ATTENTION HIGH SCHOOL COACHES!!!!

The Ironman seeds are being posted on themat.com. I was reading through these and it occurred to me how WRONG it is that our school administrators, coaches, and KSHSAA restrict our wrestlers from being able to showcase their talent in the biggest three high school, folkstyle tournaments in the country because of an obsolete travel restriction clause. This is the BEST way to get your name on the NCAA Divison 1 radar but our wrestlers are being OBSTRUCTED from going!! There is NO REASON that justifies not allowing a KSHSAA athlete the opportunity to travel to get the best possible competition and exposure. The same groups divide our state into four classes wrestling in three different venues which nearly eliminates any interest from Division 1 coaches (by the way we are one of three states that do not have a single site HS state tournament venue). Please don't give me some sob story about not everyone being able to afford the opportunity. Life is about choices and if you choose to do something then you can make it happen. This is just another attempt to socialize athletics!! Stop the madness and lets get a provision started right now that will allow at least one trip outside of the 400 mile border restriction!!!

A point of clarification -

The KSHSAA travel restriction is five hundred (500) miles.

Typo! That still does't get you to Ironman, Beast of the East or Reno. You can't get to Chicago, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Ohio, Pennsylvania or lots of other places. Who came up with the restriction and did they did they just pull 500 out of their butt or what?

Were I to hazard a guess it would be "or what".

who pays for it? some schools are struggling as it is to keep going to in-state tournaments, and it may even get worse with further budget cuts.

When I coached in Wisconsin we did a fund raiser to afford one big trip per year. We went to California one year and Florida the second year.

So, if it is "too expensive" why do we have to have a rule to restrict travel?

"or what" How did they determine that 500 miles was the threshold? Was a study conducted? It is sort of silly when you consider that Blue Valley NW travels to Rio Rancho, NM which is 798 but we couldn't make the 803 mile trek to Cuyahoga Falls, OH.

It is an oppressive rule.


http://www.walshironman.com/

The rule is 500 road miles from the Kansas border. The mileage from Liberal, Kansas to Rio Rancho, New Mexico is approximately 395 miles and the mileage from Atchison, Kansas to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio is approximately 840 miles. Therefore the Blue Valley Northwest trip to Rio Rancho falls within the KSHSAA travel restrictions.

BVNW fund raises with a popcorn sale fundraiser every year and raises almost 10k for the trip on their own. There are ways and the school does not pay a dime.

Badbo

no doubt a school the size of BVNW could raise plenty of money every time, but could a 4a town afford to send the volleyball, basketball and wrestling teams to a large out of state tournament every year? there are many communities that could barely support one such fundraiser. If an athlete is a D1 prospect, they will get recruited.

Jeeze RIchard, I am not stupid I understand the way the rule works I was merely pointing out how stupid it is by displaying the mileage from Overland Park to each of the two cities in question. I don't understand the rationale behind "mileage from the border" and what purpose the rule serves. We are in the land of the free which means we should be able to choose to go wherever we want. What harm does it cause if a school goes to Ironman while others choose not?

Jayhawk, life is about choices. If a community, club, school, group of parents, choose to raise money to attend a prestigious event one year or every year they should have the choice to do so. The freedom to choose is being robbed from us and it is oppressive and socialistic. It is EASIER to get recruited if you win these events and the attention and level of scholarship you will be offered is dependent upon the confidence the coah has in your ability. It is difficult to showcase your ability in Folkstyle if you can't go to the best tournaments. We can all take the easy way out and say "Well, that is the rule" and sit here on our butts while out of state schools come to KS weekend and weekend and kick our butts because our rules lower the bar restrict the ability to excel. There cannot be improvement without change! Why is everyone so afraid of change??

KSHSAA sets up their rules to attempt and equalize the playing field, part of the concept is to keep the matches around the same level. And if out of state schools are coming to Kansas and we are getting our butts kicked what makes you think we could travel and do any better on the road?

if someone doesn't like the rule, they can choose to leave KSHSAA, if you don't like their rules, then quit.

That is easy to say, when we had no say so in the adoption of the rule.

Leveling the playing field is another socialistic "talking point". Rather than asking the weak to work to become strong, we weaken the strong, so that the weak can compete. Total crap. It is all about commitment, and those that would choose to make a bigger commitment are not allowed to do so.

Equalizing the playing field. Is that really a good thing? Does that help or hurt our athletes? The problem is, we have allowed that concept to be applied to the classrooms, our military and our athletic teams. What is next? Pass/fail grades at school? Surrendering our sovereignty to the United Nations? Doug is right on about weakening the strong. Stand back and allow those that want to accomplish their goals do so!

