It's all about atmosphere and putting on a show. It would be a lot more fun for kids wrestling in front of 10,000 fans as opposed to 5,000 fans no matter what venue. Not too mention wrestling is wrestling and I want to watch as much of it as I can as a true fan and coach. So missing out on the 14 finals matches that are headed to Salina sucks. Not to mention, if I was a 4A fan, i would be ****ed to miss out on the 28 finals matches that are taking place in Wichita. I actually hate that I have never got to watch a 321A state tourney! I love wrestling and missint out on the pinacle of the high school season for anybody sucks. I wish there was a facility in the center of Kansas that could hold all 4 classes in the same venue and hold 20,000 fans! Tell me that would not be one hell of an atmosphere!

Good luck 321A, 4A, 5A, 6A... I hope we can all unite as one huge class someday and crown a true state champion!

I have noticed that same trend as well. Many of the people complaining about the split seem to be from the 5A & 6A schools. It seems like those from the 4A realm are perfectly fine with being by themselves at State. As i've said before, aside from being able to see all three finals at State it was never really a big deal to me. Most of the time I was focusing on 4A because we were in the process of fighting for and winning the state title.

I don't have any problem with the split. Unfortuntly I will be officiating the weekend of high school state anyway, so im only going to get to see Friday's wrestling.

Wasn't 4a and 321a at Hays in the early 80's?

In 84, 4a was in Russel, and pardon the French, but it sucked for atmosphere. Of course, having it at the Salina Bicen. Cntr will have a lot more "atmosphere", than the Russel HS gymnasium. No offense to Russell HS, but they would have to agree that it was pretty lame.

I'd rather have them all together, but I guess we have to play the hand we are dealt.

I believe 4a and 321a were both in Hays from 79-83? It was ok but everything was full. No motels for 90-100 miles Hays is not big enough for both tournaments. It is just right for 321a.

I was there in 79, and like you said it was a nightmare getting rooms. Trying to find a place to eat was next to impossible.

I have been fortunate to have wrestled when all classes were together, to have worked the State tournament when it was in Russell, one class, when it was in Hays, two classes, and 4,5,6A classes in Wichita. I also attended both of the Grand State tournaments in Hays. All sides of this agrument have good points, however, I feel the combined site offers the true wrestling fan a great venue to see the best of the best. The view from the floor seeing 7000 fans standing, the large flag waving, and the top wrestlers in the state standing waiting to compete is a sight you will not forget. Putting 123 & 4 A together might make sense, however spliting all classes into individual classes again will take the sport back 20 years. The Newton tournament had more excitement that the State tournament would have if we did that. Someone made a great point, if it is dirty, pick up the trash and put it in the trash can, then call the County Commission and let them know. They do listen. Former County Commissioner Bud Hentzen arranged for the Officials Association to have a meeting with the County. They agreed the housekeepping was not what it should be, they agreed the mangement should have been friendier, and those of you that complained about the security should see how you look and act from the floor. The County will work with the wrestling community, remember Dave Unruh was a outstanding official, fan and he had wrestling sons.

Sure the 5-6A tournament will not be a financial success, the rental rate will be the same 1/3 of the teams will be gone and the State will take that into consideration when they separate the classes back into some of the new high school gyms. But I feel fortunate to have been associated with over 20 years of the best State Championship arrangements this state has ever seen, the KSHSAA State Wrestling Championships in Wichita. Thank you Wichita

Hays has changed a lot since the early 80's. I would say that having 321a and 4a toggether there would be a good option, just not as good as having 6a,5a,4a,321a all together. My belief is that there are too many people in charge, that do not understand people's concerns. KSHSAA plays the "we do what is best for the kids" card all of the time, but I have news for ya. If KSHSAA wanted to do what is right for the kids, all of our high schoolers eligible to wrestle 15under would have been at Tulsa Nationals this weekend.

Putting all classes together will not work unless they change the format to a three day event. There is not a place big enough to host all classes and allow each class to have 4 mats. This would be possible in a three day event because you could alternate sessions
Session one 321A-4A
Session two 5A-6A
keep rotating sessions the only exception semis-finals each class has two mats and finals each class one mat.

This is not going to happen because one the state likes the 4 mats per class format and two they are worried about the athletes being students first and don't want to pull them out of another day of school.

Matt you are right. Colorado has all classed at the Pepsi Center. They start on Thursday after noon. They run 4 mats per class. The advantage Colorado has, is Denver is in the middle of the state. To do this in Kansas, it would have to be held some where in the east part of the state. Maybe there is no place in Kansas that could hold this event ?

