Fixing the Image Problem

[timamos]

I read the various perspectives on things from Regional Realignment, to allowing JV's to wrestle, to changing the point system for duals, and while I do not agree with everything said, it makes me happy that there are people who obviously love the sport and care enough about its future in West Virginia to debate ways to make it better. Thankful to Doc Miller for providing a forum for people to discuss it and others to read about it While we are fixing the sport, it occurs to me that we are losing wrestlers because of the lack of popularity of the sport amongst their peers.

Watching PHS/Huntington, South/Ripley/StAlbans/Brooke, PHS/South, and PHS/PtPleasant it is obvious that neither the local media nor the respective student bodies care about wrestling. With the exception of the South vs PHS match, the events were poorly attended by the general public and there were no student sections. The PHS vs South match was well attended by adults but the student section at south was sparse and the student section at PHS was maybe worse, consisting of a few football players who came to support their friends on the team. This year's dual had #1 vs #2 in AAA wrestling and because Jay Bennett (the lone local reporter who appears to care about wrestling) was off, the rest of the Parkersburg News sports staff "forgot" to mention it. Contrast that with football where they clamor to write columns about the team and individual matchups, the history of the game, complete with predictions by not only the sportswriters but guest. If the two schools played each other in Wheeling (football) or in Charleston (Basketball) for the championship, they would shut down the City. I have no dog in it this year but it appears that it will be the two Parkersburg schools fighting each other for the team title in wrestling and most of the city/student bodies won't know or care.

I do not mean to be critical of the respective football or basketball programs at South or PHS, I have friends on both the staffs at both schools and they work hard at what they do BUT they have had limited success when compared to the respective wrestling programs.

Football. PHS and South pack a stadium when they play against each other. 29 teams in AAA and both are usually fighting to secure spot #15 or 16, earning the right to drive 10 hours and let Martinsburg play name that score. Student sections have themes, bonfires, pep rallies. Presumably celebrating the idea that the teams are mathematically average in AAA.

Boys Basketball. PHS and South pack the Fieldhouse/ROAC when they play anyone and it is a madhouse when they play each other. Like football the student sections have themes, bonfires, pep rallies. One of the two teams will usually make the State Tournament (Top 8). Neither team has been a threat to win it all in recent years. When the team returns (after losing) there will be a police or fire truck escort resembling a parade. Presumably celebrating the idea that the team finished in the top quarter of the AAA teams.

If PHS or South wrestling met the football goal of finishing 16th or the basketball goal of finishing 8th, the wrestling boosters would be calling for Chris Way or Shaun Smith's head.

To be clear, I'm not critical of football or basketball. They are doing something right and we (wrestling) are doing something wrong. There are no student sections at the matches. If a teenage boy wants to catch the attention of the girls, he is far better off sitting the bench in football than he is starting for the wrestling team. If his buddies want to go to the movies and he can't because he has to go to club practice or lift after regular practice, his buddies have no idea why he is making the sacrifice. We need to showcase our sport and make it fun for the students to attend.

I helped coach at Edison Middle and our biggest accomplishment was not winning, our biggest accomplishment during my time there was raising enough money to buy mats for the walls in the wrestling room. I like to think that we may have helped a future child and family avoid a brain/spine injury in the practice room. Our biggest fundraiser was accomplished through the help of our biggest rival, they agreed to come to our place and wrestle us in front of the student body where they beat us in a close, exciting dual. We raised a lot of money. A side benefit was that our wrestlers (and theirs too) were excited because students were taking notice of their hard work. Coaches Koreski were able to recruit the hallways this year to bring in a new crop of newbies and I hope that maybe paying $2 to get out of class and seeing last years match may have given a few of them the encouraging push forward to try the sport. I don't have time to look back but I think it was Chris DeSerio who mentioned bringing back duals and doing some in front of the student body. I like the idea. It may be a part of the answer to the forfeits problem we have. We need to do something to increase the popularity of the sport among the kids.

[vortexfan]

Very good post! I also know some very successful past pee wee and middle school wrestlers not participating in HS.
I am all for improving the image! That is my intention on my posts, some very good opinions and ideas in this forum too, I just think we should look at what some of the barriers that can be fixed to make it better!

[aaacoach89]

Awesome post!!!

[Jbee]

Tim, great post.

I talked to a number of people after the last quad at South and they had no idea they even wrestled that night. One was a contractor working on my bathroom who used to go to all the matches.
All of these people said the same thing. never seen a schedule, did not know. It doesn't help that South has problems even scheduling teams.

I don't think any of these schools do any marketing for their team. if your going to wait on the school to do it you will be waiting awhile.

Its hard to get out schedules when your having problems with scheduling teams.

that quad was my first South match since around 2010 or so and the crowd was not even close to what it would have been in 2010. That's a shame, it used to be hard to find a seat.

creative thinking as you posted and some marketing would greatly help these schools
..

I know the coaches have their hands full but collaboration with the booster and the AD would go along way in getting people to these gyms.


At Franklin we wrestled in front of the school every year.