I never thought Hoxie with no state qualifiers. What a storied history they have. I have heard they just do not have the numbers they once did and possibly if they went to a different Regionals, they would have got a few through.

I'm sure there fans and coaches are still proud of these young men and they will be back. Gross Memorial will be a lot quieter this year though.

Congrats to all the qualifiers and good luck next weekend.

They do have a new coach in Hoxie. I am sure they are in a transition period adjusting to a new coach.

Anyone who spent many days in Gross over the history of the 3-2-1a tourney will always remember how those Hoxie fans were. Seemed like the entire town would be there beating on those bleachers.

Sample if you are out there... how could you allow it to the point of no state placers... wow how times change

"no state qaulifiers" sorry, was a time that state placers was unbelievable more or less qualifiers

holy crap even with a new coach i didnt think it made that much of a difference what happened to the talent that was there last year or years before

The talent hasn't been there... if you notice it's been a gradual decline until the graduation of the class of '06, Baker, Erwin, Popp, etc.... now it's time for a rebuilding...

Mike Porsch is the new coach and he is a class act. Given time and support, he'll get the ship back on course. He was a terrific wrestler for Hoxie in the late 80's and has been learning from Baker as an assistant coach for the past 15 years +/-.

Likely their best chance to qualify was lost to injury before regionals.....and if you look at the wrestler's records who did compete at regionals, it should come as no surprise that they didn't get anyone through.

Declining enrollment numbers have hurt.....but past success has also hurt. If you were a freshman choosing between wrestling and basketball a few years back and saw Farber, Baker, Schippers, Schippers, Gilliland, Campbell.......all as underclassman on the wrestling team (and all competing for state honors as underclassman), most would choose basketball because they wouldn't see the light of day for three years in the varsity wrestling line-up - and also note that Hoxie's b-ball team has done fairly well in recent years.

There are some decent 6th and 7th graders in the pipeline (although not the quantity of kids Hoxie is used to).....just give it some time and Mike will get it going again. Perhaps will never have enough kids on the team to compete for a team title, but I bet you'll see some of them on the awards stand at the end of the tournament.

First of all, Coach Porsh is not a "newbie;" he was Coach Baker's assistant for many years and was instrumental in Hoxie's dominating years. He is a good coach as will be proven over time.

Secondly, ALL schools' talent will cycle. In small schools the cycles will be more pronounced, even without declining enrollment being a factor. Declining enrollment not only serves to amplify the down cycle, but could also prolong it. Hoxie had an incredible run of talent (coupled with outstanding coaching) through much of the 90's into the early 00's. To think that such a depth and width of talent would continue indefinitely in a school the size of Hoxie is, at best, unrealistic.

Two things I have learned in my many years is that (1) we SHOULD spend more time enjoying the moment and (2) Over time, "it" all averages out.