IWIN

Thanks for clarifying Tiltfor3. I had misunderstood your previous post. Going back and re-reading, it makes much more since.

I was not there to see the call in question, but I am sorry if your 121 lost on a not so great call. That being said, I still think Coach Roth is in the top level of honorable coaches in this sport.

I'm pretty sure it was all competition. He always came to state undefeated.

I've tried to figure out how to do it with no luck. So here goes the long way of doing it. February 9th 2014 The State Journal letter to the Editor Is it about the kids? A travesty in high school sports is about to be arranged. In the era of ESPN covering high school football and basketball signing day, it seems easy to overlook minor sports. Although not nearly as celebrated or coveted, the high school wrestlers in our state just as hard as football and basketball players. They spend four, five, even six years trying to achieve a dream with much less pomp and circumstance than "signing day"... simply a shot at winning a state title. That being said, it seems a shame these athletes won't even be highlighted at this year's KHSAA state wrestling tournament. Julian Tackett, commissioner of the KHSAA, has proposed changing the medal round format to include the championship match. That means all four matches (seventh, fifth, third, and first place) would happen simultaneously. In past years, the finals were wrestled as their own round. Each finalist was announced upon entering the arena, the mat was lot with a single spotlight, and the house lights were brought down to draw fans' attention to the last match of each weight class's season. Indeed, it was a setting befitting the gravity of the competition. It's terrible that the culmination of a grueling competition and thousands of hours of hard work will not be highlighted for fans, coaches, and competitors to enjoy. I would ask the KHSAA to step away from their role for a minute to view the event as those of us outside the administration do. From our perspective it seems obvious our state's most accomplished wrestlers should be highlighted in a match of their own. How could anyone argue that saving two hours is really worth doing away with such a cherished tradition? Isn't it about the kids after all? Written by Gary Lee of Lexington

We must be doing something right. This has now been published in the Frankfort State Journal newspaper in a letter to the editor.

The KHSAA would love for Regionals to get cancelled. That way they wouldn't even have to put on the State tournament that they obviously loathe.

I hate that he got a raw deal. An Ironman Champion from KY would have been awesome. Please don't misread my post. I am truly a Kentucky wrestling fan. Anyone who does well and represents our state with honor, I respect. My argument was, what constitutes the best KY wrestler ever? If 5 titles defines it, great, if not, I would put another senior above him. It's just my opinion.

Good luck to Brock. No doubt that being a 5 timer is unprecedented! But, what constitutes the best wrestler in Ky history? I can name a couple that would compete for that title. As a matter of fact, I could argue that another senior this year may deserve that title. All in all, I am just happy that this can be a real discussion with merit now.

Coach Roth, you sir are a true class act. I personally have had respect for you from day one, but with posts such as that, you just prove your sportsmanship once again. You are the kind of class act that I would want my son to wrestle for if we lived up North. Congrats to you and Blake.

Joe Joe had a lot of wins, but I wouldn't think he had the longest streak. He got beat a few times his 8th grade year before winning State and of course lost in the finals his freshman year. Doubt he knocked out 200+wins his sophomore through senior years.

Coach McCoy, I would be willing to bet you would get an overwhelming amount of support, help, table workers, food donations, etc if you could pull this off! Lol. I will be with Coach Teater at the front of the line to help!

Don't forget people, this the same KHSAA that is working towards taking over the middle school wrestling as well. I don't want to see that just as much as I don't want to see these high school wrestlers get knocked out of having their time to shine under the lights. It's time to fight! If you stand for nothing now, you'll stand for nothing later!

What about wrestling Regionals as planned and then using the results from that to host the 1st ever KY Wrestling Coaches Association State Championships. We could leave the KHSAA standing at the horse park wondering where the heck everyone is. I feel certain that there are enough people on here with enough ties to lock down another facility to wrestle at. I know some folks at the Farnham Dudgeon Civic Center. Gotta admit, the middle school association makes the KHSAA look ridiculous!!

Travis Sullivan from Wayne County would be my guess.

I call BS on officials not eating. Let's not act like you pull 12-18 hour days everyday. Seriously. Your arguement is invalid. I don't care if you are a worker, that's great, I'm glad you have a job. But whatever it is that you are doing, can't be too terribly bad. I mean, your at a State Wrestling tournament for Pete's sake. And as far as looking at it from a fan standpoint, doesn't the fan/taxpayer help pay for whatever job it is that you do. I hate to seem so harsh, but no sympathy here. You have a great job.

jtackett@khsaa.org

I emailed Julian Tackett as well. The problem is, if you go to the KHSAA website and look at the pictures and profiles, it is very easy to see that not one of them is a past wrestler. They don't understand. If I were Brock going for my 5th, or ATM continuing his reign of dominance, or Boston being the #1 ranked wrestler in the country, or any of the other guys that made it to the big dance, I'd be pissed that I had to share my special moment with 3 other mats. If they want to keep the crowd there, don't do the medal ceremony until the end of the HWT match. I told Mr Tackett that regardless of the excuses that we have received this far, that this was a $$ decision made by people who has no respect for our sport. I offered him solutions and asked that he would reconsider the current schedule and do what was right by the kids.

I think that Gene Wolf has done a great job for a long while now. He has been very instrumental in the development of the youth wrestling here in KY. He is a true ambassador of the sport.

Outstanding email Tapout.

Just caught wind that the KHSAA also has a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Feel free to visit and comment there as well. We will need to flood them with our call, emails, Facebook posts and Tweets!

Email sent. Mike Barron is the person you want to contact. Just remember, be polite in these emails. You know, the whole honey and vinegar thing...

I hope this isn't the case! If so, it is the worst idea ever! The KHSAA should be ashamed of themselves for even having such a ridiculous idea! Terrible!

When your kids refer to you as "wrestlebooking" rather than Facebooking!

AGREED!!

The topic of teams that mostly compete out of state came up in the middle school forum as well when talking about the seeding process. My answer to should we force teams to wrestle X amount of times KY is no. Nobody should force anything. But what we should do is if the teams that mostly compete out of state doesn't have seedable in state criteria, then I guess they get the lesser seed. I know I am going to get beat up over this, but I don't care if lil Johnny has best the who's who from whatever state. What has he done here? Who has he beat here? Etc. we should make tournaments like the WCI, the Rumble, the Dragon, and so forth, somewhat staple tournaments. Certainly a team that prefers to mainly wrestle out of state can see fit to make one these tournaments, and give us some type of criteria to base our seeding off from.