Will is right, the sport has to develop a broader fan base. Right now it is perty much limited to parents, some students and the hard core. I would imagine the ticket sales to a few of the 5/6A regionals barely made it work collecting the gate. If something doesn't change wrestling will see a consolidation of the classes in a few years. Some of the regionals in the larger classes already are a joke. More duals would be something that would build the fan base. High school sports are a real entertainment value which can really compete in a bad economy. But, fans do not have the time to spend all day on Saturday at a tournament 50 miles or more away.

In terms of injuries I believe Gonz is somewhat right. Yes, the more you do something the better the chance something will go wrong, whether it is sports or driving. But, after watching my son do kids for 6 season and almost a full year of High School I believe injuries come mainly from being out of position and moving up weight classes to 'help the team'. I do not see any proposals to set a minimum weight to wrestle a class. Yes, better drilling should reduce the 'out of position' injuries - so lets get rid of dead week and start the season earlier - so more drilling can occur. Also, injuries happen just as often in practice as in matches. Do you want to eliminate live wrestling in practice?

I also believe the increase in injuries is probably related to the fact few kids today have any meaningful physical work to do around the house. The only physical labor they perform is in sports and the weight room. Workouts in the weight room frequently focus on what the football coach wants - and normally runs YEAR LONG where they mainly do bench and squats, ignoring full body type of workouts such as the new workouts out today based on the idea of combat fitness like crossfit. I believe these kids are much more subject to injuries. In other words, we are not building a proper foundation for our kids before we put them in a physically demanding activity.

If there has been an increase in injuries, I would ask that we look for the root causes and not just blame it on the competition.

Finally, on Will's proposal - as stated it would not really work for many small programs - who would invite a school with only 3 - 6 kids out. It would work best if just a total number of matches (maybe 12) was set for the use of these points and then let the schools work it out themselves.