Jhawkjoke,
I hope you made your comments tongue in cheek. "Leave" or "Quit" are not in my vocabulary! Are you a socialist? Must be! Where is Senator McCarthy when we really need him! Why not equalize the playing field by bringing the bottom up instead of pushing or holding the top down? MY TAX DOLLARS pay for the existence of the KSHSAA so I should have a say in how my tax dollars are used. If you want a level playing field and even matches you should move to a socialist country. How would you feel about all of our manufacturing companies and service companies doing everything the same without trying to improve and outpace their competitors?

I don't think we would do very well out of state right now but I think if a team wants to go then they should be allowed to choose how far they want to go. There shouldn't be a rule restricting it. If you don't want to go to the Ironman or Beast of East then you should "leave" this forum because you really aren't a wrestling fan!

aren't high school athletics all about a level playing field? 90+% percent of the students in question are never going to compete beyond high school. Should the rules, and the sport be structured for the elite, upper level athletes who, more than likely were born into their role as elites (talent). or have a system that allows an untalented hard working athlete who cannot excel at the next level to still have success at this level. the average wrestler, or even above average wrestler would more than likely not benefit from a change in the rule. another fact that has been over looked is the fact that these are all student athletes. can we really afford to start having students miss another day of school, just so the upper crust of athletic talent can showcase their skills?

Well then Jayhawk pride, would you agree to at least support a rule change to allow the "elite" wrestler to compete wherever they want as an individual during the regular season when their team is idle? How are you hurting the average wrestler to compete outside the defined radius. So they may not get a scholarship, but it wouldn't hurt them to see part of the United States, meet some kids from another part of the country. What are you afraid of? Why punish what you call an elite wrestler when the rules you support don't help anyone?

You support your own cause! If very few would benefit then very few would would even travel to these events. How does 90% benefit from even less than 10% going the extra miles to wrestle in the most elite high school tournaments? Did you go to the site and check it out? Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania etc. Freedom to choose is one of the most fundamental rights this country was founded on. You tell me how 90% suffer if 1% or even 10% go to a tournament more than 500 miles from the border of Kansas? You tell me what sense it makes to allow travel to Rio Rancho, NM but not to Cuyohoga Falls, OH. Just try to explain it to a high school wrestler who would like to go.

Finally, HECK NO high school athletics are about an opportunity to push yourself to excel! Just like in the classroom, what if everyone was okay with getting C's! To strive to be average would be boring! No one says, can you believe the string of 5-5 seasons that team had? NO! Interest is in finding a way to escape mediocrity and become elite.

You are right, only a few would benefit but no teams would suffer. This rule would NOT impact the untalented, hard working athlete. I think you are wrong when you say "cannot excel" as ANYONE can excel if they choose to! And, isn't high school about preparing for college or life? You have to figure out how to balance and juggle. If you want to be great you have to figure out how to get your schoolwork done and compete.

Finally, would you have been excited if the Jayhawks would have been "level" last year instead of becoming elite?

So have your kid not go out til after christmas,and take him on your own raise the money on your own. I bet past ellite kansans will tell you they got recruited by placing and winning in Fargo. Jayhawk is rite bout that 10%. Which is prolly relevant to the number of kansas get recruited. A big factor is that many wrestlers wouldnt be on the mat in a tourey like that who improve over the course of four years and become state qualifiers,placers, and champions. Why would you want to discourage a young potentially great wrestler by throwing him to the wolves. College coaches know who the big names of kansas wrestling are they will get looked at regardless.

If you a have a big dog that can fight why would you want to keep him in the kennel at home? The bottom line is that I really shouldn't have to justify changing the rule because the rule shouldn't exist. If a wrestlers wants to wrestle somewhere and his coach is agreeable then they should be able to go. To have a tax funded organization tell you that you can't because it is "too far" is flat out communism. Any way you cut it! I will bet you big bucks that Douglas, Akin, Roberson, Maynes, Johnston, and several others would have loved to have competed in the Ironman.

By the way... probably not prolly, right not rite, elite not ellite. That is just a start.

I would expect this kind of response from 321A. However, you state you are from Colby which is 4A????

If you have a potentially great wrestler and he doesn't want to be thrown to the wolves then he will NEVER be great.

I would hope that the high school coach at my school would not have been stupid enough to vote for a rule like that so that his answer when a kid wanted to miss some local high school tourney to go to a tourney like the Ironman is "KSHSAA says you can't" just so he can get some team points at the DooDah High School Invitational tourney, and get a trophy to put in his office. I do not know how those things are researched before they are put in place, but we have several problems: 1-Coaches that just don't get it and 2-KSHSAA on a power trip trying to bring the top down to help the bottom.

It is quite obvious by the outcome of the last few elections that it is getting to the point that the majority of Americans think it is ok to bring the top down to help the bottom. I say we ask the bottom to bring themselves up.