having never discussed this before i do not know how it will be received on this board. my hope is that we can discuss it without labeling anyone anything or name calling. that being said, part of the issue with inner city is racial cultures. basketball is part of the african-american culture, wrestling is not. a prime example of this would be turner high school. turner is in kck(although is its own school district) and has a very diverse student population. i dont know turner's line up now as well as i did a few years ago when i lived in the kc area (and when turner won state) but i do not remember a single african american on their state championship team or their team that got 2nd the following year. a few hispanics and then majority white, no african americans. a lot of inner city schools do not have the white population that turner does. so they are stricty going after african american kids to wrestle. I think the question that we need to ask ourselves is, how do we reach the african american culture with wrestling. in my eyes right now its not very widespread, and yes, i know we can all point to specific wrestlers that are african american, on the whole though i do not believe its really part of the african american culture. their is an "Reviving Baseball in the Inner City" league in Kansas City that is predominantly minorities and aimed at reaching that population. I don't know how effective it is but it is an attempt. Could we do the same with wrestling in some fashion? How? Does anyone think my assessment is accurate? Or am I way off base? Interested in hearing people's opinions...