wvmat.com

Date of first polls? If coaches would post their scores instead of trying to hide whatever they think they're hiding, if would be appreciated by the fans. We as parents like to see what competition our children are up against before a match, just like you do. Thank you!

In answer to your question: First set of individual rankings to be released this Wednesday, along with the 3rd Team poll.

http://wvmat.com/polls/polls.htm

A few words about the polls:

I am sure that the first set of Individual Rankings will be open to fair criticism. There are match results we don't know about. Wrestlers are still shuffling around settling into their weight classes. There are some teams that we have NO results from as of yet. There will be mistakes, typos, and oversights. However, as the season progresses and we keep massaging the polls, they get more refined. The reader is invited to compare the last set of Individual Weight Class Rankings prior to the State Tournament for a given year and the actual State Tournament results - I think year in year out they are pretty close.

Input from fans is always welcome via the Forum or email. Concrete info such as a match result which was apparently overlooked or some other history is most helpful.

The team and individual polls were being compiled long before WV-Mat cam in to existence 20 yrs ago. (Can't believe that this website has been around that long). Prior to WV Mat, Roy Michael of North Marion and Horace Blankenship of Berkeley Springs "bird-dogged" the polls, which were released to the newspapers.

At the beginning, WV Mat just published their work.

Then Coaches Michael and Blankenship retired, and the polls got a bit spotty for a couple of years. WV Mat did its own polls to fill the void.

In 2003-04 WV Mat and the coaches got on the same page and started collaborating on the "WV Mat/Coaches Polls."

Beginning in 2007-08, we started releasing the first set of individual rankings weekly starting in early January. Prior to that the first set of individual rankings didn't come out until late January. (After Winners Choice and Braxton Big 16 - the results from these tournaments, frankly, to a large extent, translating into the individual weight class rankings).

Wow! 20 years already! I've been on this site since like, '98. I believe my first moniker was South Wrestling Fan.

I've witnessed a lot of things on WV Mat, caused some ruckus, made plenty of new friends and enjoyed a lot of great reading.

Thanks Doc for doing your real job, all the while finding the time to keep this site rolling along.

Hope you have a perpetuation plan in place!

In re your query: Hope you have a perpetuation plan in place!

The answer is, no.

If I croak tonight, the website dies tomorrow.

That is the curse of the Internet. There is no permanency. Newspapers are microfilmed and placed in libraries. A hundred years from now the 1/1/17 edition of the Parkersburg News will be available in a library. However, websites can, and do, vanish.

I have given this a good bit of thought, and as of now don't have an answer or a plan. I am sure the wrestling world can and will survive just fine in the absence of WV Mat. However, there is a lot of info archived here that I would hate to see vanish.

Dunno.

That's the old Financial Planner businessman coming out in me.

Not that I think you're going to kick the bucket, but maybe you can find a young, computer savvy WV wrestling fan/coach to share your plan with and teach the ropes?

I'd hate to see this site shut down, even if I weren't around to enjoy it. It means too much to WV wrestling and the kids who deserve to see their accomplishments in writing. You may or may not know the impact you've had on wrestling in our state, but it's monumental!

You are probably better known as Tim Miller, MD in Kingwood, but to most people in WV you are the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of WV Mat.

Don't let all your work go out with you. Find someone who can suffer with this page just like you have for 20 years! (smile)


P.S.....I'm not jockeying or volunteering for the job, I'm probably as old or older than you and far less computer savvy!