I feel like a these reasons are some of the things holding our athletes back in the first place. 1. By your logic 90+% of our athletes will never become HS state champions, so therefore we should eliminate exposure or goal setting to help that become a reality. 2. Attendance is the only way to have an influence or exposure to the sport. ESPN last year aired every single match of the tournament. The tournament returns to STL in 2017. Our athletes also have little contact with NFL, MLB, and NBA athletes, yet I feel like we are the only sports that use this as an excuse. Actually, our sport has one of the largest chances to contact our most elite level athletes on a very frequent occurrence.

We need to stop aiming low and hitting low. The holy grail of KS wrestling can not continue to be a kids or HS state championship. We need to have loftier goals and set actions into motion to accomplish those goals. I am realistic, I don't expect all our athletes to wrestle in college, especially at a D1 level. But who is it for us to say that they can't or won't. I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to wrestle in college and pursue my education at a higher level through that avenue. I will not be the reason my athletes goals aren't high. Our sport is way too hard for kids to not be fans of it first. I have strong feelings that opening this date is important to the beginning of said shift.