How is this for a state idea?

Have two tournaments in Wichita.

One could be held at Intrust Bank Arena and the other could be at the Kansas Coliseum. Have 6A and 5A at Intrust and 4A and 321A at the Coliseum then rotate each year which tournament is where. You could also mix up the format to where 6A and 4A are together 321A and 5A are together or 5A and 4A are with each other and 6A and 321A are at the same site.

It won’t be a typical Missouri or Iowa state tournament where all classes are at one site but at least they will be within twenty minutes of each other.

Also if KSHSAA worked it right they could host the finals all at Intrust Bank Arena for everyone to see. However, this would suck for the classes that are at the Coliseum to have to move shop back and forth.

Or KSHAA could stagger when each finals start by having one tournament start an hour or two earlier. 5A and 6A could start later since most of the schools in this division don’t have near as far to travel compared to 321A and 4A. This would allow people to view both sets of finals if they wanted to.

If KSHAA wanted to get really crazy they could have 4 tournaments in Wichita. One at Koch Arena, one at Wink Hartman Arena, one at Intrust Bank Arena, and the other at the Kansas Coliseum. I don’t like the idea of this but I would like to see two state tournaments combined at close sites like this as opposed to the current system.

It will be very hard to get 321A away from Hays with all of the tradition there. I believe this was the 30th year the small school tournament has been in Hays (started hosting in 1979). I also think 4A has been happy with the move to Salina with it being a more centrally located venue with more space to stretch your legs so to speak (only class at the site).

I think the word "impossible" would be more applicable. As far as the rest of your idea. Two tournaments in Wichita actually sounds pretty good. The notion of moving everyone to one site for the finals simply isn't going to fly, that would be a logistical nightmare for EVERYONE involved.

In the mean time you might as well leave 321A out of your discussions because there is ZERO possibility of them ever moving out of Hays.

Do others know of states that have their wrestling state tourney like ours (ie. spread out over THREE DIFFERENT LOCATIONS)? I don't. But, I don't get out much. I'm curious.

I know you have been to Newton, Salina and Wichita. What else could you possibly want?

And, MO and FL and Europe. I meant I don't get out much to watch/see how other state's run their state HS FINALS tourney.

But, good joke Richard. ;-)

I think this topic needs some more input.

Husker Fan, Cokeley, Contrarian, Mike Furches, Chief Renegade usawks1, and others where are you at on this issue?

Amen. And, some one post on a national forum and ask them how they do their state tourneys. I'd like to know how many other states have their tourneys at more than one location.

Montana runs the state tournament at 1 location....Billings. They have 3 classes...AA, A, B/C. They hold it at the Metra. I can't remember if they have 12 total mats or 9 for most of the tournament (3 or 4 dedicated for each school classification).
For the finals they use 3 mats (1 for each classification). They wrestle the 98 lb match and they don't start the next weight class until all 3 of the previous weight class are finished.

I actually stated some time ago that with the 2 new arenas in Wichita, plus the old Kansas Coliseum and Koch, it would be possible to do the tournament in Wichita. I think it would be a great event and a possible sell to even the 4A and 123A folks if done in the right way. I know for a fact, again, a fact, not a belief, that there are college coaches that stay away from our state tournament because of the difficulty in seeing all of our wrestlers. I also know that Wichita has the facilities to host the event.

My druthers, I would love to see the finals all held but at different times. I personally hated the 5A 6A and in past including 4A finals at the same time. I am one person that would gladly pay the money to see the finals in each category on a stand alone basis. Can you imagine getting to do that at one of the arenas? I realize that many fans leave early though as was evidenced at Salina this year, there are ways around that but between Hartman, Intrust, Kansas Coliseum, Koch there is enough capacity to do them all in the same town, and possibly, depending on floor size at the new arena, possibly all in the same venue. Have all of the prelims together or over a couple of arenas, have the finals all in the same venue, even if possible, at different times. Wow how exciting would that be?

Then again, I thought the Kansas Speedway suggestion actually had some merit.

