Kansas State already had the facilities for an equestrian team. They would have had to build a whole new softball complex, as Twin Oaks is owned by the city and can't be used for collegiate athletics. I would have liked to see them add a softball team, but it wasn't economically feasible.

KSU has rich alumns...how about build a softball field somewhere in Manhattan? There are plenty of places to put a Softball Stadium, it doesn't have to be next to all the other ones! Heck they built Super Target and a Famous Dave's BBQ.

Yeah, but Famous Daves and Super Target will bring in money. Softball will be a drain on KSU's economy. Imagine the prices of a softball stadium construction and upkeep, scholarship $$, coaching staffs, uniforms, and travel. This will hardly be offset by a fan base of 30-60 paying customers. We have a hard enough time paying for the one stickball diamond we have now.

I want to get back on subject.

Abilene gets high marks for wrestling fan base and support for a couple of reasons.

1. Fans who understand the sport

2. Support banners...you can drive almost all the way to Wichita for State and see AHS banners at least clear down to Smoky Valley.

Aaron, Dingbat, KSU had a softball team in the early 80's. The field was east of the baseball stadium. I think the Brandeberry Indoor Complex
was built on that land. I'm not sure if softball was a club or if it was a sport, but I remember watching games there. Dingbat, about your senior year, a group of people met to discuss starting a wrestling team and a softball team at KSU. In less than a month, we had pledges of almost $2 million. We also passed flyers at the kids state asking for support. When a rep from the group met with KSU administration, he was told there was no chance of starting either program.
I am a KSU alum, I root for KSU football, but the rest of the year I'm a husker fan because they have wrestling and softball. Dingbat, I have seen over 1,000 people at the Neb softball stadium.(warm day).
Nigel, I was in Abilene last week at the Eisenhower Center. I asked some of the employees how the Abilene wrestling team was doing this year. One of the people thought they were probably good but he wasn't sure and the others had no idea. I guess you could go to any town and find someone who doesn't know or doesn't care about the high school wrestling team. I know we have our share in Manhattan, but if they take the local paper and listen to the local radio station, they should have a pretty good idea of what going on. Our paper does a good job of reporting the matches and doing an article on almost every senior wrestler. Our radio station will broadcast the regional and state tournaments.
If we use the local media for a guide for top 10 towns in Kansas, I would have to nominate Norton. Every dual or tournament consists of almost two pages in the local paper. You can almost picture each match in your mind as you are reading the article. The Norton radio station broadcasts all of the Norton events and the man giving the move by move is very knowledgeable. Also, based on the Newton tournament, the Norton fans are numerous, knowledgeable and loud. (very loud,right llg)

Softball and wrestling go hand in hand. It helps offset the title IX so if you hate softball say bye to wrestling-

Why not support athletics as a whole and not as one sport- support everything and realize good people play many sports.

Husker fan because of many reasons which include softball and wrestling- they support most athlete groups

If you went on statistics alone there is no question that the town with the most tradition, NOT POTENTIAL, or up and coming, we are looking at what was done in the past. St. Francis has done it all. There have been some great coaches right now larry gable and steve jenkins have to be winding down his career as a coaches, they are getting old. But Gbale has been the indian's head coach for the longest period of time 1974-2005. Jake Durham was norton's coach for many years. and i would have to say that norton would be a very close second. Norton and St. Francis used to go round and round in the day. It was the biggest rivalry in the state at the time still might be, plus hoxie

Gotta agree with Mr. Over on this one--- its one thing to be a wrestling town when you are good, but the fact is St. Francis, Norton, Hoxie, Goodland, and colby have always had good attendance at their events even when they were down, and there are many programs that would like to develop their program to the point that they could have a season like these guys have in what they would consider a down year. Scott City is another one of those kind of Towns, they have been at the game about thirty years less than the above listed schools, but I remember having big crowds at home duals even back in the sixties when we couldn't whip cool whip. I think I would separate Colby, Goodland, Hoxie, Norton, and Scott City out of that group as program supporters in general, as I have seen their basketball crowds during the years that their wrestling was up and they were very large as well, Whereas I believe that people in Sainty mostly support wrestling.

I don't think sainty has had a winning basketball season boys or girls since 1997. I'm not even sure if they have ever made an appearance at a state tournementin the last 15 years