The thing I find kinda fascinating about the talk here about Ponca---- back in the late 60's, there was an Oklahoma State wrestling camp held at Ponca City that was attended by some of the best wrestlers from all over the country, as there really weren't all that many good instructional caps in those years, I remember some of those Ponca City guys even back then, they would come in for the camp, (since they lived there they didn's stay in the cabins) they seemed to pick up stuff that Roderick and the staff waere showing like they had done it all before, and as a group they were as good or better than the best of us, and WAY better than the rest of us! As for the small schools vs. the big schools, WSEWC about said it all, I can think of many of the guys that were so good years ago that are now big school guys. Shane Boultinghous, a 103 pound state champ from Oberlin in the early 70's has a son at Great Bend that will certainly contend for a 5a title.
Tom Ankenman at Buhler has sons in that program that likely be very good as well, Bill Keller was a several time state champ at St. Francis, had kids in the program here at Pratt. The eastern migration of talent has taken place as business develops there, and as awareness of the sport in general begins to develop, it is only a matter of time until the NW becomes a memory of its former self. That doesn't mean that it has happened yet in my opinoin, it just means that it is in progress.