PABacon

My 2 cents on 8 placers is it's a good thing for future recruitment. I understand some weight classes could be placing everyone or almost everyone but when I go to recruite next season if I have 7 wrestlers and get 5 or more of them on the podium I can use that when I'm trying to encourage more girls for next season and bragging rights for those girls in school. The more they can brag about their accomplishments the better for us. It's only the parents and coaches who complain it's watered down. We all know if you take 7th as a wrestler you're telling all your friends you're the 7th toughest, baddest girl in the whole state. Let them brag and get something for their hard work.

Maybe. Too old to put on the girls wrestling team. Can she coach? Could always use an assistant.

Nice jump in numbers from year 1 to year 2. Hopefully it keeps going and we can press the state to sanction girls wrestling. That should be the obvious goal in taking the next step. Once again I saw a lot of good wrestling and I need to give a shout out to my daughter Savannna Bacon, a senior, as that was possibly her last match as a high school wrestler. She had what I think was one of the bigger brackets with 19 girls, though I think one dropped out so maybe 18. She wrestled 4 matches, all first period pins and was on the mat a total of 3 minutes and 23 seconds and had no points scored against her! She was a buzzsaw! Yes, this dad is bragging, sorry it's my last chance.. haha! Wrestling with the Union County boys the past two seasons definitely paid off so thanks to everyone at home and thank you to everyone who put this state tournament on for our girls and thank you to all the girls that wrestled this past weekend for stepping out there and battling in what is one of the toughest sports for an athlete. Congratulations to all the champs! Looking forward to watching girls wrestling grow. It has to because I still have two more girls coming up ;)

I'm dropping to 220, hopefully by summer. Christmas dinner killed me though !

I dont see how there could not be an issue with a state qualifier being before Christmas. I would have an issue with it. If it's a "qualifier" you qualify at the weight you wrestle. Many wrestlers go down a weight class when they get the 2lbs after Christmas. Why is any qualifier over a month before the tournament? I cant possibly be the only person who thinks that's just weird but then again, what do I know

Good read https://www.wsj.com/articles/high-school-wrestling-was-fading-then-came-the-girls-11577797653?reflink=share_mobilewebshare

Already very odd having a qualifier so early and right during Christmas break. Strange they want it even earlier next year before the 2lbs allowances. Just curious, are wrestlers locked into their weight classes for JV state at this "qualifier"? Usually that's how it works but I'm still getting used to Kentucky rules.

So did Union County have any JV kids at this qualifier?

I had no idea about a JV qualifier going on. I also heard about a Fort Cambell girls tournament but never got the date. Guess I'm not in the loop enough

Anyone know if there has been any progress getting the girls "state" tournament sanctioned by the Khsaa?

Yea, I'm sure some people dont mind it just sucks for my daughter as we don't have any women tournaments in our area so the state tournament is it as far as women only wrestling goes during the season. Kentucky girls definitely coming on strong and I hope it continues as I still have a few of my own girls coming up

Sad to see they will do the girls "state" tournament the same time as JV and middle school state again. I know a lot of girls that dont make Varsity wrestle all year with their JV high school teams and they don't get many tournaments as it is. Seems like we could choose a different weekend so they could compete with their teammates. Not to mention high schools sending coaches to the JV state run thin trying to send coaches to girls when they usually only have 1 or 2 girls. Last year we helped coach a very tough young woman who didn't have a coach attend, possibly for that reason. I know for my daughter I haven't decided whether to do the girls or just send her to JV

That's why I said "I think" it was the first match. I knewit was the first or second. It was just a bad no call. As someone has since posted the rules, should have been stopped and if he did it again, stalling. Bottom kid never had a chance.

And as far as the misinterpretations of "bashing refs", I would never. They are however paid for their services so... I have a son who's failing two classes right now and I flat out told him it's horrible and unacceptable and he's lost any and all privileges until he gets them up and proves he can and will do better. I'm not bashing my son, I'm trying to make him better. If I let him continue to suck at school he wont bother trying. They need to know it's not good.

