I say let him wrestle sounds like an honest mistake.

According to the brackets in 5A on the Wichita South web site, Toast will not be wrestling.

A few points to consider:

If the finals did start early, that should be a problem. Schools have to stay by strict times perscribed by the KHSAA powers. How were they allowed an earlier start time.

Second, the only person that needs to sign a bout sheet is the winner. If Toast were to have went to the hospital for a dislocation and didn't show up for the match, he would still be able to wrestle, right?

Third, it seems to me that KHSAA does some really stupid things. Remember Royce Williams from Wichita North a few years ago? If my memory serves me correctly, I was at the tournament for certification day, Royce didn't make weight for the tournament on the day for certification, but did certify. The state then comes out and says, either the certification was not legit or the weigh-in was not legit because he didn't wrestle. Because the weigh-in was not legit, Royce didn't have half of his weigh-ins at the lowest weight. So the state lets him wrestle the regional tournament under protest for rule clarification or something, he places (knocking a kid out of the tournament that could have went), then after the regional tournament, they say no, he can't wrestle.

Mr. Salyers am I correct on this?

Anyway, I've had a big beef with the state for being too intrusive, but that's another can of worms.

It's too bad that Toast can't wrestle. At the same time, as much as I care about him, he's made some bad choices and it seems karma has caught him. I wish him the best in whatever he wants to do in life.

Hmmmm, let's see. In kid's league you have one minute to show up for your match after your name is called or you forfeit. The little kids seem to have figured that out. So ask yourself, how many year's has he wrestled? How long has that name been around the sport? Seems like if you haven't figured it out by the time your a Senior...it's probably a little late.

DJWCoach

Snakes are great when your 7 or 8 but they don't work so well in High School.

Hey if it was your wrestler, you would probably be pissed to hell if he couldn't wrestle, so just consider that.

Bottom line you have to show up for your matches if you intend to keep wrestling.

But at the same time Nigel...If it says 5:30 Start time that's when it should start...I think if you are wrestling however, you don't need to be driving all over the place with a match coming up..send out someone's mother or a booster to get your Dog and Shake if you are so dam hungry.

According to my son Robert, who wrestled in the first Consolation Final match, the matches DID NOT START EARLY.

I was present at a conversation between a coach and the Tournament Director, and the Tournament Director stated the starting time(s) and that they would not begin early, in an attempt to avoid this type of situation.

I was present when the announcement was made that the Consolation Finals would begin at 5:30 P.M., and would be wrestled on two (2) mats.

The finals would begin at 6:30 P.M. and would be wrestled on one (1) mat.

There was no 103 lb. match due to injury default, and the consolation-finals began at 112 lbs., with that match going the full three (3) periods.

The second match was at 119 lbs. and this match was won by fall in 1:20.

The third match at 125 lbs. would have started at approximately 5:35 P.M., and Charles was not present.

I did not participate in the discussions between West High School and KSHSAA, and choose not to discuss what I have been told third hand.

West High School did react accordingly in attempting to correct this egregious error.

However, as I understand the situation, at this time, the decision remains the same.

If Charles had been in the building at 5:33, as stated earlier, he should have hustled to be at the match.

Thanks for the clarification of what was going on at the tournament Mr. Salyer. It is appreciated.

The one question that hasn't been asked that probably should be asked is: Was Knox really injured? He looked to be healthy when wrestling, not favoring a wrist or ankle, nothing taped up... Why would he injury default in this match? Anyone knows that finishing 4th will only give you that much harder path to the state finals, not that Knox had much to worry about, but I'm sure he would have rather been on the other side of the bracket from the #2 & 3 ranked kids instead of where he would be at if allowed to wrestle.

The injury was a hypothetical situation.

The point is that if a kid is injured, and misses his consolation finals match because he was at the hospital, his inability to report for the match would be ruled injury default and he would wrestle on the next weekend (if he could).

However, a kid misses his match because he was out screwing off, doesn't report, this kid is not allowed to wrestle.

You see, if you remove all variables and just look at the ability to report, in both cases, the wrestler was not able to report. What bothers me is the ability of KHSAA to deem what it feels is unacceptable and what is acceptable. This givve waaaaay to much power to a group - something they actually need less of, in my opinion.