The Issue in all four wrestling classes is the inability to fill the brackets. I just did a finger drill on the brackets on four regionals: Garden City 6A, Emporia 5A, Fort Scott 4A, Eureka 321A. GC 1st round was 96% filled (108 of 112 slots filled--how did they do that????), Emporia 5A was 72% filled (31 opens of a possible 112 slots), Fort Scott 4A only 64% filled (79 opens of 224 slots, Eureka 321A--with 24 schools--was 76% filled (53 opens of 225 slots---Note: Eureka had one weight class with 17 1st round wrestlers—with 24 schools in each 321A regional would have expected there would have been more classes with over 16 entries). So, problem is state wide and in all classes---not enough wrestlers.
Because 5A and 6A schools wrestle the bigger and better tournaments (for those that have adequacy issues--translates to much better competition over the season), in many cases 5A and 6A wrestlers will probably have the less stellar records (translates to more losses and less wins)---they beat up on each other. A 6A or 5A 14 and 14 record—even a 10 and 18, or worse, probably means they have faced tougher competition all season and suffered some hard knocks..
I just did a finger drill on the brackets on four regionals: Garden City 6a, Emporia 5A, Fort Scott 4A, Eureaka321A. GC 1st round was 96% filled (108 of 112 slots filled--how did they do that), Emporia was 72% filled (31 of a possible 112 slots open), Fort Scott 64% filled (79 of 224 slots open), Eureka--with 24 schools--was 76% filled (53 opens of 225 slots). Evident something has to be changed. Doubt you kids wrestler folks are going to be able to produce enough kids who grow into high schoolers to fill the brackets. The age-old 4A argument that they have to qualify in a tougher two day 16 bracket tournament may no longer be valid.. Plus, Chiefs All Class rankings clearly show that 5A and 6A wrestlers dominate in the rankings. Again better tournaments and better competition, and perhaps bigger and better wrestling clubs in and around the bigger cities. And Yes, there are some really great small wrestling schools, programs with great wrestling traditions: Colby, Columbus, Abilene, and agree about Ark City etc—also thought Ark City run was in the 80s and 90s---things have changed. .
Urban core 5A and 6A schools have an unsolvable wrestling problem: no hard core inner city tradition of wrestling. But, don't play those schools in basketball--you will probably get your ass handed to you in a basket. KC HSs take only 5 or 6 kids to a match, a tournament, a regional--probably a couple of schools in the Wichita area do the same, same for Topeka--T. West had only 8 wrestlers.. Still, the best individual wrestler come out of 5A and 6A—IMO they get that way by beating up on kids from 4321A HSs who venture into the real world when and if they enter kids in the top flight tournaments (Bobcat, GE, Baldwin Invite, Holton invite, etc.
Evident something has to be done. Question is what. Combining 5A and 6A is not a total solution. Cutting the number of weight classes for Kansas wrestlers. What do you chop out—eliminate 285 and 106—that gets you down to 12—does anyone care about shrimps and fat boys—that’s harsh and don’t intend to hurt anyone’s feelings. I did a 48-48-48 reclassification—was not supported. Coach Pigorsch from Clay Center has offered up a 32-32-32 reclassification with smaller 32 4A schools shuffled down to 321A. Have not seen any support for that either. Don’t really see what that does. Opens are still opens and will continue in 32-32-32. Might help fill some brackets in 321A. Might also put a halt to 4A bitches.
