Is this the worst the Lakeland has been?

[guillotine]

Is there one team in the conference that can field a full team? (cameron, SCF)
Is there a team that has a chance to send more than one wrestler to Madison? (CL, SCF,LFG, Cameron), maybe two but unlikely 3.
Its sad to see some great programs like Shell Lake and Turtle lake with only a handful of wrestlers.
Cameron and CL have some individuals but just don't have the team aspect.
Bruce has no numbers
I keep rooting for Flambeau, they seem to have a few really good kids and some not so bad ones starting out then they disappear at the end of the year.
Unity hasn't had much since the McKinney days.
SCF seems to be slowly going backwards too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing any of these programs, I know the coaches are doing everything they can to build their programs.
What do you think is it just a cycle or is this conference in a down hill spiral?

[Alumni]

I think the Lakeland could be in trouble for awhile.
Low numbers in the high school programs and middle school programs spell huge problems for some programs.
I think these coaches are doing their best to recruit but it continues to get harder and harder to get a kid who is on the fence to first of all sign up and second of all to really commit to the program.
Seems like the Lakeland has been going through some coaching changes in a lot of the programs and that makes a big difference. Coaches are more worried about running their program than they are about really going after kids in the halls who can help you. Give these a coaches a couple of years to settle in and and hopefully they can start getting the numbers back and and that's a huge step to a quality program.

Doesn't seem all that long ago when the Lakeland had 5 state champs several place winners and qualifiers.

I don't know what happened but It seems to me with the wrestling I have seen is that the quality of wrestling is terrible.
Are coaches spending more time just trying to keep kids out and not "teaching" wrestling? Or are coaches subjected to only being able to recruit some kids with limited athletic ability just to fill a spot?
Maybe some of both and I'm sure there are a lot of other reasons.

Right now I think SCF and Cameron have the most stable program.
SL and Cornell seems to be in trouble
TL,Unity,Bruce and Flambeau keep plugging along.
CL has the most overall talent, but haven't transferred that to the mat yet.

[guillotine]

I agree, SCF and Cameron are the most stable but I don't see much in SCF middle school. I don't know about Cameron.
The other schools do keep plugging along but all it takes is an administrator to say they have seen enough. Lets hope that doesn't happen.
CL is a big surprise to me, they lost a lot to graduation but had 5-7 very solid wrestlers coming back.
They are getting nothing from there inexperienced kids. These kids have been in the wrestling room for 2 months and should be showing signs improvement.
CL should be dominating a weak Lakeland conference and they get beat 41-31 to LFG and get embarrassed 60-15 by SCF.
Coach Clark had CL flipping their weigh in sheet every which way trying to figure out what was going on. (can you say deer in the headlights?)

I was told it wasn't exactly a friendly parting of the ways with former coaches Anderson/Paulson and the administration. They wanted a more laid back style of coaching. Anderson was to intense and vocal. (probably didn't like the boots either). Be careful what you wish for.

CL's loss is everyone else's gain though as far as their chances to win the conference.

[wrestlerforlife98]

State Qualifiers

SCF- at least 2
Cameron- at least 2
Bruce- 2
LFG- around 2 or 3
Northwoods- 1
Flambeau- maybe 2
Clear Lake- maybe 2

[Alumni]

I think CL could have as may as 5 but they would need to have a great tournament series.

Elmer 113
Colbeth 132
Paulson 145
Ruble 170
Lien 195