If Kansas goes to one class it will all but kill wrestling in Kansas. Participation would drop dramatically. I wrestled every year for a chance to go to state. If they would have combined all the classes there is no way I would've gone to state. I would've quit because there would be no payoff. You do this and all you're going to be left with is the extremely dedicated wrestling in high school. No one else would even stand a chance or even care about it (it's kind of getting that way now). What do you want? Our sport to grow and have an impact on thousands upon thousands of kids lives or a chance to see everyone wrestle in one building. Post just seems kind of selfish to me. It's not always about getting Kansas All-Americans. It's the principles that wrestling gives you, that's what matters. Everyone. Should. Wrestle.
Steve, so you're saying the only reason you wrestled was the chance to go to state. So you got the intrinsic reward from beating 1 or 2 average local kids in regional tourney and you obtained your lofty goal of state qualifier. You were able to get the patch on your letter jacket and show off to your friends. The free hotel room and little lunch money and day off school helped you stick out the tough practices and cutting weight. So when you were younger did you stick out another year of t-ball becuase you got your participation ribbon. Maybe the reason kids arent sticking out for wrestling is the low bar we set. For example, the works hard and buys into the program and had some motivatiing intrisic values, and then he gets grouped in with the kid with the 5-20 record who wins won match at regionals and qualifies for state.
Its just a different paradign with one state tournament. Goals would be altered based on skill level and kids could be recognized for reaching a level. You would have to have to have different levels of a state tournanent series. Indiana has a sectional, regional, semi-state and then state level. Kids still are recongnized for being regional and semi-state qualifiers and very proud of this.
