New Regional,State Tournament, State Duals, JV Wrestlers,
Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2017 11:42 pm
and a few things I think I think...
I posted a proposal for a one class format with regionals and semi-states in another thread with mapped out regions. Since then, some arguments for/against have been discussed.
What are the goals of a change to the current system? We will address JV later.
Goals
Eliminate byes in regionals and the ST while get the best/ranked wrestlers to the big show.
Increase participation-grow the sport
Promote parity (even the playing field) by balancing the competition to get to the ST.
Increase attendance at WVSSAC events, increase revenue, keep the talking heads happy.
Ease pains of trying to fill schedule during regular season for some teams.
Finally get rid of the awful pill system.
I believe one bracket for all classes where we crown 1 individual champion in each weight class, but crown team champions in all three classes would accomplish these goals.
The format would be as follows:
3 North and 3 South regions with seeded brackets. We seed our regions now, not a problem. The top 7 from each region advance to the 21 man bracket Semi-State. The Semi-State is seeded, with top seeds getting byes in the first round. Again, not hard to seed in our small state. The regionals could rotate among the member schools. The Semi-States could be held at Raleigh County Armory for the South and Fairmont Armory for the North. The top 8 from the North and top 8 from the South advance to Big Sandy. State Tournament bracket format follows 1North vs 8South at top of bracket and 1South vs. 8North at bottom of bracket. We have eliminated The PILL!!!
What does this accomplish towards the goals?
Eliminate byes-
Byes are absolutely eliminated w/ having 14-16 teams in each regional. Finish in the top half and you advance to Semi-State. If you aren’t better than half the kids in your region, then there’s not much argument for being “left out”.
Promote parity-
Teams from weaker regions will no longer qualify full teams and the stronger teams still have to go through Semi-State too. If you have 5 studs who can win it all, you stand a chance to do as well as anybody else. This would result in a team like Petersburg, Wirt, or Madonna, who may not be blessed with 14 great wrestlers, but do have 3 or 4 kids who can compete with anyone, to qualify as many some of the larger AAA teams. This puts an emphasis on having great individual wrestlers and less on having a full team of 4th-6th place wrestlers.
Increase revenue for the WVSSAC and take the strain off the low number of officials-
Current format we have 8 regions hosted in 8 separate locations. Some of the regions consist of teams that, well really aren’t a team and just a couple of kids. The new format gives you 14-16 teams at 6 locations, resulting in a larger gate. Then, the possibility of having over 40 schools represented at each 2-day Semi-State event.
Currently, I’m think 5-6 officials are assigned to each regional. That’s 40-48 officials spread out around the state. We all know about the shortage of seasoned officials we are currently experiencing too. The new format would ease this strain with only 6 locations and 30-36 officials needed. Then, 2 locations the following weekend for Semi-States requiring even less officials.
Grow the sport and ease scheduling pains-
How would making it harder to get to the state tournament make a kid want to wrestle? Well, we would be crowning team champions in all three classes, but that's probably not enough. Now that the tournament has put more emphasis on great individual wrestlers, it’s time to allow for 20 weigh ins and have separate class Dual State Tournaments for A/AA and AAA. Last week, I got to attend an Ohio Dual Sectional with Cincinnati Lasalle, St. Xavier, Fairfield, Colerain, and maybe Oak Hills (can’t remember). What an atmosphere, it was truly electric. Duals are fun, duals are exciting, duals are great for team unity, there have been times where my team lost a dual and I could hear the kids saying “oh well, we will still beat them at the state tournament”. Imagine how exciting it would be if there was something on the line for winning a dual.
This also eases scheduling issues by requiring teams to wrestle “x” number of duals throughout the season to qualify for the state duals. Since teams in all classes would be competing against each other in the tournament portion of the season, it should also eliminate the excuse for a AAA to tell a AA team or vice-versa “we really need to see other teams in our class”. I think this would also result cause in an increase in week-day quads.
*****Bonus-increased revenue for the WVSSAC****. /b]
[b]JV participation
I think I answered this with the Dual State Tournament- quality backup wrestlers mean everything for having a good dual team.
Secondly, let’s say I’m 120 and I can’t beat the varsity guy at 113. The 120 pound class is pretty tough in my region too. However, I know I could qualify for the state tournament if I cut to 113 and chose to be the “JV” guy. My team has no other 120 pounders though. I’ve just left a whole at 120 on my team. So, how does allowing JV’s eliminate byes? Again, STATE DUALS!
