we are trying to save by putting 4a back into the 5a and 6a mix all in one building. besides it makes it a better state tournament. the coliseum looked dull with that one end where 4a used to be so empty.