Greg,
I will read the report, but I would like for you to read my original post again and tell me how in the world you got the idea that I was saying that young ladies trying out for the sport are not worthy of being considered college athletes? That is ridiculous. This is what I said:
I have heard that KSU aggressively has to recruit women on campus to become members of the rowing team. Again I am not against a legitimate women rowing team opportunity but I am against the idea of creating a women's rowing team just to meet Title IX requirements when we know that KSU would not have to recruit on campus to fill spots on a NCAA wrestling team.
And as for your statement that the reason no experience is required for rowing is that there are basically no high school rowing teams in Kansas or the Midwest surrounding states, I am sorry but I just don't buy that thought. I see absolutely no evidence of any significant demand from young high school age women to get involved in rowing. I have seen it for other sports but not for rowing. I have seen desire for the equestrian team from young high school women but never for rowing. If it is indeed the case that there is not a strong demand for a women's rowing team, I think it is not right that there should be such a team when we have so many involved youth and high school wrestlers without even one wrestling team at our D-1 State universities.
But it seems to be a moot point if indeed as you are saying the rowing or equestrian team numbers are not involved in the statement from the report that Kansas in 2nd per capita in comparative states in producing Big 12 athletes. I guess I will read the report and try to see how that statistic is derived. Right now it is a very difficult statistic for me to swallow because I know that football is one of the largest sports in numbers and very often I hear how Kansas is not a big state for Division I college football players. Maybe we get more Big 12 D-1 football players in Kansas compared to other states than I have been led to believe.
I do believe that for wrestling to develop to its fullest potential in this state that we need to allow coaches to coach their athletes in it year around if the coach and athlete choose to voluntarily participate year around. I also think we should allow high school coaches to be involved in the coaching and management of youth wrestling clubs. I would also like to see a Dual state tournament and a Grand State tournament.
