Out of Whack

[mscoach22]

Let me begin with the following disclaimer: this post is in no way meant to demean any athlete or program in any way.

With the "dead week" coming to an end and States still nearly a week away it has given me time to research and ponder the topic of AAA and A/AA regional strength and size issues. While looking through the regional results I noticed a detail that had missed before. There are 46 wrestlers out of 448 (roughly 10%, in all divisions), competing in this years state tournament with loosing records. 43 of those are in AAA and 3 are in A/AA.
I focused on AAA and found the following:
Region I - 14
Region II- 13
Region III-14 (note: this includes the 3 weight classes with only 3 wrestlers)
Region IV- 5

This isn't a knock on any region but yet another example of how things are so far Out of whack!! There have been numerous suggestions of how it could be fixed but if the WVSSAC isn't listening or doesn't care then how do we as coaches/fans help promote change? Should we write letters or start a petition or are we at the mercy of our principals committee, who according the powers that be are the ones who chose the new regional alignments. I think there are some amazing ideas out there, and no everyone wont be happy no matter what is done but it just cant keep going like this....
So I guess what I'm really asking is not what the fix is but how do we get to fixing it??

[Gator]

I think many are discussing a possible solution in the thread titled, 4 Byes in AAA.

[Bearhugger]

Let me begin with the following disclaimer: this post is in no way meant to demean any athlete or program in any way.

With the "dead week" coming to an end and States still nearly a week away it has given me time to research and ponder the topic of AAA and A/AA regional strength and size issues. While looking through the regional results I noticed a detail that had missed before. There are 46 wrestlers out of 448 (roughly 10%, in all divisions), competing in this years state tournament with loosing records. 43 of those are in AAA and 3 are in A/AA.
I focused on AAA and found the following:
Region I - 14
Region II- 13
Region III-14 (note: this includes the 3 weight classes with only 3 wrestlers)
Region IV- 5

This isn't a knock on any region but yet another example of how things are so far Out of whack!! There have been numerous suggestions of how it could be fixed but if the WVSSAC isn't listening or doesn't care then how do we as coaches/fans help promote change? Should we write letters or start a petition or are we at the mercy of our principals committee, who according the powers that be are the ones who chose the new regional alignments. I think there are some amazing ideas out there, and no everyone wont be happy no matter what is done but it just cant keep going like this....
So I guess what I'm really asking is not what the fix is but how do we get to fixing it??

Ironically, I predict Region IV's schools wrestle a much tougher schedule also.

[mscoach22]

Thanks Gator and Bearhugger you would be correct!

[dunbar76]

If a kid qualified for the states with a losing record, so be it. He or she had a better tournament in the regionals or bye's helped out. So what.

[greencrush]

Record is meaningless. A padded schedule can easily influence that. What matters is who is standing on the podium.
If a kid is talking about his record at the end of the year, he probably has some work to do.
What matters: state qualifier, state placewinner, state champion.