I posted a proposal for a one class format with regionals and semi-states in another thread with mapped out regions. Since then, some arguments for/against have been discussed.
What are the goals of a change to the current system? We will address JV later.
Goals
Eliminate byes in regionals and the ST while get the best/ranked wrestlers to the big show.
Increase participation-grow the sport
Promote parity (even the playing field) by balancing the competition to get to the ST.
Increase attendance at WVSSAC events, increase revenue, keep the talking heads happy.
Ease pains of trying to fill schedule during regular season for some teams.
Finally get rid of the awful pill system.
I believe one bracket for all classes where we crown 1 individual champion in each weight class, but crown team champions in all three classes would accomplish these goals.
The format would be as follows:
3 North and 3 South regions with seeded brackets. We seed our regions now, not a problem. The top 7 from each region advance to the 21 man bracket Semi-State. The Semi-State is seeded, with top seeds getting byes in the first round. Again, not hard to seed in our small state. The regionals could rotate among the member schools. The Semi-States could be held at Raleigh County Armory for the South and Fairmont Armory for the North. The top 8 from the North and top 8 from the South advance to Big Sandy. State Tournament bracket format follows 1North vs 8South at top of bracket and 1South vs. 8North at bottom of bracket. We have eliminated The PILL!!!
What does this accomplish towards the goals?
Eliminate byes-
Byes are absolutely eliminated w/ having 14-16 teams in each regional. Finish in the top half and you advance to Semi-State. If you aren’t better than half the kids in your region, then there’s not much argument for being “left out”.
Promote parity-
Teams from weaker regions will no longer qualify full teams and the stronger teams still have to go through Semi-State too. If you have 5 studs who can win it all, you stand a chance to do as well as anybody else. This would result in a team like Petersburg, Wirt, or Madonna, who may not be blessed with 14 great wrestlers, but do have 3 or 4 kids who can compete with anyone, to qualify as many some of the larger AAA teams. This puts an emphasis on having great individual wrestlers and less on having a full team of 4th-6th place wrestlers.
Increase revenue for the WVSSAC and take the strain off the low number of officials-
Current format we have 8 regions hosted in 8 separate locations. Some of the regions consist of teams that, well really aren’t a team and just a couple of kids. The new format gives you 14-16 teams at 6 locations, resulting in a larger gate. Then, the possibility of having over 40 schools represented at each 2-day Semi-State event.
Currently, I’m think 5-6 officials are assigned to each regional. That’s 40-48 officials spread out around the state. We all know about the shortage of seasoned officials we are currently experiencing too. The new format would ease this strain with only 6 locations and 30-36 officials needed. Then, 2 locations the following weekend for Semi-States requiring even less officials.
Grow the sport and ease scheduling pains-
How would making it harder to get to the state tournament make a kid want to wrestle? Well, we would be crowning team champions in all three classes, but that's probably not enough. Now that the tournament has put more emphasis on great individual wrestlers, it’s time to allow for 20 weigh ins and have separate class Dual State Tournaments for A/AA and AAA. Last week, I got to attend an Ohio Dual Sectional with Cincinnati Lasalle, St. Xavier, Fairfield, Colerain, and maybe Oak Hills (can’t remember). What an atmosphere, it was truly electric. Duals are fun, duals are exciting, duals are great for team unity, there have been times where my team lost a dual and I could hear the kids saying “oh well, we will still beat them at the state tournament”. Imagine how exciting it would be if there was something on the line for winning a dual.
This also eases scheduling issues by requiring teams to wrestle “x” number of duals throughout the season to qualify for the state duals. Since teams in all classes would be competing against each other in the tournament portion of the season, it should also eliminate the excuse for a AAA to tell a AA team or vice-versa “we really need to see other teams in our class”. I think this would also result cause in an increase in week-day quads.
*****Bonus-increased revenue for the WVSSAC****. /b]
[b]JV participation
I think I answered this with the Dual State Tournament- quality backup wrestlers mean everything for having a good dual team.
Secondly, let’s say I’m 120 and I can’t beat the varsity guy at 113. The 120 pound class is pretty tough in my region too. However, I know I could qualify for the state tournament if I cut to 113 and chose to be the “JV” guy. My team has no other 120 pounders though. I’ve just left a whole at 120 on my team. So, how does allowing JV’s eliminate byes? Again, STATE DUALS!