If they combine all the classes into one city it doesn't mean that they have to all be in one building does it? I mean if a College coach has only so many travel dollats he could go to one city and see all the wrestlers at different times. They could stagger the times so that the finals are at different times. Just a thought.

The point is if you put these state tournaments in high schools you are going back to the way it was many years ago and that is going backwards. It seems that Kansas is always settling for mediocrity. The powers to be are old school, and those that don't have a beef with it are blind. One other point for Billy how many of your high school kids wrestle at the national level in the off season and still find themselves getting scholarships for that next level? Be it NAIA, DI, DII, DIII,or JUCO. We can do better then what we have, and for sure do better then what they plan on giving us in the future for state venus. You always work for perfection, and to settle for any less is a looser. Thank you Derek for allowing me to use your handel. Scott Rieck

tksnkc this is SmokeyKnowAll,

There are approximately 896 wrestlers in all 4 classes.
There are approximately 1,624 matches for all classes during the state tournaments that are currectly held. Using 6 mats there would be 271 matches per mat. Over 4 days that is 67.7 matches per mat per day. If the 4 classes are split(in to 2 classes) and seperated into 2 venues - well I'll let you do the math. Answering your questions above.

1) Number of kids going onto college for acedemics and wrestling?
Not enough
2) Have I ever asked any state champs about sharing the stage for the finals. The answer is Yes and they liked having them together. Sharing is a good thing.
3) BEST EXPERIENCE FOR THE KIDS! See my answer on #2
4) I do understand it is for the kids or I wouldn't have posted this in the first place.

Sean McCarthy
STA Kids Club

I would just like to speak for the one class per venue system. I wrestled at Hays and it was a fantastic experience. Full house, rowdy crowd, and a lot of fan support. I have coached at the 4A level when 4A was at Wichita, and have coached multiple years at the 5A and 6A level in Wichita. The atmosphere in Wichita pales in comparison to the atmosphere in Hays. I personally hope 3-2-1A never leaves Hays, and anyone who loves wrestling needs to go out and watch the semis on Friday night in Hays. The finals are great too.

Lets just say that my memories of the coliseum are not as glowing as those from Hays. I am not disappointed to be leaving Wichita, I do however hope that KSHSAA is able to find a venue for these kids to compete on that is a BIG stage, not at a High School. The wrestlers have worked hard and deserve that opportunity. I am not opposed to a one class per site system though.

Sorry for the delay, I have been away from my computer:

In an ideal situation it would be great for all of the state Tournaments to be at one location. But at this time I do not know of any facility large enough to hold all 4 tournaments. I agree with coachtwink about the atmosphere at the 3-2-1A and 4-5-6A Tournaments. I have coached in both of these. If you have never attended the 3-2-1A State Tournament in Hays in the past 10 years, I'm not sure I could explain how special it is. I have never had any of my athletes come away from the state tournament and tell me that they felt cheated because they did not get to compete with all the other classes. The number of fans that show up to cheer on their teams is outstanding. In fact the following are taken from the KSHSAA Activities Journal April 2006 page 28.
"Financial Results of Boy's State Wrestling Tournaments 2006"
Ticket Sales:
3-2-1A $44,522.00
4-A $36,760.00
5&6A $45,265.00

Profit after expenses:
3-2-1A $21,028.99
4-A $16,893.62
5&6A $5,715.87

After looking at these numbers which are facts published by the KSHSAA you can see that the 5A & 6A Tournament in Wichita are the least profitable for KSHSAA, even though they had the most ticket sales. The 3-2-1A Tourn. had almost as many fans attend to watch as the 5-A and 6-A Tournaments combined. The 4-A Tournament was only about $8,000 behind in ticket sales.
My point is this: The 3-2-1A and 4-A Tournaments are making a good profit for KSHSAA. I would guess that the 5-A & 6A Tournaments will not stay in Wichita much longer it is simply too expensive. And this has nothing to do with pleasing College Coaches.

I will check on the Nebraska state Tourn. and get some info. I know that in the past they would split the sessions, so only 2 classes were wrestling at any one time in the first day or so. Then they would all come together for the placing matches.

College Coaches do attend H.S. State Tournaments. They are not only looking at Seniors they are looking at some of the freshman, sophmores & juniors as future recruits. They do not ONLY attend summer wrestling national events. 1 or 2 State locations would be much better for our sport - in my opinion. Additonally, some of the other current H.S. wrestlers, parents of high school wrestlers, fans, High School and College coaches I talked to agreed with my opinion.

I've got the best idea yet, let’s have it at Kansas Speedway. It seats like 100,000, which means 25,000 people could come to represent each class. You could have RVs and tailgaters parked in the mid-field. On the home stretch of the speedway you can set out like 20 mats in a row, so each class gets 4 mats to itself. I know it will be a little cold outside, but hey there wrestlers they can tough it out. With this plan there would be no need to increase the days either. Plus Cabela’s is right next door with the Great Wolf Lodge and its on the good side of KC, the Kansas side.

K-State should get absolutely no benefit from Kansas Wrestling. I am sorry but I am of the age and era that I still hold a very big grudge against K-State in regards to wrestling. There are many places to hold state tourneys but K-State should never be on that list. I would think it just far to insulting to allow Kansas State University to profit in anyway in regards to Kansas High School wrestling. No school has ever done so much to disregard wrestling as KSU.

Westfahl,

Would having it at Allen Field be just as bad as having at Bramledge? But the facilities could hold it.
KU hasn't been the staunchest supporter of wrestling either.

Maybe the Kansas expocentre in Topeka would be a good place. Could they get 8-9 mats on the floor. Seatings good enough. I think it's a little more centrally located than Wichita, at least to the poplulation. Always thought it was unfair to the Kansas City area fan had to got to Wichita.


The fan

I always thought of the Phog as well, but it would be hard to find that weekend were there are no games.

Why should the poor ass western kansas people have to always pay to drive east? Those people in KC make more money in a day than most people in western ks do in a month. And it is probably faster for you to get to wichita taking the turn pike than it is from almost anyone in western ks to get there. If there is anywhere that would be a good spot to host it it would be Salina. Just not a big enough facility located there.

Those Johnson County people think Lawrence IS western Kansas!

I don't really have a dog in the fight anymore since I am no longer coaching. The real important point here that drives all of this is that the Wichita site is a pig pen (or horse pen). It is now and has always been, aside from its size, the worst possible option. It is dirty, old, the people who work there could care less about the fans. From every angle I saw it, it was terrible. I don't think any of the major college sites are an option. Topeka is a great venue. There are a lot of us who would volunteer our time to help run it there. I sure would. It is a great building and has housed some great wrestling events in the past, ie: the national AAU and others. As for how much Johnson County people make, I am from western Kansas and live in Johnson County and I guess I missed the ship on all that big income :). Oh well maybe in the next life.

I have to agree with Westfahl. The Kansas Colosseum is a dump! For as much money as the tournament brought to Wichita you would think that cleanliness and courtesy would have been high on the priority list and it was not. The concession prices are outrageous,and the so-called security at the building was a joke in the way they attempted to intimidate coaches and wrestlers. The only thing this site had going for it was it’s size. I enjoyed being able to see 3 of the 4 classes at one venue, but I enjoy the 4A Salina site for the all of the things that the Colosseum lacks.

I don’t think the Expo-center in Topeka is an option for two reasons. I believe the Shriners have an event that weekend and it is too small to hold more than two classifications.

Yeah that is probaby true. It might be an option for five and six A though. Wichita is ok if you like the smell of horse crap, a dark dungeon, and the bathroom facilities of a roman vomitorium. Hey exept for that I liked it lol.