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Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 275
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All season long hundreds of people come to this forum to talk wrestling. Over and over again there are post asking about rankings or critiquing them. Let’s get one thing straight though... RANKINGS ARE IMPORTANT
There I said it and feel much better now... Oh you wanna know why they are so important?
Ranks are so much more important than the names that are on them. I mean we don’t have the BCS. The rankings don’t determine who is going to a bowl game, win state, who get seeded at tournaments, or who is gonna win matches.
Rankings are a positive way to promote quality wrestling and wrestlers through out the state. Its a way for the press to identify quality kids at tournaments. The media love rankings and aren't we jealous of basketball in the amount of media attention our sport receive. Its good to debate who’s #1 or who can beat who. It sparks conversation. And the more we can talk up a great sport like wrestling the better.
I don’t know how the volunteers who do the rankings are picked but i agree that rankings should be weekly or bi-weekly after the first of January and should be timely. YES the volunteers have lives of their own but didn’t they VOLUNTEER for the added responsibility. The rankings should also have some integrity to them... Ranking freshman with .500 records as was done in 5A kinda degrades the value of rankings.
So again rankings don’t determine who will win state or head to head match ups but YES they do have a purpose and are important to progress and promotion of the sport.
Its not over yet...
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,934
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I have stayed out of this debate for awhile, but will now say, thanks for saying what you said Travis. We talk about promoting a sport in need of promotion, we talk about promoting our kids, yet, we continue to see how others outside of wrestling and even some of those in wrestling think. Here is the truth, the media uses rankings to determine which wrestlers to write about, and wrestlers like rankings to motivate them. Kids love to wrestle top ranked kids in order to prove themselves. I think there are several truths here; truth is that the rankings at the end of the year are more important than the ones at the first of the year, and start of the year. The other truth is, they are important. If they are not important, I would recommend that we remove the rankings links from the web site. Every major newspaper in the country, run rankings, one of the biggest issues of USA Today is when they run rankings for various sports teams. The question I would ask, is why? Why do sports casters refer to rankings? Why do newspapers run rankings? Why do athletes strive to be number 1 in the rankings? I think mainly because at least for many, they are important. When someone, even some friends, argue that they aren’t important, they are ignoring the realities of the above mentioned facts, or simply don’t care about truly representing and promoting our sport.
An example of what I am speaking of is how many people were blasting Newton for their coverage of the TOC. I heard it at the tournament and saw it on these forums. Much of that criticism was based off the fact that they actually came to this web site to gather some of their information. They got wrong information. I know this because my daughter is the former news editor of the Kansan and she actually called and spoke to the sports editor about the press they were giving the tournament with wrong facts. That being said the wrestling family can't have it both ways, we can't expect appropriate press coverage when we provide inappropriate information.
My understanding is the rankings are done, they just need to be posted. I believe that with the posting of what is already done, that many would be forced to then address another issue.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 349
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Don't, bash, provide information to the corresponding ranker. I am sure they would appreciate pointing our any mistakes that they are making. I am sure you are talking about 456A cause this ranker never makes any mistakes! I update individual rankings daily as information crosses my desk. Team rankings are updated every couple weeks. If there is a mistake please email us to to let us know.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,934
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Harry, the mistakes that were made was not necessarily the rankings persons fault. The press has on several occasions visited the web site to obtain current rankings, it could easily be their fault for that, but bottom line is that updates do need to stay current on the site. I know of two occasions where the Newton Kansan did so and at least once the Wichita Eagle has done so. There may be others but those three instances are specifics that I know about specific to 6A.
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Joined: Mar 2002
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You can bash me. Of the five people that live in my house, four of them are women, I am quite used to it.
Bill DeWitt Wrestling Fan
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Joined: Mar 2002
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Coach, I'm tired of the bashing, don't know what comes out of it. I do have a question though. What could be done to make it easier for those that are volunteering? I think at the point we know what needs to be done to share the load, that no one has a right to bash. I know I would be willing to help if I know where. I do personally appreciate what so many like you do behind the scenes.
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Joined: Mar 2002
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Tournament and dual results have got to be posted, otherwise I have no idea what is going on. That would be the most helpful. Sadly, most local papers require on-line fees anymore making it impossible to find some tournament results and so I, like you, am totally dependant on the information supplied by the wrestling community on this forum.
Understandably, some coaches are very guarded with their information and prefer to keep some of their athletes from acquiring a bullseye, so they leave it up to ranking guy.
There is no set formula on how to to this. Ballots could be sent out and sent back or it could be done electronically, but since wrestling isn't televised and information isn't always posted right away, many coaches aren't sure where exactly to put kids that they haven't seen in person. What I do is put together a preseason rankings and make it available at the KWCA clinic in the fall and encourage coaches to fill that out and mail it back to me. I then do a preseason poll, that is updated as I recieve information throughout the season. We are the only sport that does this which makes it very difficult. Could you imagine the KBCA putting together a top six list of the best point guards in Kansas. It would be awfully subjective as is the wrestling rankings when you haven't seen some kids go head to head.
The best thing to do is to post information on the wrestlers so that i can see the results and if some kid was up 14-0 and then defensivly pinned himself, that is helpful to know as well.
Also, to any coaches that have e-mailed me from time to time say "rank this kid or that kid" please continue to do so, the rest of you, POST RESULTS
Bill DeWitt Wrestling Fan
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Joined: Jan 2002
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Originally posted by RedStorm: You can bash me. Of the five people that live in my house, four of them are women, I am quite used to it. Wow! I almost choked like Chenoweth!
Yours in wrestling,
The Swayz swayz.wrestling@gmail.com recruiting help, promoting the sport& more!
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Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 21
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Here is what I am talking about on lack of rankings being posted. Richard Salyer has posted on the forum at least twice new rankings for 6A and they have never been place into the KWCA website where it shows the rankings.. The KC Star took the rankings from the KWCA website and placed in the paper but the rankings were wrong because they were not replaced by updated rankings and therefore it showed stuff like Spencer Curran who graduated last year, as 1st in 215 from BVNW which he wrestled for BVN.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 349
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I have several reliable sources around the state that take the time to send me results as they happen. My data base looks like this. Rank Team Name Weight Year state 05 1 Norton Nathan Broeckelman 125 11 3,2 b 1Hox 2cc 1nort 2newt
2 Atwood Matt Migchaelbrink 125 11 2,3 b 1wab
3 Eureka Wyatt Bechtel 125 11 2-2,1-2 c 1minn 1bton 1eur
4 Wichita Independent Pat Mosley 125 11 1,4 c 1PR 1OK@125 2bton 1Hays 3-2Olson
5 Trego Joe Olson 125 12 5,5,1-2 b 2hox 3minn 2hois 1russ 2Hays
6 Hoisington Kyle Cook 125 12 4,3,1-2 a 1osb 1hois 1ellsw 3hays
Tells me what they did at state last year, and what they have placed this year, and what regional they are in. I currently have 816 3A wrestlers in the data base. I need a life, not one like Bill, with 4 women around though! Email results to your rankings guy. Or be the rankings guy next year. We appreciate your help.
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