Every year it bugs me how many good wrestlers get left home from the NW kansas regional and also I just think they should be a little more fair when you see how many kids from that regional were in the finals and placed it shows its pretty dominant. So here it is this a ruff draft i drew up, it took me some time and its not perfect, i dont have all the teams in here because some are obvious and some i really cant say where they should go and some i want other peoples opinion on this, and on where these regionals could be held. I really do want to hear what people think about this so be critical but let it be constive ciritism, telling me im an idiot is not going to help anything because i already know that, haha. Ok so here it goes.
Regional 1. (north Regional) St. Francis, Oberlin, Smith Center, P-Burg, Saint Mary's, Rock Creek, Rossiville, Lincoln, Bellville, Stockton, Atwood. hosted at maybe Bellville.
Regional 2. (south west)kinda) Beliot, Norton, Wakeeney, Oakley, Ellis, Hoxie, Cimmaron, Plainville, Sublettle, Leoti(many others from this are to fill in two) Hosted Wakeeney or Leoti
Regional 3. (east) Eureka, ACCHS, Silver lake, Highland, Herrington, Horton, Sabetha, West Elk(also tons of other to fill in and some i didnt know where to put them)Hosted in ?
Regional 4. (middle) Hillsboro, Garden Plain, Hoisington, South east-saline, Sedgwick, Wichita indepedent, Lyons, Halstead(also alot of schools to plug in still, Hosted in Hoisington or ?

Now once again there are alot of teams left out but i tried to get the ones that finshed best at their regional and mix and match them, so lets hear what everyone thinks, Maybe this would never work but their just some ideas to get the ball rolling.

I left out norton as a spot to host the south west regional, my bad. I had them on the peice of paper and then didnt type it but another place that could sure do it.

How many of us have sat and redrawn all four classes the past decade each time the Regional assignment are released? You have put a lot of time (and heart into this). Unfortunately, the message from Topeka is that KSHSAA leadership have been told by Administrators (from all across the state) that keeping travel costs down supercede competitive balance. A reflection of our budget times - and not soon to change with the Kansas Supreme Court ruling forcing the Legislature to change the current school financing formulas......

You have done a great job but this is not going to happen. Besides the reasons given above the state is very clear that they want to get the best wrestlers from "...the four regions of the state". This does not mean the best wrestlers. I am frustrated every year by the inequality of it all but we must just deal with it. Before the state tournament on another post I said it was unfair. Others (eastern fans) posted and said the NW region was not any tougher and all the other regionals would win as many metals etc. I am still waiting to hear from them after the proof is in. Come on folks I know your computers still work- why have you quit posting on this subject?

Ya, when i made this i didnt think Bowden was going to get on here and go WOW, this is a great idea, but i was raised to belive the only way to change this is to do something about it yourself. SO in my opinion the more we talk about this the more other people will pay attention to it. This was just an idea, if no one likes it or thinks its worth talking about thats fine but i would like to think that maybe we can get enough people behind this to do something, and maybe not, who knows. But i just posted this for an idea and maybe if it doesnt fix the problem it can help in some other way.

Deleted this post because I'm not getting into another discussion with those who only wish to complain about western Kansas getting the shaft.

Ok, mom 160, im sorry you think you are being attacked but i really want to keep this open to thoughts about new regionals not your state experince, so if we could keep all comments focused on that, that would be great.

I would understand the arguement if there were a bunch of 4 seeds placing, but that is not the case. It happend in 215 this year but that probably was as much a matter of the side of bracket he was on and the Silver Lake wrestler he wrestled having a injured shoulder as being in the top 6. Yes, the west's 5 & 6, in some cases, may be better than a 4 other places but I'm sure that in some weights, other regions leave good kids home also. You change the regions you will have the same type of arguements along with the additonal expense. But it makes for interesting intenet chat.

You all just don't seem to get it...

Wow, Jason some people are just really tired of hearing about this, but it is always a good debate. I think cost is a problem, like I told you before, plus you would have to change the name from Regionals, because it is no longer a Regional tournament. It could be called Sub-State. Good post Jason, but I think the East is getting upset and since I live in the East now, I better watch my P's and Q's.

You can not straighten this out by moving teams. This is not a dual tournament. You actually have to seed all 64 wrestlers, at each weight, and send them all individually to different tournament sites. You can't move 14 wrestlers to satisfy a problem at one weight, without creating a problem at another.

why not just have a state tournament start on a thursday and go friday and sat then you wouldnt have to worry bout the best wrestlers stayin home. have 64 man brackets.

I dont think anyone really even looked at my regionals, IF you could find a central location on Highway 24 to hold that North regional, and found almost central locations for the rest of the regionals their would be just as many teams staying in motels as they always do, and some team always has to drive a long way to regionals any year. And im not talking about the 4th place kid placing, im just saying that 3 kids from oakley who were all previous state qualifers and 1 returning placer stayed home this year. That would happen if the regionals were just a little bit more fair. I just tried something new, but i know how you people from the east hate to hear anything about the west regional being hard, so ill quit now.

Nothing is ever quite fair. If you took the North Regional and appied it to this year then 275 would be unbelievable. Zlatnik- 1st, Wilger- 2nd, DeMars-
4th, Smith, Euhus, Frye, and Wright all qualifiers. Isn't that what we are trying to get away from?

There it is, some constructive critism, so how would you do it a bomb, leave them the way they are, im getting thats what most people want to do, which is whats going to happen, i just had an idea and promised my old coach i would do this cause i told him there was a better way to do it. also the forum was running out of intersting topics, just thought maybe we could have some fun but everyone is a little to sensitive about this subject, so its alright, we can just go back to talk about refs and how much we hate gutwrench.

Outside of Mom160, didnt see anybody being to sensitive. Point is that no system is perfect. Yes NW is overall the toughest region but no matter what you do with the regional system you will be leaving good wrestlers home. The NE region left state quailifers home too. 64 man bracket would be the best way but still would have complaints about seeding, and it wont happen because travel expense of families and schools.

The only reason I was "sensitive" is that this conversation has been brought up several times this season - the last time being in the Eureka 321a regional thread where we were discussing what time the Eureka regionals started. That initiated a conversation about the inequality between regions???

Big Daddy's comments seemed to be directed directly towards me, with my comments being terribly misquoted. Wrestlingfan65 also made a poor "joke" at Eureka's expense earlier this season. I'll be moving on to track season soon, hopefully watching my son win another state track medal. I hope all of you find a worthy solution that allows those who are most deserving, both in wrestling and integrity, to compete at a great tournament.

I don't believe Norton should even go to Regionals. Just let them bye to state

Here is the final thing i will add to this post in hope people will understand why i think the regionals should be broke up diffrently. 3 years ago 10 out of the 14 number 4 seeds from the nw kansas regional beat the #1 seeds from the east regional. I know that this was pretty rare but every year more than several of the number 4 seeds from the NW regional beat #1 seeds from the east regional. So here is my point the Number 1 seed from the east regional would have a much better chance of placing every year if they were not getting knocked off in the first round, Hence the people from the east regional should be just as upset as the people from the NW regional. Just something i was thinking about tonight, If anyone has any thoughts about this post it, if not i will probally pout, and delete this post.(haha, Jk).

ya some regionals are pretty crappy and some are insanely difficult to place in, but it isnt a problem that is very economically fixable right now, even though it does make me mad to see a kid with over a 80 percent winning record stay home and a kid with a losing record and a weak regionals get to go to the grand stage and wrestle