And I said I dont want to bash them either. I told you what we did in Pa, I'm not 100% sure what we do here. Do they have training? Do they have weekly or bi weekly meetings with interpreters in their area? Do the join chapters and are they required to attend a certain amount of meetings during the season to discuss and learn the rules and what they're doing wrong? Do they get evaluated by their peers? We did all those things in Pennsylvania and I feel the quality of reffing as a whole was 10 times better. I guess the only way I'll know what we do here is to sign back up and get back out on the mat. I love reffing, I love wrestling and I like and respect referees and the thankless job they do but sometimes it pains me when the battle isn't between two good wrestlers but it's between two wrestlers and a ref that infuses himself into the match or just plain doesnt seem to know what the rules are or how to interpret them.

So are they planning on girls going at the same time? I hope that's not the case. I haven't even heard that KHSAA is going to take over the girls tournament yet and frankly, I like that the girls have a chance to make the big show with the boys if they're good enough. Most of the girls wrestle on their high school teams and if they're good enough to make varsity they should have a shot at State. Right now the girl state was just an everyone and anyone can go with no qualifier and no real recognition by the state. At current state of girls wrestling I hope we dont take away an opportunity for them.

Sorry but the reffing was horrible all weekend. Refs still cant seem to understand the out of bounds rules, two refs didnt help when they were there. I think it was the very first finals match, went into the ultimate ride out. Kid that scored first chose down as he should have. Top guy dropped to an ankle and never climbed up for the whole 30 seconds!! No restart, no stalling. I'm pretty sure that ref didnt think he could call stalling in the ultimate ride out because all day they called bad stalling calls but there... nothing. I felt bad for that kid. Had he known all he had to do was drop to an ankle and hang on for the ride for 30 seconds he probably would have taken top. I would. Another instance I saw a tech like it was freestyle. Kid kept doing the same tilt, never let go of the wrist, just waves at the ref with the other hand and ref throws 3 over and over and over. Gotta make that kid break the hold. Had another kid get called for stalling while locked up in a cradle! What would you like the kid to do? Just get pinned if he cant get out? Sorry, and in the finals too bad refs dont make 1 good one. So my only question is, do the refs have weekly meetings and discuss the rules and interpretations throughout the season so they can learn? In Pennsylvania ( I was a ref) we had 9 meetings, one every other week and you were "required" to make at least 6 of them or you lost your certification. We had top notch interpreters and officials at every meeting. Other refs were appointed to watch newer refs to evaluate them, you couldn't even do varsity matches until someone said "hes good". You started out doing youth and jr high tournaments. I dont want to bash refs either but I'd like them to get better and more consistent and the second ref needs to know his job. Should always be apposite the other ref to watch locking hands and things during scrambles and out of bounds while the other ref is down watching for backs and pins and watch the clock on starts and stops and just be the second pair of eyes. The state tournament should be about the great wrestling, not worrying about wether a ref is going to call it right. Just my two cents for what it's worth. Probably not much.

I understood the meaning behind the breaks. I felt only the one was close and necessary but not sure about the others, either way, it did not ruin it for me and we had a great time. I just know how my wrestlers are and long breaks between wrestling can have just as much negative effect as not enough time. Again, thank you for doing it and putting in the work. Overall I thought you guys did great, please dont take my criticism as a "slam", it was my only little thought and not too big a deal. I've been to waaaaay worse. Ridiculously worse. I give you guys an A grade

