3HSWrestler- I am the head wrestling coach at Shawnee Hts. I appreciate your comments about the Hts v GE dual. I'm from a small town in Oklahoma where at least 1000 people fill the stands for every home dual meet. It is like Friday Night Lights, but for wrestling. This is my goal for Shawnee Hts wrestling. I love duals and wish KS had a dual state tourney as well as a normal state tourney.
We have been building this program and try to put on a show at home. I tell my wrestlers, this show is not for us....we just need to wrestle. The show is for the fans and school. The true wrestling fan loves to watch a good match, but the normal person doesn't even understand wrestling. So, we need to promote the sport and do something to draw people in to watch us. This week we will have our Sr night. For this dual we will project a highlight video on the gym wall before the varsity dual. Then we will intro the Sr's and have them walk out with their parents. Following Sr night events, we will start "The Show". We will bring our kids club wrestlers out on the mat w/our HS wrestlers and say our team creed together and then do our team break down. Our varsity wrestlers will be intro'd to music as they run out of a tunnel w/smoke. We will wrestle all matches under a matlamp. Each wrestler will have their own intro song as they walk onto the mat before they wrestle. T-shirts will be thrown into the crowd along with beads in Shawnee Hts colors.
This type of atmosphere makes wrestling fun and builds a program. Our kids club wrestlers see this and think, I wnt to be that varsity wrestler someday. Anyway, thanks again and I hope people continue to promote and build our sport!
p.s. This dual will be next Wed at Shawnee Hts. JV matches begin at 6 pm and the varsity matches will begin around 7 pm if anyone wants to come and watch.
