Every year I hear and read about how everyone across the state wishes we had Grand State back. I see other state having Grand State but not Kansas. Well I hate to tell you but it isn’t going to happen at least not here. I also read topic after topic about who is the toughest 1-3A, no 6A has better quality wrestlers and so on. Now is the chance for everyone one to find out who are the best wrestlers in Kansas. I just received an e-mail from Coach Bickley at FHSU. Fort Hays State University will be sponsoring a High School tournament on December29-30. Every high school in the state of Kansas that has wrestling is invited. This will be a KSHSAA sanctioned event. Will this tournament count against your participation points. Yes it will. To coin a phrase “This is the Best of the Best”. Only high schools coaches will make this tournament a success. Meaning will they bring their best wrestlers to this tournament? Lets see how good 1-3A can stack up against 5A and 6A teams. What about 4A are they best in the state. Who will place the most wrestlers? Who are the best wrestlers in the state. These are all questions that can be answered. No it is not Grand State but is about the best that can do for now. Maybe some changes can be made in years to come, and I think they will. Some brackets maybe as large as 32 man or larger I don’t know. It just depends on how many enter. All High schools coaches in the State of Kansas will be receiving information on this tournament soon. But mark you calendars December 29-30. I do know that many things were discussed for a tournament. I am sure many people will complain about the date of the tournament. The tournament was set up on this date for several reasons. FHSU did not want to compete with other high schools for the date of their tournament. Also loss of school time will not be a factor. Also if coaches send their best wrestlers to this tournament they will have to set out of another tournament if they are maxed out on points. But what other tournament could have this caliber of wrestling? Some will come close but none will compare to this tournament. Other talk about setting up a tournament was. Only state qualifiers can enter. Sending out invitations to this tournament, taking only the top 16 wrestlers 4 from each classification, taking only the top 16 wrestlers by the best accumulative record. I can go on and on. None of the above will fall under the guidelines of the KSHSAA. The only way that this type of tournament can be accomplished and fall under the guidelines of the KSHSAA is to invite all high school in the state of Kansas. Hopefully most teams will only bring their wrestlers that they think can compete in this caliber of tournament. I am sure everyone will have allot of questions. Hopefully I can answer them, if not I will get you an answer. To me this will be a giant step forward for Kansas wrestling. I think that only positive things can come from this tournament.