I coach middle school football and I encourage my football players to wrestle. Even if they're no good at it, which they likely wont be right away if they've never done it. I preach this, there is no other sport that prepares you for every other sport like wrestling. Body control, conditioning, finding your limits and exceeding them. You learn leverage, you hear that lineman? It's going to make you better, period. Every year I seem to get 3 or 4 new wrestlers through coaching football. I also preach it to my high school coaches to encourage it and our coaches seem to follow the boys during wrestling season so I know they dont discourage it. More than likely the problem is, some football coaches feel it's a 2 way street and a lot of wrestling coaches dont like football because their wrestlers come in out of shape and beat up, sometimes out with an injury right off the bat. There's a lot of wrestlers who only wrestle and do it all year around to be as good as they can be. Football coaches dont like seeing a stud that maybe was also a stud in football in middle school but suddenly they think the coaches talked them out of it in fear of getting hurt for wrestling. Sadly, it's a legitimate concern. Wrestling is awesome for football but football is NOT for wrestling. Some wrestling coaches would prefer their wrestlers train for wrestling or run cross country and come in to the season already ahead of the game conditioning wise. That's just my experience.

I just want to say what a great tournament this was, especially for the first time. Other than what I thought were unnecessary breaks/delays it was ran pretty good. But what really made it a great tournament was those young women wrestled like dogs!!! There were more competitive matches than I expected and everyone who participated and took the time to make sure these ladies were able to compete should be very proud. There was a man standing outside when I stepped out to get some fresh air and he had a big grin and said "this is the best tournament I've been to in quite some time, man are these girls fun to watch" ... I couldn't agree more. My experience might be helped by the fact that I got to see my daughter become a State champ and you couldn't tell her that it wasnt legit. Just like the boys getting ready to compete in less than 2 weeks, these young women trained hard and battled like they deserved to be there and I hope the next step is for KHSAA to step in and make this an official State tournament. While I think it's fine they wrestle on the Varsity or JV teams with the boys during the season, my daughter held her own against them too, this is a great thing to reward and let them showcase how hard they work and get ready for the next level, college, Olympics, etc.. keep bringing it Kentucky!!

Anyways. What I really wanted to comment on was point #2 like everyone else. I thought leaving all the mats down and not moving the finals mat to the middle was a very poor decision and gave it a very novice feel (though I have been to novice tournaments that took the time to do this) the time to should have been a spotlight moment for those kids and fans. Almost like those in charge had a basketball game to go to and didn't want to take the 15 minutes to get it done. Heck, I'm sure the coaches would have gladly done it themselves in 10 minutes. Whoever made that decision has no place running a tournament let alone the State tournament.

I will say you are exactly right, it's all in the numbers that make it out. I believe Moore took the same number and also St X would have had the same number but their heavyweight got hurt or something? So I guess a few schools have weak regions??? I don't know, I didn't say it. But in Pennsylvania you could win the individual state tournament with 3 kids because no one was taking a dozen + kids so I know what you're saying. I just don't know why you'd have to state the obvious when I don't think anyone is wrestling in a "powerhouse" region where All the brackets are 5 or 6 studs deep in every bracket. Where are those regions?

?? Well that's a questionable call... While I got a little laugh out of this comment I think there were 5 kids in the finals and 7 placers. Personally I value a State Championship at the duels over individual state and find it odd that this seems to be more the title everyone holds as the standard for who's the best team. To me individual state should be about the individuals. That being said, Union won small school state and the challenge against the big school so to imply they won the individual state simply because they took more kids because they're in a weak region is kind of like... well.. who cares? They had the best team in the State. And that's not a cocky or arrogant statement, I feel like its a very hard working, confident and humble group of boys that for the most part I've seen nothing but respect for other schools and wrestlers. And other schools in that region like Christian County, Caldwell and McCracken look to be on the rise so I wouldn't ever call them weak, they've got some tuff boys. I guess if you want to try and take anything away from how hard that team works day in and day out you'll just have to wrestle them for it

Absolutely. The ref can have a coach, wrestler, fan or even a mother ejected. Usually not 1 unsportsmanlike conduct. Usually multiple unsportsmanlike conducts, or 1 flagrant misconduct but yes, if the ref feels he needs to go... he needs to go and it's up to the tournament director to make sure they're escorted out.

Haha... Thanks for the advice