DamonMBarnes

Agreed. It's the best I ever saw. Metzger had beaten him earlier in the year to if I remember correctly.

IMO, Scott Cooper never gets the credit he deserves in these discussions. Freshman Year - 2000 - 3rd place - 125 Sophomore Year - 2001 - 2nd place - 130 Junior Year - 2002 - 1st place - 140 Senior year - 2003 - 1st place - 140- beat 2x State Champ Luke Metzker in the finals.

I don't know this for sure but when you look at JUST the schools with wrestling I'd say the center becomes even further away from Lexington. Might be a fun exercise to do one day.

One thing I always hate in these discussions is the notion that Lexington is the center of the state. Geographically it is in Marion or Taylor county depending on what source you use. Population it is in Washington County. Both of those are roughly the same distance from Louisville as they are from Lexington. The one thing I know is it desperately needs to leave the Horse Park. I think a suitable facility could be found but getting the KHSAA on board with anything not in their backyard might be the real issue.

I thought semi-state is technically the first round(s) of the state tournament which would keep the first one alive as Paxton Ervin made it to SS1.

Wow. I have to imagine if a former state champ lost in the first round before it hasn't happened often.

Anyone know around what time quarters usually start?

Not sure who is in charge but 2001 is incorrect. LaRue beat St X in the championships and not Woodford County.

You point number 2 was so bad. I still can’t believe they did that. It’s sad how much the atmosphere of the state wrestling tournament has been ruined by having it at Alltech Arena. I really hope the powers-that-be get it moved soon.

I'll start this off by saying that Derrick Smallwood is a fantastic wrestler. However, I cannot imagine how any coach in their right mind would vote for him MOW over Thomas Hoppes. Derrick -- who was ranked first and expected to win -- had a fine tournament and took care of a #9, #12, and #13 wrestler in dominating fashion. That being said, Thomas Hoppes as a freshman ranked 10th in a higher weight class pinned the #10 kid in the state then upset the #2 kid in the state while not giving up an offensive point. The only thing I can think of was that most coaches had already turned in their ballot by the time Hoppes had concluded his upset. That's the only good reason I can come up with because the resumes speak for themselves. If there are any coaches who would like to back up their vote I'd love to hear the reason.

You’re smarter than this. Should strength of opponent not be considered at all? Based on this answer it doesn’t seem you think it should. However, in reality I have to believe you think it’s a factor. Both Hoppes and Smallwood faced the #10 wrestler in the state and both pinned. Hoppes also faced the #2 wrestler in the state and won without giving up an offensive point. Smallwood faced nobody ranked higher than #10. Surely that has to be factored into the equation, right?

Marion County is the geographic center of Kentucky so there isn't much of a difference between the Horse Park and Broadbent. In fact, Broadbent might be closer. Population-wise, I'd imagine Louisville is much closer to being centrally located than Lexington.

I personally would like to see high school moved from the horse park. I'm really glad to see that it's probably not an option for youth and middle school going forward.

Should be a good region tournament with a lot of competitive wrestling. Here are my predictions: 106 Mattingly Hoppes Garcia Perry Slight upset here but Hoppes is wrestling extremely well and I think he is poised to revenge his Garcia loss. Mattingly is a potential finalist at state! 113 Miller Morgan Kirkman Butler I think it’s fairly open after the first two and again I see a potential finalist in Miller. 120 Insko Miller Haverstick Philpott The pending semi match between Miller/Haverstick should be close. Would be crazy, but R2 could have three straight finalist at the lower weights with Insko here. 126 Grimsley Nard Hite Medley Places 3 – 6 are really wide open. This weight class will be a factor for team race. 132 Metcalf Wallace Williams Whitaker Expect Metcalf to score bonus points for LaRue here. 138 Johnson Davis Thornton Broich Tip my hat to T. Johnson for staying here. 145 Young Goodin Jarrow Tilley Now that Trent is down this one becomes pretty wide open. I see a really close finals match between these two. Flipped my prediction multiple times. Hoping I'm wrong and Levi goes out a champ! 152 Smallwood Leak Fuller Johnson Loaded weight class. Both Smallwood and Leak have what it takes to make finals at state. 160 Bell Nichols Dulak Lee Bell is healthy and wrestling well. This will be a tight bracket. Could see any result among these four. 170 Williams Bingham Santiago Lawrence Mild upset with Santiago outwrestling his seed here. 182 Shantz Page Pierce Brecker Shantz should rack up valuable bonus points in this weight class. 195 Steven Jett Volentine Mills #1 vs #2. Should be a good one. 220 Jones Pratt Wright Miller HVY Shelton Humphrey Morriss Holifield The freshman pulls one out at heavy! Team score 1. LaRue 2. Meade 3. John Hardin I think LaRue wins by more than people are expecting. John and Meade are super close for 2nd.

