The kids forum is hoping, obviously with anticipation of upcoming sub's, district, and then state. What do you think the benefits are of knowing your brackets? Or, it don't matter?

I'll have to admit I even get caught up in it, wanting to know who is coming out of high school, who is dropping, and all of that. Bottom line though is that I don't know if knowing that makes any difference or not. The wrestler still has to prove everything on the mat.

I personally think it’s kind of funny… but looking back a few years I can understand why the world is buzzing! It would be nice if someone from all the sub-district seeding meetings would just send “Iron Mike Juby” the results and let him post them. Let everyone sort out who wrestles who. Maybe we could start a pool on who the next State Champ will be if we had the racing form.

Last year, I knew most of the kids who were in the different sub-districts across the state in my son's bracket. It was interesting to see who was going to be there, who to look out for, and what style the kid likes to wrestle. This year, I have no idea beyond sub-district. The reason is because most of them are high school. I asked him if it mattered to him and he said "It doesn't matter who is in my bracket, if they are there, I have to wrestle them. That simple." I learn a lot from that boy.

I don't know if the issue is about the host clubs not revealing the entire brackets for the purposes of making money selling the full brackets to folks the night of weigh-ins.
Either way some of the brackets can be easily figured out sometimes but it would be great if
all host clubs would post their brackets for North & South qualifiers in all 4 districts for everyone to see.

I wish more parents had the same attitude as your son.

That has always been Danny's philosophy also. It doesn't matter who is in the bracket and where they are.

To finish at the top, you have to wrestle and beat them all.

Leanna

I agree with Leanna, I never put much thought into who was going to be in my bracket.

The only time I think it really matters is when there are less than 4 people in a division. If there are less than 4, a family may want to stay home that weekend and just go to the next one. With the price of gas (over 2.00 a gallon!) and the expense of dragging around younger siblings, I can see why parents make a decision not to go. I know of two families in our club right now that are in that position. If the bracket is more than 4 people, then we go as a family because you never know, it may be the last weekend this year.

I can't stand bracket studiers. It determines the way many kids wrestle. It's like they figure, I'm not going to place or in order to place I have to beat this guy - instead of just beating everyone.

I'm sure there are some former wrestlers that I've had that will add testiment on how badly it makes me mad.

Mom4, I agree with you. I have been known to call ahead to see if my son even had anyone to wrestle. We skipped a tournament this year because he only had one no one in his bracket and when they offered to move him up to 14/U, he still only had 1 kid. We decided instead of driving 2 hours for that, he scratched.

it shouldnt make u mad to have someone think they have to beat this certain person to place or something like that because its their buisness and also some people like to put in a mind set on how the person wrestles and what moves they use and things like that if it really bothers you that much then i dont know what to tell you!?

Spelling and punctuation please........

Hooked on wrestling, not on phonics, so why is the bracket so important to know who's all in it?

After all, you have to wrestle your opponent before you get to the next guy. Oh sure, I'm not saying "don't know your opponent for the next match," but what I am saying is that there are bracket studiers about and will determine how the bracket will fall before the tourney begins.

Tell me I'm wrong. You know I'm right.

Some of the worst bracket studiers are coaches. Ever sit in a sub district seeding meeting? Arguing for third so they don't have to face the top ranked kid, constant posts asking for bracket info from the other district so they can study where they need to fall to get to state - am I telling fibs?

The reality is that if you are asking for bracket info from other tourneys so you can figure out where you need to be for Districts - you're probably not in the hunt for a state title.

Maybe I'm just being a grouch, but darn it, what kind of message does that send to a kid? Whatever happened to "just go out there and beat a kid."? Figuring out the "easy road" sends a message to a kid that is counter to everything this sport stands for.

No, it really doesn't matter knowing who is in the brackets, but think of it like the NCAA basketball National tournament. You can't tell me that you don't look at the bracket and see who your favorite team is going to have to beat to make it to the big dance, clear to the end before it has even started. They still have to beat every team to make it there. It's not figuring out the easy road. It's just the excitement of it all. At least for us it's not about figuring out where our son needs to be for districts, it's just the curiosity of knowing who is going to be there. He won't wrestle any better or any worse by knowing or not knowing. As a matter of fact we don't know who is wrestling in the other sub-district, and haven't asked. So I'm sticking up for those that have.
Everyone has their own reason. Yes there's only one road, but sometimes it's nice to know what's ahead, just to know. So let the one's that want to know, know. It's not a big deal.

I do agree with certain aspects you mentioned slick. Sure we want to know the basketball team selections because we don't have a say in the outcomes and it's a one and done proposition.

Yet wrestling brackets are different. Here you can lose and still come through the backside.

In high school state they don't let you know the way the bracket is going to break up. I can't remember the coach's name or school, but back in the day, a high school coach forfited a match in the finals at regionals because he knew his kid had a better run on the other side. There was some stud in the weight and the coach wanted the kid to see him in the finals (team points).

Coach endorsed the easy road. I know there are people out there that do the same thing with their kids.

Key thing to consider. If it's not a big deal as you say, then why are there close to 30 posts just this week about various weights and brackets for kids? I don't disagree with you one bit that your intentions are true, but I doubt it's all that way.