I know I am going to regret this but I would like to add a thought to this subject if I may. I coached wrestling for three decades in this state and did most of it in class 5A. For most of that time, that classification was hands down the toughest in the state. Like any of them, it rises and falls with the trends of the programs, no big deal. As coaches and parents, educators and providers, we only have a couple of obligations. We are given these jobs for one real reason and that is to help kids as they build their experience base for real life and the state wrestling tourney is not real life. We are here to help them experience exciting and stimulating days before things get real serious and sometimes ugly.

So, once in a while things get a little slim and some (wonderful) kids with less than stellar records make it to the state meet. Tell you a secret, when they walk in that meet in that big parade, they are just as thrilled and just a worthy as that kid beside him with that sparkling 40-0 record. It means as much to his parents, and to his school, but most of all to him as it does that three timer that he is following. They don't all have to be nationally ranked wrestlers of renown to deserve to be thrilled a little in this small window of their lives.

I coached 27 kids in my career who are no longer living on this earth, nine who are or were in prison, many who are very very successful in their vocational pursuits and hundreds who have wonderful families and meaningful careers and I didn't have much to do with their outcome, but I hope that I helped them to feel like winners and that day when they got to walk in with that parade was not the high point of their life, but something thrilling and fullfilling for that moment in time. After the first round most of those guys are gone anyway, so then all of you can get down to watching those guys that you think are so worthy of the state tourney. Fellas, I think we got to remember who we all do this thing for and somewhere along the line, not everybody does. That is a shame.