Class 6A, 5A wrestling to air on Kansas 22

The finals of the Class 6A and 5A wrestling tournament at Wichita’s Intrust Bank Arena will be televised on Kansas 22. Coverage starts at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Mark Ewing teams up with Mark Davidson and analyst Jerry Meier to call the action. It will be the third consecutive year that the event has been viewed statewide on Kansas 22. The event will be rebroadcasted at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 6, and available on On Demand with Cox cable for a limited time.

Thanks Richard. Much appreciated!

Does Time Warner Cable carry this channel? Cant seem to find it.

Kansas 22 web site says it is a COX Cable Station. Don't think it is viewable in the KC TV area---perhaps Topeka.

If we want state wide TV coverage of the State Tournament Championships we probably need to go to all Kansas PBS affiliates. I think it is PBS that telecasts the Iowa finals, plus finals in other HS sports.

This probably should be something KSHSAA would have to negotiate with PBS. I assume the local PBS stations would have to pay to show the tournaments. That would take money. What can we do. First, storm KSHSAA. Second, contact your local PBS stations and see if they are interested. Perhaps they could earmark donations from wrestling fans to purchase TV time plus cover the cost of taping crews.

I am in for a donation!!!

Is there a live streaming on any websites?

Great coverage of the finals. Made it a family night. Thank you KS channel 22, and Cox TV!

Will the rebroadcast on 3/6/10 also be on channel Kansas 22?

Thanks.

Yes, last year they repeated the broadcast many times on 22.

i thought they did a great job, kudos to the guys for pulling out some interesting "stuff" during the long introduction.

Thanks Sportsfan. Much appreciated.

I know it is not cool to 'talk' bad about the refs, but as Will states nothing will improve until the good ole boy network is held accountable.

Do you remember the TV people (I'm assuming you watch it - maybe you didn't) say anything about the reffing that was occuring at the 6a tourney? Just curious.

Thanks.

the announcers mentioned the calls, being close, but agreed with them. not much to argue, but some close ones. out of bounds i think was somewhat inconsistent, but there's a different guy out there every match, it's gonna be that way, to an extent.

Here's another idea on gettin a KC area telecast of the 5A and 6A wrestling championships. Contact METRO Sports and bug them. METRO Sports is a Time Warner Cable KC local area sports channel. They broadcast local colleg, high school, and lots of kids sports. They do the Missouri football and basketball championships and the METRO Class wrestling. Ask them to do our wrestling!

METRO Sports web site: http://kcondemand.com/MetroSports-HighSchool.aspx

Program director's email: shawn.beldin@twcable.com

Program director's telephone number: 816.222.5618

Send them an email or call the program director. Needs to be a big campaign to get a positive response.


Sent my email this AM (copied below for info)

Email to Shawn Belding, METRO Sports 28 Feb 2101

Request that METRO Sports telecast the Kansas high school 5A and 6A wrestling championship ships.

COX 22 Cable live telecasts these events for the Wichita and central and western Kansas areas. These state tournaments were conducted this past weekend at the Intrust Center in Wichita. One half of the teams in both classes are in the Kansas City and Time Warner viewing area. Numerous champions and placers in all weight brackets and classes from this area. Also, lots and lots of fans and relatives locally who could not/did not travel to Wichita but would greatly enjoy seeing the matches televised.

METRO Sports does a great job televising the METRO Classic at Kansas City, Kansas Community College. I think you also telecast the Missouri high school football and basketball championship games. The wrestling community would appreciate seeing the wrestling championships. In this regard, the Missouri high school wrestling community would like to see the Missouri Championships (note: I think two local area high schools won their respective class state tournaments--Park Hill and Platte City--plus several other local schools were high placers.

Lots of interest in high school wrestling. A great individual and team sport.

Thanks for your consideration.

Actually, Iowa Public TV no longer carries the high school tournaments anymore. About six or seven years ago, the Iowa High School Athletic Association and Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union created the Iowa High School Sports Network. They sell the rights to the State football, volleyball, wrestling and boys' and girls' basketball tournaments to stations in each of the state's TV markets. Everything is live. The state associations didn't feel they were making enough money from IPTV so they went out and got sponsors like Farm Bureau, Casey's and Pizza Ranch and they're making a bundle off it. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be a practical idea in Kansas. Iowa has each of their tournaments at one site (football in the Dome in Cedar Falls, volleyball in Cedar Rapids and everything else in Des Moines) so it's pretty easy. Traditional wrestling was last weekend, the State duals were on last night and the girls' state tourney starts tomorrow. They do the semis and finals for basketball.

Thanks for the info. Wife is from Iowa and for many years we would go up to visit her folks. Always watched the high school games on Iowa Public TV.

Perhaps the only things we can do is start up a filming company or get Cox and Time Warner cable to co op the KS state tournments and games. Still, might have some success with KC METRO Sportsfo the KC area.

Actually, I forgot, they do the State baseball and softball tournament finals in the summer, too.
The biggest issue I can see Kansas having is logistics. Three sites for wrestling, five or six for almost everything else; it would be tough to try to set up productions in that many places, then you have to figure out who gets to be on live, when to playback the taped ones, etc. I think it would be terrific if it could get figured out, but it would be a logistical nightmare.

Thanks. good point and info.


I agree with your last sentence. Maybe they need to change the system?

I didn't see a new set of refs every 6 minutes at the Super Bowl.

They didn't broadcast the heavyweights on the podiums. I know it was late, but those boys deserved to be shown also.

We were there, did not see coverage......had folks back home in Pittsburg watching, they said showed 5 seconds of 5A match and, were interviewing some coach during podium. Could hear the announcement but was not on camera. Kind of disappointing.

Got a reply back today from the program Director at METRO Sports. From his reply I don't think he was aware that COX Cable was televising the wrestling tournaments. Said he would look into it and see what coud be done at Time Warner Cable METRO Sports (costs me a lot each month for the little TV I watch).

Need a lot of emails or phone calls to the program director so he does not forget us!!!!! His email and telephone number are in an earlier post in this topic)

Think I will open a new topic with this subject!!

Actually the PBS station that covers the complete western half of Kansas broadcasts the 321A State Wrestling live. They start on Friday with the quarterfinals and go all day and then they cover the championships matches on Saturday. When I talked to them last time they said if you didn't get their station you should contact the other PBS stations in Kansas and request it. They do a very good job on their coverage.