When you are in the minority and you feel that you are logical, you are really illogical. The day I see 28 guys on the mat going at it I will buy into this team stuff. I would hate to be the coach that told this dad that his wrestler had to wrestle a weight he didn't want to wrestle, if he had established he could make that weight conforming to the rules and beaten all of the competitors at that weight. This is the beauty of the sport. Leave the politics out of this sport. PLEASE! Any coach who puts his own personal goals ahead of any of his wrestlers is NOT a good coach.
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Will Cokeley


Ouch! Now I know why you told me it was time to get out of coaching. I've moved kids around to fill lineups, win duals, have great matchups for all of my 36 years of coaching. I have always emphasised TEAM to my kids in the dual setting and it carries over to the tournaments. My wrestlers knew that they may be moved up to fill a void, or for a specific matchup that might save team points in order to win the dual. Have I had kids upset or even dad's upset, you bet and I'd do it again because of what it teaches kids.

One of the things I admire most about this sport is that it teaches life lessons better than any other sport. In life you learn that sacrifice is necessary to achieve something worthwhile. We lose weight to achieve a goal of maybe making the team, getting to a weight where we can be successful or because that is where the team needs you and you are the best candidate to handle it. In a dual, I taught kids that they may have to sacrifice their weight and move up if the team could benefit from the move and win the dual. Sometimes that meant giving up an individual win and wrestling a match where you try not to give the opponent bonus points in a loss. Every team member understood the sacrifice their team member made for THEM. Some of the most exciting matches I've coached over the years was when an individual was willing to sacrifice in those very circumstances and battle his heart out in a losing cause only to preserve a victory for his Team (NOT THE COACH). What you learn and what you gain from these situations is all relative to what the individual has been taught. I still think its a Team Sport based on Individual performances.