I was just thinking of this same idea this weekend when I drove passed the new downtown arena. I think it's a great idea in theory, however, just like wrestlingspectat stated it will be nearly impossible to get 321A to move. One huge reason they won't want to move is that there are very few small schools down by Wichita while there are several of them up by Hays. Are there any small school guys on here that could throw in some input?

Heck, even if we can get it back to TWO locations -- that is a step in the right direction.

I can understand the small schools wanting to stay at Hays for the reasons Curtis stated above plus I hear it is well run/supported.

Really 321A is probably the most evenly distributed location wise of each schools so its not that more schools are located in the west or by Hays.

CLASS 3-2-1A
Beloit Regional
Belleville-Republic Co., Beloit, Bennington, Brookville-El-Saline, Ellsworth, Gypsum-SE of Saline, Herington, Lincoln, Mankato-Rock Hills, Marysville, Minneapolis, Onaga, Osborne, Phillipsburg, Plainville, Sabetha,
Salina-St. John’s Military, Smith Center, St. George-Rock Creek, Stockton, Sylvan Grove-Sylvan Unified, Wabaunsee

Burlington Regional
Burlingame, Burlington, Cherryvale, Council Grove, Easton-Pleasant Ridge, Effingham-Atchison County Comm., Erie, Eskridge-Mission Valley, Fredonia, Highland-Doniphan West, Horton, Leavenworth-Immaculata, Mound City-Jayhawk-Linn, Neodesha, Oskaloosa, Richmond-Central Heights, Rossville, Saint Marys, Saint Paul,
Silver Lake, Troy, Wellsville

Ellis Regional
Atwood-Rawlins County, Cimarron, Elkhart, Ellis, Goodland, Hays-Thomas More Prep Marian, Hill City, Hoisington, Holcomb, Hoxie, Lakin, Larned, Leoti-Wichita County, Montezuma-South Gray,
Norton-Norton Comm., Oakley, Oberlin-Decatur Comm., Rolla, Saint Francis, Sublette,
WaKeeney-Trego Comm.

Garden Plain Regional
Anthony—Anthony-Harper-Chaparral, Burden-Central, Cottonwood Falls-Chase County, Douglass, Eureka, Garden Plain, Halstead, Hillsboro, Howard-West Elk, Langdon-Fairfield, Leon-Bluestem,
Little River, Lyons, Marion, Moundridge, Peabody-Burns, Rosalia-Flint Hills, Sedgwick, Stafford, Sterling, Whitewater-Remington


I would say the mentality 321A people have is if you have a good thing going why screw it up by trying something different (if it ain't broke don't fix it). You'd almost compare this to college presidents not wanting to do a playoff system in football instead of bowls (but playoffs make sense this issue is a little more touchy).

idea number however many. 4,5 and 6a together at one location. topeka, wichita, kc, salina, hutch i dont care. 1,2,3a in hays. grand state the week after for sure has to be in Wichita since its centrally located. i would still like to see 5 and 6a combine since you still see kids only having to wrestle maybe once and win or lose make it to state. thats really not what state is about. its about giving the best in the best in each level wrestling against each other. then grand state is even better. then the college coaches would come and get all the action in one location.

Having been around two college programs and having talked to their coaches about recruiting - Colleges lose interest in attending when the events are spread out in different venues. Are we more interested in making the fans comfortable or in providing as many opportunities as possible for our kids to showcase their talent?

In Arizona they have 6 stinking classes for state championships. For the previous 2 years all 6 were held at the Glendale Arena at the same time. The finals were essentially unwatchable. it took forever, for them to do the awards for 6 in each weight class, talk about handing out candy!

This year they had the 2A and 3A state tournaments in Prescott Valley, which is about 100 miles northwest of Phoenix. Excellent venue with seating for about 3,000 and 8 mats.

The 4A 1 and 2, and 5A1 and 2 tournaments were held at the Glendale Arena.

Both have plenty of parking and restaurants nearby. Prescott Valley has plenty of hotels/motels nearby. The Glendale Arena, which is next to the University of Phoenix Stadium, which hosted the Super Bowl last year has plenty of parking and restaurants, the hotels are beginning to be sufficient.

I watched the finals of the Oklahoma State tournament with all 4 classes at once on 4 mats.

