gutwrench1

I disagree with your contention that KSHSAA waters down the athletics in the great state of Kansas by offering more classifications and more state championships. Rather, I think they afford more opportunities so as to encourage participation and prevent the elimination of non-competitive programs. I do, however, appreciate you offering everyone information on how tough it is to be a state champion in CA and NY.

I am not sure how NY and CA handle their other sports? Do they have one basketball, one football and one track champion or is this just something that they do for wrestling? KSHSAA has not been welcome to the idea of a grand state or grand state dual tournament and are not open to the idea of extending the season as would probably be needed to host a sectional, district, regional and state tournament.

True, "steel sharpens steel," but the goal of KSHSAA is not to produce these elite athletes that are produced in NY and CA by only having one classification. I think there is much satisfaction in knowing that as a school of 100 students, I will be competing against schools in a similair range and have a realistic opportunity to be successful. With our small population, we can not afford to have programs eliminated because they would not be able to compete year in and year out with the larger classes. We want to find ways to have more programs and more opportunities and having multiple classes allows this to happen. There have been many elite wrestlers from Kansas come out of this system and have gone on to represent Kansas very well.

I am not sure where the comparison between the KS state tournament and the CA and NY tournaments was made. I think people were talking about KS elite wrestlers vs. CA and NY elite wrestlers and how they do on the national level.