rjs4470

The State Board of Education

That's a whole other issue, one that i would say is a much bigger problem in the post season than last minute weight changes because of bracket release timing.

In the case you mention, would the brackets from the other regions really make a difference? And with weight management, a move down likely won't even be possible unless the stud 152 weighed in within a couple of lbs of the 145 limit last week. Most of these moves are going to be moves up, which in many cases will put your wrestler at a disadvantage in size.

And in most cases, the move can only be up. A move down will usually require more than one weeks planning because of weight management. The other piece to the puzzle, is the most important tournament in all of this is the Region. If you can't find your way out of region, or get a poor seed coming out of region, that's not going to be of much help down the road. You have be able to at least challenge for a region title, in order for any move to make sense. In almost every sport, looking ahead will usually get you in trouble.

Yep. Had a kid who won a region championship like that a couple years ago. But again, there was a hole in the spot in the lineup. And it allowed another kid a shot to wrestle at region. But we made the bump weeks before region. Most teams with championship aspirations, aren't going to have many holes, and likely wouldn't wait around until the night before region to make this type of decision.

I get the theory, but taking this route a coach would be screwing over at least one kid, and possibly more. Sitting a kid out of region last minute isn't going to win many friends on the team you coach, or of parents. Not only that, these moves wouldn't happen in a vacuum...unless you'd somehow become stronger in all the weight classes affected, why do it? And if that's the case, you probably made that decision to do the move well in advance of region brackets being made.

With the fact that attendance will be limited, I would guess parents of the competitors will get the first shot at buying before tickets are made available to the general public. So if you do the math, tickets for the public likely won't be made available until a few days before the tourney starts.

I can attest it's really hard to walk away even after your kid is gone.

In the example you mention, the wrestler who placed higher would “win” that argument. Again, it doesn’t have to be rocket science. If both placed the same, you move to the next criteria. Personally, when setting up tourneys, I’ve never found using “placing at the same weight” necessary as part of the criteria.

Does it matter in the big picture? A state placer is a state placer. Yes some classes are weaker and some are better. At some point, you really can start to overthink seeding.. it doesn’t have to be rocket science.

I think it will be fine. It covers all the bases in the appropriate priority. I've gone strictly to letting Track seed any tournament I've ran over the last several years using similar criteria and it's been very accurate. The only thing that can make it not work is bad data, which at this point, shouldn't be an issue. No seeding will ever be perfect. But I'm sure people will get bent out of shape about something, even if it's 90% correct.

I'm pretty sure they will try to fill. But there may be some cases where they may not even have enough alternates to fill. In hindsight, they could have gone back to 4 regions this year, and a 16 man bracket instead of 5 regions and a 20. Competition wise, there are going to be quite a few kids at state that will be there simply because they weighed in at region.

Correct. Technically, it’s 20 man brackets (4 wrestlers from 5 regions). I’m not 100% sure all those brackets will be full...Region 5 was way down in numbers and is typically one of the larger regions (NKY). The “youth” state for the middle school age kids starts directly after MS State is finished on Saturday and wraps up on Sunday. USA wrestling doesn’t have a 5 match rule, and only requires 15 minutes between matches.

I'd much rather do all weight classes at the same time. Breaking it down will cause a big delay as your shuffling the first session out, and bringing the second session in. As long as you have 6-8 mats, there's no need to break into two sessions.

It is mandated. All results do have to be entered into track. It’s just that not all coached do it in a timely manner.

Track for the most part does run our season. All weigh in sheets come from track, and all weigh ins must be recorded...Track handles KY's weight management program. Most tourney's are run through track during the season (although not required), and all post season tourney's are run on Track. We pretty much use Track for everything you mention.

True. The order of criteria will make a big difference. And I know many don’t hold region placement in high regard due to the sometimes big variance in overall strength and depth from region to region.

As long as region placement is part of the criteria, the region winners can be no worse than a two seed at semi state.

With current Covid attendance limits, there are likely less than a handful of gyms (if any)that will accommodate 700+ people. larger venues will be cost prohibitive, or unwilling to host an largish event. The attendance requirements that are being mandated are very restrictive. To answer your question, the few venues that may work, aren’t currently hosting any large events. It’s not really as simple as one would think. My company hosts events much smaller than any wrestling tournament. We can’t find any venue that’s willing to even host an event with more than a couple hundred people.

It’s also the biggest in terms of area as well, correct. And in turn, some teams may do overnight stays.

I can’t say for sure the KHSAA has made the decision that they don’t want to travel and stay over overnight. My guess is that is the directive they’ve been given by the BOE/state government. I get that all those (or at least many of those directly involved) are willing to take the risk. That doesn’t mean every one is willing to, or that the KHSAA/BOE should ignore the potential liability that is present whenever large groups of people gather during a pandemic. Most governments/areas are asking folks to limit their travel. Because of that most organizations/companies are erring on the side of caution and not doing any unnecessary travel,and frankly that’s to be expected. As far as money concerns, those are real. I’m involved in 3 different sports, and I know what lack of attendance and fundraising have done to those budgets. They are running on fumes. Think about it....the KHSAA that lost the basketball Sweet 16, all the spring sports, and had limited attendance for the fall sports, and will be limited for all the winter sports. They’ve literally lost millions of dollars of revenue over the last year. Their budgets have to stretched very thin, and it’s not crazy to think that overnight stays aren’t in the budget this year.

Some will be close, some won’t. I don’t think any region is full 16 across every weight class. Region 6 for examples, is one of the larger regions, and it won’t have more than 12 or 13 in any one bracket. There won’t be spectators at that region, and no team will have to travel and stay overnight. That somewhat mitigates the concerns of gathering a large group together.

I would agree. In the COVID environment, you just can’t justify a full 16 man tourney. Whether you believe it’s safe, or not, the KHSAA and the BOE will always err on the side of caution. And they are doing these sorts of things across the board. Every sport has had complaints and less than ideal situations imposed on them since the pandemic began. Wrestling is far from being alone, and contrary to what many seem to believe, is not being targeted or singled out.

The All A isn’t really a good example. The winners aren’t considered or called a state champion. The whole state doesn’t get to participate and only schools below a certain enrollment are even invited. Games aren’t post season games...rather it is just simply a large multi-date basketball tournament. The comparison is really apples vs oranges. There is no way to remove the KHSAA from the sport and keep school based. Wrestling (or any other high school sport) cannot exist as we know it without a state governing body.

Adding true second would seem to be an easy fix. Again without it, and no alternates, there’s no reason to even wrestle conso’s. The All A isn’t a good comparison though. It’s run privately, and aside from it being part of the regular season for those who participate, the KHSAA isn’t involved in running, managing or any decision making for that tournament. It wasn’t the KHSAAs call to cancel or reinstate.