Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School Brute Nationals

Quick look at how many Kansas high school kids in the finals or placed at least top 2. Good showing. It looks like each year more and more states are are sending kids. The tournament is building a good reputation and more and more of the national talent are beginning to come. I talked to my brother in Wisconsin and many of their kids opted for the tournament in Iowa - because of travel distance. I do not think that 2 tournaments on the same weekend hurts. Just more opportunities for the kids. I am pretty sure it is easier and cheaper to fly into Kansas City compared to Iowa.

Freshman - 8 in top 2
Sophmores - 9 in top 2
Juniors - 4 in top 2
Seniors - 4 in top 2

Yes, but you're losing those top tier kids who are vying for Triple Crown status that go to Iowa and Reno. You also miss out on many high schoolers who head to the Beach. I really think they need to have it on a separate date from these other tournaments that have more tradition (even though the Cadet and Junior divisions were only added recently to Cedar Falls and the 9, 10, and 11th grade divisions were also added recently to VA Beach).

Congrats to my four wrestlers plus others I helped out with.

Cody Beasley National Champion All American @ 10th 122
Miles Johns 2nd place All American @ 9th 122
Tommy Miller 3rd place All American @ 7th 78
Bradley Little 7th place All American @ 10th 138

Congratulations to Alex Bontz @ 9th 133 Champion. I really enjoy watching you wrestle son. A special Thanks to Kenny Taylor jr. for coming all the way up to K.C. this weekend. You are the man.

Congrats to you Alex on a great year. I'd like to congratulate my son also for winning freshman 122lbs. Good job Ky Biddle, I am very proud of you. Keep it up.

I would certainly not consider Moeder, Cokeley, Eck, Bontz, Biddle, Holden, Seybold, etc. not top tier. I thought the competition was very good especially in many of the high school brackets. My son's bracket had 23 wrestlers from 9 different states. Congrats to all Kansas "All-Americans".

Yes, but in prior years the top level kids didn't have to worry about making the choice between Brute, NHSCA, Cadet/Junior Nationals, and Reno all on the same weekend. For many of these Kansas kids they did not see near the competition that has came to Brute in the past. I can remember in 2006 when Brute was in Omaha the majority of the 9th, 10th, and 11th grade brackets were 32 man brackets. Instead of the easy outs that many kids received this year with partway filled 16 man brackets where in some cases you didn't have to win a match to All-American. Here is the link for the 2006 tournament if you don't believe me:
Brute Nationals 2006

The level of competition was also very good at the 2006 tournament. NHSCA National Champion CJ Napier didn’t pin his way through the tournament as he had to wrestle former Missouri wrestler turned Kansan Chris Watson in what was an overtime thriller (much like this year). Last year’s NHSCA National Champion from Kansas, Jordan Keller, didn’t walk through this tournament. In fact he finished 5th that year at Brute.

My point is Brute needs to look at the date they host this tournament so their tournament doesn’t look watered down by having it on the same weekend on more tradition rich tournaments that seem to attract the headlining wrestlers from all across the country to make this a truly national tournament (as opposed to a largely regional tournament that gets a few kids looking for singlets from outside states like Florida and Michigan).

Hawaii too!

I also don't see that having it on Easter Weekend is that bad because they did it in 2007 and this tournament was still larger because there weren't three other "national" tournaments to compete with. They also got done with wrestling in two days rather than spreading it out over three. The second day was over pretty early too. This would work for many people because they would only have to miss one day of school for their kids by coming to Kansas City on Thursday and having Good Friday off for a break day of school. The only problem is making it home in time for Easter, in this case many people who fly could be home in time. As could those who drive, unless they came half way across the country.

2009 Brute Champs: Dillon Scanlon, Lansing HS, 10th grade, 133 lb; Tyler Baughman, Lansing HS, 10th grade, 163 lb.

3rd Place: Cullen Demarest, Lansing HS, 11th grade, 155 lbs; Zach Hammer, Lansing HS, 10th grade, 288 lbs.