wichita i mean now i sound like the cow folk lol.

Hey, I know I missed the smells of the ag show in Wichita this year....oh wait, that was the backed-up toilets in all the men's rooms....my bad,

or that could be the smell of what's coming out of acbulldog's mouth

I'm with Peterman. Although I hated the way everyone was treated in Wichita, I did like the big show. It was like the wrestlers were being really celebrated. I hope that the tourney will not be held in a high school. Then it will seem no different than any other tourney that the wrestlers participate in all year. Also, coming from the KC area, my school is 4-A, but many of the area schools are 5-A and I have watched and supported many of those wrestlers throughout their wrestling careers. It would be sad to watch them all year and then not be able to watch them at state. The fact of the matter is that Wichita sucked and has for at least the last few years that I have been there. Wherever they take place, we will see great wrestling and there will always be a few surprises! (Just as it should be!)

I think everyone has missed the point. 4A schools didn't choose to leave Wichita, at the time when each class was looking to move to a new arena it was becasue the collesium said they were going to do repairs and that it would not be available. Its not like all the 4A schools got together and said we don't like it here anymore. By that time KSHSAA had already made an agreement with the Bi-Center to host 4A. I don't look to see these classes reuniting anytime soon, and from what I can see the only ones whining about it are 5 and 6A, which is odd to me, do they really need 4A to keep themselves entertained?

no 4a is usually very overrated besides a select few individuals. im not saying they suck or anything but they are not all their cracked up to be.

Lucky for you bull, you won't have to watch our overrated wrestlers at State for the next couple of years. I love how you call us cow folks or hicks, but your posts read like a three-year-old wrote them. Maybe you could come out to the sticks for a little education.

One more thing: I was lucky enough to have the chance to pick up Steve Martin of Old Dominion University and bring him to the Coaches clinic in Salina this year. He, as is true for most coach/clinicians, was not here to teach, but to recruit. Because I have been lucky enough to see 3 classes at state, I told him about every kid I could think of that would be a good college recruit. I doubt he contacted all of them (and he already knew of some), but if I'd never seen Taplin, Grater, Marrs, and many other 4A guys at state I could not have even put in a plug for them.

How many other Kansans would get to wrestle on scholarships if coaches could go to ONE place to preview guys?

Overated? Wow Rick, bulldog is proof positive that people down there in Ark City really are stuck on themselves. By the way Ryan, if you really want to see wrestlers from other classes, how about you attend some of their season tournaments, or invite them to your season tournaments. You can;t tell me the only evaluating you do is during the state tournament.

Nigel,
We do go to a few tournaments with other classes. As a matter of fact, we got to see Abilene at Emporia this year, and they are a great team. We used to have Hugoton and Herrington at our tournament. Buhler is still there. We actually see quite a few other classes. However, I think it is best for our team to compete against as many 6A teams as possible to prepare for State. I don't spend time evaluating college prospects unless it's convenient.

My point was that college coaches would have a much easier time if they could go to 1 state tournament. This is not a point to belabor, but it could help our sport a little bit more. Again, I am not one of those people that bashes other classes. I've coached and/or wrestled in each of them. I'm more about what is good for wrestling than my own personal cause.

Doesn't Nationals in Lincoln give coaches a chance to see a huge variety of kids from all over the United States? Or is it not attended by many Kansas kids?

three classes on multiple mats was fun at times, but I tried to keep up the winners and losers in my programfor all 3 classes for only a short time and then quickly gave up. I came to see all I could, but my primary interest was in the 4a competion and how it was playing out. I look forward to next season when the entire venue plays to the class that I am there to see primarily, but I will miss being able to see the occasional match in 5 or 6 that is of interest to me, as well. In no way does not getting that chance keep me from attending Salina, nor will it keep the 5a or 6a guys from being wherever they end up. So the action will all be the same, and there will be (my opinion) as many people as before. the drawback for KSHAA is in the fact that they have to support two tournament sites, which may be more expensive. Even though the cost of the Colliseum was getting very high (as I uderstand it) it may not be possible to have two operations for the same money. If they can't look for those ticket prices to go up!

acbulldog: You must ride the short bus to school. I am part of the 4A "cow folk" in which you seem to be bashing on. I'll have you know that I maintain a 4.0 gpa while taking AP classes. Does Ark City High offer any challenging courses beside English (seems to be the subject your struggling the most in). I feel for you man/woman, the insanely high level of ignorance presented in nearly everyone of your posts seems only to slap you in the face.

Andrew

p.s. Keep your safety helmet on!

Computerized shoes, your the man!! I am so tired of 5a and 6a people talking about 4a like we are a bunch of hicks. We are for sure just as good of wrestlers as they are.

Going to salina will be fun because it will be compleatly 4a and will probly be ran i little freindlier. And maybe the matts wont feel like concreat or be about 3 feet in diameter small( anybody else notice that? i think it was matt 2)
however i will miss some of the 5a/6a people that i know. And if it would have ben at hays this year i would have had to warm up on my own the second day as i was the only pratt kid alive and was fortanate that hutch was short a guy.

All of the wrestling mats were regulation size mats as per the NFHS and KSHSAA regulations.

Mat 2 or 3 was a freestyle mat and thus had the broken line inside the circle but was as Mr. Salyer says, regulation.

I was told the mats were sitting on top of ice in Wichita. If it is like Kid's State, they got like concrete by the end of the tournament.

Although my sons said the mats they wrestled on were OK and not like Kid's State. My guess is that they were a different type of mat that is less susceptible to cold temperatures.

Wrestled there many times and I never noticed a big problem more concerned with my match.

I enjoyed 3,2,1A television broadcast. Why can't 4A and 5,6A do the same? I am really disappointed that all the Kansas High School Wrestlers are not at the same location so people have a chance to see the kids, that they know from kids wrestling perfor, performing at the high school level. If 4,5,6A had not been at the same location this year, I would have missed the most exciting and unique move to win 6A 145 by Romero Cotton. That move should be on a highlight video. It was so fast, if you blinked you would have missed it. I had to see it again, so I went to see his father for a replay. It was still so fast you really need to see it in slow motion to enjoy the real beauty of it. If anyone remembers seeing Cael Sanderson being introduced before the match for his 4th NCAA Championship match, they showed a few highlights from his youth and high school matches. In one of those matches, Cael did a 360 and took his opponent down in a kids match. If you saw that move, and you replayed it at 3X speed, and you could immagine a change of level, that resembled a 360 twist of a corkscrew, from Cotton's shoulder level being at his opponent's shoulder level, to Cotton's shoulder's driving under his opponent's hands and into his opponent's legs at just above knee level, you would have a very accurate idea of Cotton's awesome move that won the high school freshman a 6a State Championship. I think when you have all the high school campionships at the same venue, you have a much better event. When you divide it into 3 locations I think it will produce 3 events that have much less interest, excitement and pleasure than if they were combined.

The mats werent getting hard from the ice, the 4a mats were just alot harder than the 5&6a mats. It was very noticable when running laps. you could tell a big difference. Ask anybody who was there.