The youth club is something you can't take away from STA, but that alone doesn't win a title for them. It's the transfers that make the difference. Without these three good kids transferring in this season, I don't believe STA has a shot at winning the team title. STA fans and irritated Catholics on this board, this criticism is deserved. If STA wins by a margin that's greater than what the tranfers score at state then the critics will be silenced. To the STA supporters on this board, one way to prove STA doesn't have an unfair advantage would be to sight another example in which a school benefited from such a strange coincidence of multiple kids (ranked wrestlers) transferring to one place in one year? Maybe this is more commonplace than some would think and there's a pattern. Has Manhattan, Goddard, Maize or Hutch benefitted from such a wellspring of good fortune? Maybe a school got a kid here or there, but folks three really good wrestlers in one season who have bearing on the outcome of the 6A state team title is worth this discussion and you should be able to take a little criticism my thin-skinned Catholic friends. A public school (who has a long history of recruiting wrestlers) benefited from a couple of recent transfers. The Moore twins left Rockhurst (a catholic school) to go to Oak Grove (public)last year in Missouri. But, an on the ball MSHAA investigated the situation and made them sit a full year. They appealed and lost. I'll sight one more example of a situation like STA's---Bishop Meige, a Catholic school, won state (a few times) when Aiken, Medena boys and others decided to drive a long way to join a private school with a wrestling club. It is an advantage over the rest of the field when students switch school for athletic reasons. I'm not saying STA cheated, but it would seem that these kids jumped horses mid-stream to help their wrestling careers and to be part of building a championship team. If STA wins state by a margin that's larger than the points these transfers score at state, then the critics can shut up and let's give STA its dues. If not it will continue to be a question.
