Wisconsin In-State Wrestling Talent - Chicken and the Egg Question?

[jaguarwrestler]

Lets toss the population argument out the window, Base on that logic, shouldn't California and New York be producing the most AA year after year?

One questions I might throw out there

Are all of Wisconsin's best wrestlers actually going to a D1 school where they have a chance to become a D1 AA?
Or are grades a factor?
Or maybe a 3 time state champ decides a 4 year D1 school is not for him and wants to go to a tech and become a welder.

I personally know of a 2 time champ and a 4 time place winner that had D1 offers and simply decided he did not want to go to college, started working right out of high school, He is now a journeyman electrician and very happy with his decision.
I think that kid would have made it to AA status if he had went to a D1

So many different factors play into these stats.

sorry, but we are a good state for wrestling and when compared to another good state for wrestling having 6,000,000 seems to matter. Having 4-10 D1 schools to choose from and still stay home seems to matter. How many kids wrestle for say.... Stevens Point because the UW didn't work out for them and they didn't want to move another state to wrestle/go to school.  Yet if we had 3 or 4 other D1 schools like Iowa, Michigan and Illinois do we would have more kids wrestling D-1 and more potential for AA's

[vsmf2010]

One thing that I have not seen brought up is the WIAA restrictions. They have loosened some lately with more summer contact but that is relatively new. In addition to the JHI my understanding is that MN allows for year round contact. If you can have open mat with coaching year round you have a much better opportunity to build a HS program. I am not sure what the other states do but I suspect they are not as restrictive at the WIAA. I have studied the WIAA rules in and out and If schools are following the rules it is tough to develop a program outside of the season.

I think WI has closed the gap some and I think our top level wrestlers are continuing to get better. I recall when we used to have our A, B, and C champs wrestle the MN champs and it was not pretty. What concerns me most about WI is the (middle class) of wrestling in WI and I am not talking about economics. What really seems to be missing at a lot of schools is the tough 4 year kid who wrestles a year or 2 of varsity. Those kids just do not seem to be wrestling at a lot of schools. I have talked to many other coaches and they agree. Compared to the 80's when I wrestled our better varsity kids are better and our low end varsity kids are way worse. Staggering numbers of pins and forfeits in the average dual. Most duals do not even seem to take an hour. Of course when you go to team state the depth and competition is better but a lot of your Friday night duals do not have a lot of competitive matches.

[Micah]

I think the way JV is handled in Wrestling hurts the sport.  Any other sport has an actual JV team, they keep score and records through the year.  In wrestling it is rag tag just matching up kids for exhibitions.  I think if they actually made JV a team, where kids make weight and an actual dual with a team score happens it would generate more interest.  Coaches and wrestlers would be more active trying to fill out dual meet teams.  Every kid wants to be a part of something by creating an actual JV team it gives these kids that are not on varsity yet that sense of belonging to something.  Kids that do not make the JV can wrestle exhibition matches before the JV starts if both teams have enough wrestlers.

Right now JV wrestlers are taken for granted and kids don't want to be a part of the sport that is looked down on.  There needs to be more importance placed on the JV team to give those kids that are not on varsity something to achieve.

I think the same thing should happen in tournaments.  The set weight classes need to be used not matching kids up close in weight like a youth tournament.  Have each team enter a guy at each weight and keep a team score like any varsity tournament.  Guys that are not on the JV team can be matched up within the weight class. 

I understand that many teams would not field a full JV Team, the hope would be that a kid not wrestling would see that open spot as an opportunity and try out for the team.  I am also in favor of reducing weight classes, I think 10 sounds about right.  I know the reduced opportunity crowd always get on this, but it would reduce the number of forfeits and increase the number of wrestlers on JV (too many kids are on varsity just to fill a spot).  It is my opinion, that a forfeit or bye is a missed opportunity.  Kids don't want to ride a bus for an hour to have 4 forfeits in a dual, they want to wrestler.  Reducing the weight classes will generate more competition in the state and in the wrestling room thus increasing actual wrestling opportunities not just a roster spot to get forfeits.  I know this will never happen the wrestling community is resistant to change just wishful thinking, but imagine going to a wrestling tournament in which every varsity team has a full roster. 

[Handles II]

I don't think any coach would disagree with you that we should have full JV rosters and perhaps extras. Unfortunately that isn't happening at many/most schools no matter how hard the coach and wrestlers recruit for the sport. I'm certainly not giving up, but I understand the reality of the sport. Finding 14 guys who are evenly spaced by weight class is hard enough for varsity, much less to double it for JV.

Opening up JHI could certainly help, at the very least in the mid-lower weights.

Reducing weight classes isn't something I would like, but looking around at scores, it might be something that should be accepted. I believe the rule was really set in motion by big schools in big wrestling states. That's fine, it doesn't mean that every state should have to follow suit exactly. Probably could/should start a totally different thread for the above ideas.

[Jimmy]

I don't see how Wi. having more d one programs gives us a potential for more aa. The ncaa awards 80 all -american honors per yr. period