rjs4470

I feel the event should be seeded too, but the KHSAA literally doesn’t seed any state tournament, except to a certain extent, football. All other state tournaments are random draws.

Remember, the Sweet 16 generates over $1 million in ticket sales. UK Healthcare is also a sponsor which probably offsets a significant chunk of the total price.you really can’t compare the sweet 16 to any other state championship in KY….it is the cash cow and supports many of the other sports.

Obviously, the KHSAA is a governing body. But they also have to be prudent, and run like a business. They can’t ignore budgets, and have to make smart business decisions. They also have to answer to the BOE, and ultimately the state government. Thare not an independent organization with complete autonomy and free will. I would agree they need to at least ask the arena’s if they are interested in hosting. But being interested is only the first part.

The schools have to be willing to work their basketball schedule around to accommodate wrestling. I have no idea if they are willing to do so or not. They also hold concerts and other events that could possibly be more lucrative than hosting a wrestling tournament, so it's not just basketball. It doesn't help that schools like UK, or any one else with a big arena don't have wrestling programs. So it's not just as simple as asking them to host....they also have to either want to host, or be willing to work schedules around to host. Doesn't mean someone shouldn't ask, but without even thinking about the cost (which is likely prohibitive based on the revenue generated), all these locations have to WANT to host the tournament enough to be willing to work their events around it.

I would say most of that rental fee comes from the $30 they charge per wrestler. That would be almost $50k in entry fees between MS and Youth.

I believe you can find the P&L’s for the sweet 16 somewhere out there. The last financial statement I could find (2018)’showed total expenses of $465k for the boys Sweet 16. So it looks like they might have. Not to mention they do over $1M in ticket sales, and who know how much in sponsorship so they can certainly afford to pay that much for that event.

The KHSAA ran it remotely from Lexington. Which was a bad decision.

Concessions are contracted out and ran by an outside source for just about every arena. Thus the arenas aren't making a ton off of concessions...just whatever the negotiated split with the service provider is, so "keeping concessions" as a payment isn't really a moneymaking proposition. It's also why it's unfair to hold the KHSAA accountable for food prices....they (and the arenas) literally have no say in the matter. The smaller schools you mention like Lindsey and Bellarmine don't have big enough arena's to host the state tourney. Morehead, Northern and Murray are locked into their own basketball seasons. I have no idea about Wesleyan or Midway, but I suspect size is a problem in those two places as well. I think to entertain holding state in a larger arena, if you can get costs into an acceptable range, the season would have to change to hold state at a later date. Which then starts conflicting with the KhSAA basketball tournament, which is their cash cow.

One of the problems with all the college arenas is timing. The state tournament would have to shift dates back so as not to conflict with the college basketball season. I doubt any college arena is willing to bounce their mens and women's basketball schedules around to host a high school wrestling tournament. That being said, I don't think most would have an issue with pushing the tournament back a couple of weeks, which would also mean pushing the season start back a little (which I also don't see as an issue). Clearly something needs to be done. I wasn't at semi state, but I've talked to a few who were, and at least at Ryle, it seems like it was not a well run event. I was told the tournament was being run remotely from Lexington, which seems like a silly decision and probably contributed to the amount of time it took to run the tournament. I've defended the KHSAA in the past, because I know several BOC members and understand the work they do and some of the issues they face. However, what's happening here is not defendable.

I don't disagree, and I should add your experience mirrors what I've experienced. I was referring to parents rather than coaches, and should have stated that more clearly. I've seen very few coaches get booted over the last decade or so, and none that I can remember are wrestling coaches, and that's at any level....youth, MS, HS. Yes, I've seen a few wrestling coaches get hit with team point deductions, but even in those situations, the coaches have taken their medicine, and there have been no further issues. I'd even go so far as to say that wrestling coaches are generally better behaved than coaches of other sports.

I've found that across many sports (at least the ones I've been or my kids have been involved in, Baseball, Football, Basketball and wrestling) that the age of the kids is inversely related to the grief that officials get. The younger the participant, the worse the officials get treated. Which might explain why it's harder to get officials at non high school events.

People complain about 6 classes in football ALOT. Just visit any message board around playoff time, and you'll see plenty of calls to return to 4 divisions, or that things are "too watered down". Just like how so many constantly harp on the fact that Ky basketball is the best thing going because there is only one state champ.

You've talked a lot about his athletic future, but as I'm sure you know, his academic and career future is WAY more important, and his career will most likely not be related to wrestling, MMA or any other sport. I can understand the desire to see him succeed athletically, but from all your descriptions it seems like he is an average wrestler. It's really tough to bridge that gap from average to elite/the level where future opportunities will become accessible at this point in his wrestling career. I don't mean this to sound critical, but everything you've spoke about sounds like your dreams for him and his future as opposed to what he really wants to do. He's got to decide what he wants to do on his own, and for 95% of the world, a full time career competing in and coaching sports is just not a reasonable expectation. Even many of those that do move on to the next level, a good portion of those are done after a year or two. And careers beyond college in wrestling are extremely limited. Not saying it isn't ok to dream a little, despite your good intentions, it feels like he is being pushed along a path that will likely end in failure. It's perfectly ok to be an average athlete, have fun while doing it, and to get on with your life when your high school career is over.

I'd let the kid play whatever sports he wanted at whatever level he is comfortable with. I would never encourage a kid to specialize or not play another sport. You've only got one opportunity to play high school sports. I've been down this road, and there is no better way to burn a kid out or damage your relationship than by making him quit something he likes to do and force him to specialize. If he makes that choice on his own, great---but I wouldn't push it. You could also maybe even make the argument he could be great at football if he specialized and trained year round (I could do a lot of damage on the football field with a bunch of 190lb kids who could run sub 5.0 40's and I'd say he's got pretty good potential at football too). The bottom line is our goals may not, and likely won't always align with our children's goals. And that being said what is his ultimate goal? And you have to keep in mind that very few go on to play either sport at the next level, and fewer actually get scholarships.

As far as the year round point, pretty much every high school sport has a percentage (which is growing) of those who participate on a year round basis. Wrestling is no different, and certainly isn't the worst. Football might be the worst of the all the sports, with a long season (July-November for everyone), spring ball, off season lifting programs, and June practices. Serious football only players get maybe December and a piece of January off. Ranger isn't pushing year round participation on anyone. He's simply there for those who want to take advantage of it. This event has always been fun, and for what it's worth, has always had a few football players participating. If a top wrestler is a football player, and they want to participate, they'll find a way to make it happen. The timing of the event is really perfect...close enough to the start of the season to generate interest and serve as a nice tune up to kick things off, but not so close that it doesn't interfere with anything. I will simply never understand the part of the wrestling community in this state that constantly find any and everything to complain about.