Ladies and Gentlebeans-
Your very own Prant Garker has returned to the state wrestling meet for the first time since my triumph* in 2003, and I have some thoughts. Most of them are about fashion and will be posted in the uniforms thread, but I have some other notes as well. Someone please share these items with Mr. and Mrs. KSHSAA ASAP, we have some things that need fixing.
-Kansas Coliseum 2.0 is no Kansas Coliseum 1.0, that's for darn sure. For one thing, it's relatively easy to find your way around and you don't even have to worry about concrete falling on your head at any moment. Do not like, we should invite 4A, get the band back together, and return to Kansas Coliseum 1.0. Can we make this happen by tomorrow?
-The Keal brothers from Mill Valley are too fast and too tall. Seems unfair. Do not like.
-Kyle Haas is as advertised, and may win a state title by wrestling four matches in under one minute. Reminds me of a young me. This didn't go as you predicted but it was the BEST state finals match I have ever seen. Cade Lautt gets back to back top 5 in the nation opponents in the finals but pulls off a big win to NOT become the best Kansas wrestler to NEVER win state. Kyle is very special and might win all four in 2021 without going to minute 2 of a match but Saturday night was Cade's night. When have you ever seen the entire crowd cheer for a private school kid??
-Garden City fans are v classy and positive, but I wish they would lean into the color brown more. So few teams have brown as their major color--celebrate it! Give me those 1998 brown singlets and t-shirts.
-Making the kids weigh in tomorrow morning is b-r-u-t-a-l and very Grinchy. Dislike. But for the best!
-Team Top Hat (Washburn Rural) qualified 14 kids for state and still has 14 kids wrestling on day two. I believe according to KSHSAA bylaws, this should get TTH a bonus of 150 additional team points.
-Derby is Derbying again. And for those of you who don't know, to "Derby" is to always have brothers on the same team who are indistinguishable from the previous sets of brothers on the team, and then have guys who enter state with like a 23-17 record who somehow end up in the semis. (See: Heineckers, Lindseys, Rushers, etc.) As someone who has been watching Derby Derby for over two decades, I am OVER IT.
-I saw one--count em, one--stalling call when wrestlers were on top today. Someone please insert these refs into a time machine and send them back a few decades to ref old Prant matches. It would have been very helpful.
Other thoughts to be added at the conclusion of day two. If you have suggestions for KSHSAA, post them in this thread and I will let you know if they make the list.
*0-2
Mandate the mouthpiece. Have the best officials officiate the finals. NO they are not all the best. Did you see the Edwards vs Lindsey match? I like both kids and both dads and the outcome wasn't as relevant to me as the quality of officiating. In the third one wrestler rode the ankle for 96 of 120 seconds with only stalemates and a stall call with 2 seconds left. UNREAL! Was the assistant ref just a wallflower? One of the worst examples of officiating I have ever seen! Under no circumstances should he be on the whistle again for a state finals match!!
