Gutwrench, where do I begin?

1st off, assuming that because Grater, Taplin, and Cornejo didn't sign with a D1 school means we are lacking is absurd. I have a very strong suspicion that Grater didn't sign D1 because he wanted to be close to home at Ft. Hays. As for the others, I'm guessing they didn't go D1 for the same reasons. Finishing in the Top 10 nationally year after year in Fargo is not crippling.

2nd, there is no law that says once you finish high school, you have to wrestle or you suck, which is what you are implying. Could it be that some of our elite are making sound financial decisions and hanging their shoes up because they can't afford the out of state tuition? We are not Blair Academy.

3rd, why would you judge KS's superiority (or inferiority) over Mizzou on the Metro Classic. It is a very well known fact that this dual is not stacked in Kansas's favor. Missouri's strongest in KCMO - KS is not. Any person that knows anything about wrestling could tell you that.

If anything, what kills KS wresters is Kansans themselves. We have stacked the cards out of our favor. KSHSAA has silly rules, KWCA is hellbent on the Dual State concept, and kids are losing interest by the time they reach high school. Plus, look at our situation population wise. There's a reason Ohio has more D1 athletes that we do. They have more kids. Then just think economically speaking. Very few of our kids have the financial resources to travel all over the country or world (Kenny Monday's club traveling to Asia comes to mind).

Even though the cards may not be stacked in our favor, we do pretty darn good considering what we're up against.

If you ask me, I like what I see from Kansas. We have successful wrestlers coming back to coach our high school kids. Eric Akin, Kenny Taylor, Beau Vest, Charles Knox, and whole mess of Ft. Hays wrestlers comes to mind. I'd even throw my name in the mix, even though I wasn't as accomplished.

That's the true testament of wrestling in Kansas. I'm happy when we get a D1 signing, but I'm elated when I see our wrestlers putting time back into a sport that has given them so much.

Maybe Richard Salyer can figure out how well we would fare if our wrestlers were to just stay home at a D1 school vs the rest of the colleges this NCAA. I'm betting we'd be doing pretty good.