Eric:

"If I had to guess, I would say that Jacob really didn't care that he was not mentioned."

Your guess is worse than your ommissions. Jacob was very upset yesterday when he read your list of top returning wrestlers from the class of 2009 and did not see his name mentioned as he was upset last year when you ranked him 6th in your Pre-season 5A poll. He is not the only high school wrestler either that I have heard from that becomes upset with your assessements. So just be aware that the high school kids do care when you are rating them and assessing them just like you care on how I and others assess your list and rankings.

"Do you really think that SEVERAL of our 285 Senior HWT's will perform at the SAME LEVEL as Atticus Disney, Steve Andrus, Duane Zlatnik and Joe Bach? Those guys were either nationally ranked or previous Fargo All-Americans. It was a banner year for Kansas big men. For you to say that several of our 09 heavy guys will perform at that same level shows your lack of understanding talent levels."

First of all we were talking about more than just 285 you also threw in 215 pounders. Second I also said it was a banner year for heavier wrestlers and acknowledged several of them were national caliber. Good to see you are realizing Zlatnick belonged in the national class. Third I did not say that the 2009 guys I mentioned would measure up to the level of ALL the 2008 wrestlers you mentioned. I said they would measure up to SOME of them. For your information, Jake Wooten and Jacob both gave Andrus a pretty good close match at the early season tournament in Leavenworth last year, Andurs did win both matches. In saying that I am not saying they are in Andrus class. Andrus is truly a national wrestler and deserves his Division I status. I was not saying that next year's 215 or 285 seniors from this year would be in the class of the elite national guys you just mentioned but I do think that several of them will be in the same class of SOME of the 2008 215 and 285 guys you mentioned and certainly deserved recognition in the list of top returning seniors that you originally mentioned.

The SM East bias is that most of us could do the same thing with our previous year JV lineup but most of us would not go so far as to include these guys in a prediction for next year's state placers because it shows we are favoring our own. There are other examples of your SM East bias I could bring up but I chose not to. My main point with it is that because of your previous ratings of SM East wrestlers, I have no doubt that if any of the guys that I mentioned were SM East wrestlers that you would have definitely included them on your original list. If you can rate the high school wrestlers, I feel good about assessing your performance as a rater and to point out tendencies and biases that I might perceive you to have as a rater.

"Again Vince, please be prepared when you respond."

What, I am supposed to be more prepared than you were when you chose to ignore both 3-2-1A and the heavier weights for the class of 2009?