New Regional,State Tournament, State Duals, JV Wrestlers,

[aaacoach26]

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!

[Bearhugger]

I went to the "WV Duals" last season. The South/Indy dual was incredible. Other than that, the weekend had a few good match ups on an individual basis. This season I skipped it because it didn't compare to last season. I went to the Beckley Armory, not to see tough team competitions but to see many top individual wrestlers from many different teams.

I read and "hear" that South has a hard time getting teams to wrestle them. You have a lot of good suggestions. A WV Dual State Championship should be the final phase in "Making Wrestling Great Again".

[mscoach64]

So is there a team champion from the individual state tourney and a team champion from the dual state tourney? Is the dual state tourney divided into e classes?

[vortexfan]

I like that idea aacoach26, this would be an improvement!

[aaacoach26]

mscoach64,
One bracket for the state tournament, but yes there would be a team champion for each class at the individual tournament. Also, for separate classes all together for the dual events. A only wrestles A, AA against AA , AAA against AAA.

[mike.carman]

I like it.

[Bucktail]

"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."

I completely agree with this. WPIAL AAA team semifinals tomorrow, it will be an all out war with a packed house. top three qualify to go to Hershey.

One of the issues in this state will remain unless we shift perception. Its hard to build the fanfare and competitive nature your talking about when it appears that duals don't matter. The coaches factor into this as well. How excited are people to feel or engaged when their team wins a dual, but the teams they beat stay ranked ahead of them. This state has a paradigm of who is traditionally best and won't acquiesce to a standard of a team being better on that day. For example, University beats Ripley and Parkersburg in duals on Saturday and remains behind them in the polls. What statement are you making to the kids? What does it say about the importance of duals? I am aware there may have been kids missing from the lineup, but if I lose in football and I am missing a player or two, my ranking falls and everyone hopes it doesn't debunk the playoff seed too much. Will University be as good as Ripley or Parkersburg at states? I don't know, but they were better than what those two teams could muster on 1/28/17 and that was authentic. Maybe Parkersburg and Ripley just said 'oh well, we will beat them at the state tournament' and all the coaches polling agreed.

I like this setup and proposal, I personally believe its imperative we keep the conversation and the proposals in the forefront with the WVSSAC. admitting this forum is a microcosm of the state wrestling community, there appears to be more agreement than disagreement that type of change would be good for the state. Just my thoughts.

J. Zeiders