Sportsfan,
The other side of that coin is that by creating a super team or playing a national schedule vice purely a state schedule that school district incereased its revenue enough to fund the athletic program for 10 years. This is evidence provided in the article you gave. This is not such a bad thing.
But I reiterate, at what expense do these programs exist? Would they serve to kill competing nearby programs? The other winter sport does not have to worry about someone killing it due to lack of competitiveness. Fans of our sport have to be on a constant vigil against those who would like to see it abolished. Currently it would appear we are in a period of growth here in this state as it seems every year we hear of a new high school program being added. I can't remember the last time I heard of a program being killed, but it can happen. Just this past weekend I heard of one of the most historic programs in this state and people within that school who are chomping at the bit to get rid of it. If these super programs succeed which they likely would, and it causes other nearby programs to fail, who would they wrestle locally? Do we really want a couple dozen programs in the entire state? I want every high school large enough to have a wrestling program to have one and that is what I constantly work towards. Every time we take a wrestler or team out of our state to compete it is likely at the expense of some other Kansas team or tournament. Does that mean we shouldn't travel at all? No. But as I said, let them come to us if possible, and it seems many already want to do. If you want to really want to judge the impact of opening up this KSHSAA rule, just think about the expense of sending your marching bands all over the country year after year.
Here's the 800 lb gorilla that nobody wants to address.....you said it will create a state of "haves and have-nots". So what. Isn't that what we currently have in this country given our economic system?
Without a doubt we have become a country of me's instead of we's.
The bottomline to this whole issue has nothing to do with wrestling or any other sport specifically but the basic fundamental premise of freedom. In my opinion, a school district should have the freedom to chose where they compete. They make that choice based on a variety of factors, one being resources available.
I see this as no different than speed limit laws. Are they sometimes a nusiance? Yes. Do they sometimes become outdated and unnecessary? Yes. But, were they put there for good reason and with much thought in the first place? Yes. Do we still need them? Yes!
If this creates a system of haves and have nots so be it. You can always go out and work to improve your lot in life. The more we try to equal the playing field on any of this, the more we inch closer to socialism.
You can't improve if eventually there is nobody else around to wrestle. It likely won't happen in my lifetime and maybe not yours but it can happen.
Keeping things at the local level seems to work the best.
I agree with that BUT there is a need for state and federal government.