This. Parking wasn't ideal by any means but it was free.

If you don't believe LCAlum let's use a little math. Two quick facts: 1. LaRue lost by 15.5 to Meade County. 2. Franklin scored 21 points for LaRue. For the sake of argument, let's say that Dulak wrestled like "a stud" and wins 152. We will award him the 28 points that Knoth scored for his team (which was the highest anyone scored for their team). This makes up 7 of the points needed for LaRue to beat Meade (28 - 21), leaving them 8.5 shy of overtaking Meade. Also Knoth would lose 4 placement points for getting 2nd instead of 1st. Knoth also loses the 2 bonus points for pinning in the finals. So Knoth's score drops 6 points which still leaves LaRue 2.5 shy of overtaking Meade. In short, Dulak coming and wrestling like "a stud" wouldn't have mattered...

Yes, also the other people who worked on the brackets addressed my concerns without a) acting in an unprofessional manner or b ) turning my words into something I didn't say. I had a conversation yesterday with another individual that worked on the brackets that was actually quite pleasant and nothing like this interaction with you. I had a concern, this thread seemed like it was started to discuss the brackets and the process. There wasn't anything said to the contrary about expressing any concerns in this thread so I took a thread started for bracket discussion as a place to do that. I found that 69.2% of our kids had a first round opponent when it was stated that this scenario was trying to be avoided --- that number seemed quite high to me -- and my comment about us just being unlucky was meant with sincerity. Based on the discussion yesterday I understand more of the process. But NOWHERE did I accuse anyone of any wrongdoing nor did I NOT thank you all for your efforts. I have tried to drop this but for reasons I'm unsure of you feel the need to continue to slander me and actually make accusations about things I did not do. But, so it's out in the open and to not have any misunderstandings, NO, I do NOT think the people who organized the brackets had a vendetta against LaRue County wrestlers. Just as you told me there was a right way and a wrong way to bring up my concerns, there is a right way and a wrong way for you to handle this. Once again, no hard feelings and thank you for the work you have put in.

You're obviously taking this wrong. Thanks again for the work you and others put in. No hard feelings from me...

I gave LaRue as an example as that is the school I am affiliated with. I looked through several other schools in the region and saw the same thing. I gave one bracket as an example. I never said I was better at it, even thanked you all for doing it. I was merely pointing out that at a cursory glance that statement didn't seem to be the case. I know it's an arduous task, as a Database Administrator, ETL then running reports on said data is something I do almost every day. I'm currently back in school but when finished I hope I can get more involved. If the offer still stands when that time comes I hope to take you up on it.

Thank you. I know it has to happen in some cases but it did seem like an abnormally large amount. Definitely to that last point. If you compare it to the high school region alignments, our region has teams from HS Regions 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Finished up LaRue's kids. We have 15 kids entered with 13 of those being in a bracket (2 have round robins). Out of that 13 there are 9 kids with a region opponent in the first round. That's 69.2% of our kids. With a quick glance it seemed like all of these could have been done differently where they didn't have a region opponent in the first round while avoiding doing the same to someone else. I will say thank you all for getting brackets done but I really wish our school wasn't one of the ones who got hit with so many first round region opponents. Maybe we were just unlucky...

I went through all five of LaRue's 2002/2003 kids and four out of the five have a region opponent in the first round. The only one who doesn't is Tucker Shelton who is in a round robin with NO kids from his region. Let's be transparent here, don't say you avoided matching kids up from the same region in the first round when it's pretty apparent that it did not happen.

How much time was put into the last part? The first bracket I look at is full of first round matches between region members. 2002/2003 74.4-77.6 has five wrestlers from the Hardin Co/Louisville region, Rosenblatt (North Hardin), Puyear (LaRue), Wade (River City), Haverstick (John Hardin), Frech (River City). Out of those five wrestlers, four of them are facing each other in the first round. To me, it doesn't seem like that last part holds true as it would be very possible to keep any of these kids from facing each other.

Let's assume David Carr doesn't come back. Wouldn't all of his teammates have benefited from having such a phenomenal practice partner this year? What about the in-state kids he got to wrestle, wouldn't they have benefited from a tough match? At youth state, I also heard three different coaches using his state performance as an example for their kids on what hard work can do for you. Furthermore, there were a few wrestlers I saw at the youth tournament who wrestled in state but no other current wrestler was as engaged as he was --- and to have wrestled in the finals nonetheless.

The single year, 8th grade, move-in cheapens Kentucky wrestling. Wouldn't that raise the level of competition in that weight class?