Why are the 4 mats per class an issue? We ran for many years with 3. Is it because of wrestling off for 5th and 6th? While I like a break between rounds, too long a break could be bad for both the fans and wrestlers.

After attending the National Duels at UNI two weeks ago I have to say that I have to agree with MElliott that something will be missing when you are unable to watch all classes in the finals. Watching D1, D2, D3, NAIA and NJCAA finals was fantastic. The atmosphere was electric and awe inspiring. Thank goodness they didn't think you have to divide the classes to have a good tournament. I hope the 'powers who be' will rethink this decision when the Colliseum is finished or some other facility is large enough to hold multiple classes.

On a negative note, having 4,5,&6A together, there was so much wrestling going on, I missed whole matches and parts of others. Wish it would be possible to have 1-2-3A on one weekend, 4,5 &6A on the next consecutive weekends.

But on a positive note, 1 venue makes recruiting Kansas kids easier and someone that might not have "been heard of" will catch an eye and get an offer to come and wrestle at college.

The atmosphere will be great, the wrestling will be fantastic, and the hospitality will be refreshing.

I agree with Swayz about the recruiting issue, and I would also throw in the fact that the media coverage would also be elevated.

Not judging anyone, but I think it comes down to two different kinds of thought. The first is "what's good for me or my classification." The other is "what's good for Kansas Wrestling and wrestling in general." If I'm a spectator, I might put clean bathrooms and polite security at the top of my list. If I'm a die-hard fan of the sport, I'd say let's get the most publicity for our sport as possible. Both are fine thoughts. I just think it is tough to have both.

I'd like to see one venue for all classes, but that doesn't appear to be possible at this time. I'd HATE to see classes go back to high schools.

Ryan

I think if the 4A classification would have been treated as equals at Wichita, maybe a bunch of the 4A coaches wouldn't be so happy about going to Salina.

I was told by one of the basketball A.D.'s that was helping at Wichita a couple of years ago when I complained about a situation and said this would never happen at Hays (321A) "If you 4A guys don't like it here, get the f**k out." Well we are out. Goodbye and good luck getting your big school basketball A.D.'s and fans to care.

Hospitality will be extremely good, expect an improved hospitality room (at least for the refs)

Maybe, just maybe there will be more media attention to wrestling with 4A being in Salina and 5A/6A in Wichita. The newspaper's who covered the state meet in the past will continue to do so but I expect some of the local paper's will step it up now that it is closer to home. And, maybe there will be more people who have never attended a state event go just because they don't have to drive a long ways. The more people attend a wrestling meet, the more people the sport can be introduced too. After all, the die-hard fans will always be there but to get more families into the wrestling community, we need to maybe spread out a little. With 3 different state tournaments in three different locations around the state, there is a higher chance we can introduce the sport to someone new. You know, the average sports fan or hometown fan who goes just out of curiousity.

Just thinking out loud and looking at the other point of view.

I think that wrestling is something that you love or you hate. I don't think that a lot of new fans will go to the state tournament out of curiosity. I think that the wrestling fan base is the most knowledgeable out of all of the sports, because they have probably been around it a lot. I think that they are also the most loyal to their sport. I was talking to a guy the other day, and he was figuring that over the years, he has put on over 300,000 miles, worn out 4 sets of tires and two suburbans hauling kids around to wrestling tournaments. He didn't even want to think about motel and gas bills, feeding everyone, and losing vacation days. He still has a kid in sixth grade, so he has a few years left. That's our fan base. It's no big deal for people out here to travel 6 hours to a kids tournament, and spend two nights in a motel. A three hour trip and one night is a relief. Basketball people can not begin to comprehend what we do. We spent 21 hours in a gym last weekend, and our basketball players were complaining about what a long weekend THEY had. All of the down time hanging out in the motel room. They played three games in three days....I don't know how they do it! A coach from Amarillo said it best down at the Liberal tournament this year...wrestling is the Marines of high school athletics.

Tonight, I was sitting next to an older gentleman from Marysville. After the first two matches, he asked me how I knew who had won and how many points the team gets. For the rest of the duel, I explained to him some of the scoring and helped him follow along. He told me that he didn't really know that much about wrestling but since it was at Marysville, he thought he would go. This same thing happened to me at the Chapman duel early this week and at the Herington tournament. There are people who will go to watch just out of curiousity. Many of them have never really paid that much attention before but are going to watch one or two "kids" or to support the school. These are the people I was thinking about.