Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School FHSU NEW YEARS CLASH (FOR HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLERS)

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.

For more information see the following website

http://www.holton.k12.ks.us/tech/fhsu

Hell lets invite Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado and stuff too, with Hays location it might be a dawg fight.

Its only a beginning

This is looking mighty awesome. Just Two whole days of nothing but wrestling.... Is this just like a Varsity only tournament or can JV come too? Cause I know there are few guys on our jv squad that I think that could handle this tournament. Or at least the pressure of it. I doubt I could. But hey, It'd be fun as hell to go to, get more wrestling experience, plus It'd give you guy wrestlers a chance to work on your pick-up lines

This tournament is open to all High school in the state of Kansas. The Best of the Best.

Why couldn't we have had this tournament before I graduated, I feel left out.

-hugs Curtis- It's ok.. You have the old timers' tournaments to look forward to... XD

They should do a majority of it on a Friday except for part of it and then do a college division on Saturday and then all the finals on Saturday night like OU's Open.

Sounds like a cool deal... I wonder how many programs will drop a scheduled tourney that they are presently obligated to to go?

Sweazy I usually like your ideas, but I think the main focus is to get us to stop fighting on who is the best class. Also if this goes pretty easy then it will be a great place for other colleges to come scout.

I hope teams will not drop a scheduled tournament to go to this. We have two wrestlers here at Holton that I think can wrestle in this type of tournament. But we don't have a full team of these wrestlers that can. Only those two wrestlers would have to sit out of a tournament instead of dropping a tournament. This is one reason for this type of format. Instead if inviting selected teams like most tournaments do I foresee only 1 or 2 from a team.

How many schools will let their teams and/or wrestlers participate during Christmas break when school is not in session?

I would think allot of them. #1. You can go to the best tournament in the state. #2. No loss of school time. #3 This tournament will not compete with other tournaments.

I don't think a lot of admin will go for it...It might have to be come on your own kind of deal but represent your school. I thought KSHSAA had a rule against Open type formats though?

The KSHSAA does have a rule against open tournaments. That is why with this tournament every high school in the state is invited. I checked with several school about problems over Christmas break, and they all said "not a problem" they would enter. Some football teams plays their first game of year and school in not in session. Their may be some that won't enter the tournament because of that. It is like anything else it is a start, and it will only be a success if coaches enter their wrestlers in the tournament.

So if only 1 or 2 guys enter and Kansas you can't have an Open, does that mean you make those 2 guys count for team points?

Don't forget that if you have to spread the wrestling out. You can only wrestle 5 matches a day, so you would have to wrestle enough on both days to avoid that 5 match mark.

It is easy to pick reasons why it won't work. I say kudos to Ft. Hays and KSHAA for trying to make it work, and I sincerely hope that they are successful because it is a great first step to establishing the kind of premier event that could get the national recognition that we as a community have wanted for so long.

We need to get rid of the 5 match rule that's dumb.