I read this article when it first came out last week. I enjoyed reading it. It is consistent with the comments that I have made about the program on Eric Johnson's All Class topic two days ago and to Will in a private e-mail yesterday.
As the article points out, I think St. James is a fine program. It is coached by Mike Medina a man that I have the utmost respect for both as a person and a coach. I think they have two of the very best wrestlers in Kansas in Ryne Cokeley and Taylor Moeder. I also think St. James is a program on the rise as all of your wrestlers this year are competing at a higher level now than in the program's first couple of years of existence (I believe St. James is only in your 4th year of existence as a school). I believe their first year that St. James competed on a regular basis in varsity competition was just 3 years ago with their highest grade class in the school at that time being only sophomores. At that time I do not believe that they had many wrestlers who had wrestling experience before high school.
Mike has done an outstanding job coaching and preparing all the kids not just Ryne and Taylor into becoming competitive varsity wrestlers. It is also obvious that all the wrestlers in the program are working very hard in becoming good wrestlers. Like I said yesterday I think St. James is definitely a program on the rise. I want to congratulate Mike, the wrestlers and their families for working so hard for the success that you are achieving and I wish you all the best of luck in the future.
On Eric Johnson's thread about his All Class rankings I have had to make some comments that the St. James wrestling family might take exception to. Basically I am saying that I don't think that St. James is at this time the 9th best team in Kansas. One of the main reasons I am making that statement is that you only finish 11th out of 20 teams at the Johnson County Classic and 11th out of 18 at Derby last weekend. I think that those are both very good showings for a program at such an early stage of existence but I honestly do not believe that it translates into currently the 9th best team in Kansas. I do believe though that your program is headed in that direction. I forsee team state titles in your future.
My reasons for making these statements in the All Class topic is not to be belittling your program but solely to point out to Eric Johnson that his change in method of ranking teams in Kansas is incorrect and misleading in my opinion. I think it is important to point out to Eric when his rankings are incorrect or misleading because a lot of young wrestlers read his rankings and seem to think they are gospel and not just one man's opinion. So I apologize to anyone in the St. James wrestling community over the posts that I have made concerning Eric's current rating of St. James as a team. I think you are a very good team and all of you are doing a great job. I wish all of you and your program the greatest success the remainder of this year and in the future.