Polls are being conducted in Oklahoma and Arizona on their websites as to whether there should be a Grand State Tournament, or 1 class tournament. In Oklahoma about 93 percent are in favor of a Grand State. In Arizona only a slight majority favor 1 class for wrestling.

I loved the Grand State tournaments at Fort Hays, other than waking up and finding out the electricity was out, due to the 13 inches of snow that fell during the night. As I remember about 7,500 fans for the finals.

As someone who does some scouting for a college wrestling program, I would wish that every state had a Grand State.

We had a coach at Salina on Friday, I was at the Colisem on Friday, then at the Oklahoma finals on Saturday. I scouted both state tournaments everyday (championship brackets only) in Arizona.

Northwest Kansas has too long a storied history in wrestling to ever give up hosting a state tournament. I'd like to see the 4 state tournaments spread around the state, then a Grand State in Wichita.

As one kid in Arizona (hwt. state champ at 5A1) he said he'd like to feel like he really accomplished something when he won a state title. Unfortunately, the coaches want to be able to brag about how many state champs and placers they had. The kids are more purists than the coaches these days. I hope everyone in each state takes what the wrestlers themselves think when they make these decisions.

Excellent points/facts. Especially your last paragraph! Thanks for letting us know how AZ does it. The 'best' want to wrestle the 'best' no matter what the silly classification is.

I had a small school's state champ (once runner up due to injury default, then 2 time state champ) back in MO (1989-1991). It used to drive him NUTS that the bigger schools got all the 'attention'. And, he really, really wanted to wrestle those other 'champs'. Of course some he did over the summers but you know what I mean. A GRAND STATE CHAMP is what he wanted. I imagine it is what most of these elite wrestlers want. It is also what the fans want.

Most of you that have had to work with the Div. I College Coaches, know that they could care less how many state titles a kid has won. They place much more priority on the large national tourn. and do most all of their recruiting at Jr. Nationals.

And Div. II has their National Qualifying Tournaments on the same weekend as Ks. HS. State most years. So they could not personally attend the State Tourn.

Every time someone mentions a reason for having one location and stating that College Coaches would show up and do MORE recruiting, does not fully understand how most of the college coaches recruit.

In a perfect world I would like to see some of the other classes wrestle at the state tourn. I have coached at both the 4-5-6A State Tourn. in the late 80's and early 90's. And I have coached at the 3-2-1A State Tourn from early 90's to now. I MUCH prefer the atmosphere at FHSU.
Other coaches have expressed some good ideas on the topic of State Tourn. locations. I like the following better than most that have been proposed.

1. Keep 3-2-1A at FHSU and rotate sending 6-A and 5-A also to FHSU. I think that you would be amazed with the great facility and and atmosphere that is created by the 3-2-1A Team race almost every year.

2. Keep 4-A at Salina and also Rotate 6-A and 5-A with them each year.

Summary: Have only two locations for the State Tourn. And the large schools get to see the two small schools every other year. It was thought that 6-A sees the 5-A schools much during the season.
And the rational of not putting 4-A and 3-2-1A together is they normally bring larger crowds (see KSHSAA financial reports for proof)and could create seating problems.

I know that this proposal will not please all, but is only a starting point. I have talked with many 5-A and 6-A coaches that have said they would love to come to FHSU for State, but I'm sure there are others that would not agree.

Please do not "Tar and Feather" me, it is only an Idea that I have heard.

Bill Johnson is right about D-1 coaches, because a long time ago I was an assistant. However, Oklahoma City U is an NAIA program, we are hoping to uncovered a top quality wrestler who hasn't competed in national tournaments. They are out there.

Only a few wrestlers are D-1 caliber. Someday I'd like to attend the California state tournament, which is a 32-man bracket, which has qualified through 3 different levels of tournaments to get there. Top 8 in CA are D-1 quality. However, the 9-32 kids might bear watching, because the number of wrestling programs in CA continues to decline, and no one has the full 9.9 scholarships to offer.

I can't speak for the other 3-2-1A coaches, but I have no desire to combine with the other classes. We don't have 1 site for basketball or football or most of the other sports in the state.

No disrespect to people who want one site.