St. Francis has only has 89 students this year, 2 over being 1a. Sainty looks to only have about 20 out this year, 6 of them freshmen. however there are some very quality kids with state and national experince, the freshmen class also has some experience as well. i look to see St. Francis to do very well even with the low numbers. even though Norton is stacked, i think Sainty can make a run.

20 kids out for wrestling? Dang! There are schools in 4-5-and 6a that can't even get those numbers.

when i was in school 25 years ago..i can remember having almost 40 out, being 3+ deep in every weight. the small wrestling room where you had problems running into each other. even though the numbers are dwindling the tradition remain strong. parents still find time to take kids to tournaments and work with them on technique in the living room. that small investment of time always pays large dividends later.

we have 25 or 26 i think and were a 2a school

Not to mention that you were able to play Smith Center closer than anyone else has so far in the Football playoffs, how many did you have out for football? I always just amazed at the participation levels exhibited by some of our smaller schools, and the total lack of any interest in a larger and arger percent of the student body as the enrollment increases. One theory that I hear thrown around is that since there are so many kids in the larger schools the students feel that they wouldn't have a good chance to make the varsity, but it really makes you wonder when a 5a or big 4a school has open weights... just seems like the motivtion factor is less somehow.

I think making varsity in wrestling would be easier than basketball for instance when it comes to starting. Wrestling you can be on varsity as a freshman a lot of times, also, there are 14 starting spots as opposed to 5.

You can't be cut at Chapman to my knowledge until your senior year in basketball.

I understand what Aaron is saying unlike Salyer. In basketball, there are 5 players who are starters on the varsity team with maybe 3 substitutes. The rest just sit on the bench. No, the coaches don't cut but kids don't like to practice everyday and not get to see any playing time either. If you are not talented enough to be one of the lucky 5 or maybe even top 8, you are doomed to sit on the bench the rest of the season and never get to see Varsity time. If you are a freshman, you most likely will play freshman basketball. In very rare cases will a freshman player be moved up to a varsity spot (and tick off all of the other hard working upperclassmen). Most likely, they will move up to junior varsity if they are good.
In wrestling, there are 14 open spots to compete for-not 5. If you are a freshman, you can play varsity if you happen to be in the right weight class and/or you win the challenge on practice night for the spot. There is less chance of a parent demanding that their son/daughter play varsity since it comes down to a match to determine that weeks Varsity. Also, you don't hear so much "the coach doesn't like me so that's why I don't play varsity" crap in wrestling like you do in basketball.
The reason why you see more kids go out in the smaller schools has to do with popularity and the limited amount of activities. At a small school, you HAVE to go out for sports to feel like you belong. There is a lot of pressure from the students and parents. The whole town is obsessed with that weeks games and it is all you hear whether you are in the school hallway or at the county store. At a bigger school, there is actually not that much pressure for a student to compete in sports. Everyone has their own thing to worry about and there are more activities to compete with the week's game. I have taught at schools from 1A-4A. Coming from a small school, I was shocked that there were actually more kids out at the 1A school than at Chapman. It surprises me to not hear people talking about that weeks games or to not know how our teams were doing (all except football). No one really gets excited. The townspeople and teacher's all have their own lives and the kids have their own activities to do. It is much more individualized and not a school thing. I personally feel that some junior high coaches (not just here but everywhere) and the traveling teams focus on winning-winning-winning is what is driving down the amount of kids who compete. They are told at such an early age, they are not good enough. Too many coaches don't encourage ALL of their team athletes but focus on only a select few. These few get diminished each year. The sad thing is that many times, the kid who wasn't that good in 5th grade could have been your superstar in high school.
Just my two cents and observations.

Mr. Salyer is pointing out, I believe, that if you are on the Basketball team, even Varsity, you will ususally play a limited no. of minutes as others are platooned in and out. It is not required to beat the other people on the team to secure a spot. If a wrestlers takes a break and doesn't go all out for a few seconds to rest, there are not 4 other guys to take up the slack he has created--- there is only one guy to take advantage of the slack created and convert the opening to score points. There was a senior last season that won a championship after playing varsity basketball for two years, I think he was from Beliot but not for sure, He is the only guy I know that could tell you how they really compare.

Mike, that would be nick newell from mankato. he wrestled for nearby beloit up until regionals though since mankato doesn't have a team.

What Aaron was referring to was the CHANCE of making varsity for your school. I am not referring to whether basketball or wrestling is easier/harder. I am just simply saying that I agree that your chance of being a VARSITY wrestler is easier than your chance of being a varsity basketball player.
I don't know about basketball coaches everywhere else but the ones I do know like to stick to just the top 5 with maybe 2 or 3 substitute players for varsity. They don't play everyone. You DO have to beat out the other kids to earn a spot on varsity. If there are 5 kids who can play point guard, the coach will go with the one he/she feels is the best. If the coach feels like you are not the best for that position, you don't play. You can not challenge a varsity starter like you can in wrestling, you just have to practice harder each day and hope the coach will notice.
It is easier to earn a spot on varsity in wrestling simply because of numbers (more open spots-sometimes less kids to compete against). My son was very good at both wrestling and basketball. He was lucky enough to start A team in baskeball and was undefeated in wrestling in junior high. He was approached by the basketball coaches to stick with basketball in high school. However, he knows that if he would go out for basketball, he probably would not be playing any varsity until he was a junior or senior. As a freshman, he will be a varsity wrestler when he loses 5 pounds. He knows that he will have to take a lot of "hits" this year since he will probably be wrestling against seniors but he also knows that this will make him better in the long run than if he was wrestling junior varsity. Yes, if he is having a bad day, the coach can not substitute another kid or he can't depend on other kids helping him out like in basketball but those minutes on the mat wrestling against another varsity wrestler as a freshman are better than sitting on a bench and watching the game from the sidelines.

Richard hasn't played a sport in his life so we can't trust what he says. It's probably harder to be varsity basketball over varsity wrestling because there are 14 spots on a wrestling team to start and 5 on a basketball team. Simple math will tell us that basketball has 9 less positions available to be a varsity starter. While wrestling is a much better sport and basketball is for skinny kids who aren't physical that often, it's harder to make the starting squad.

i like that post. it argued the point, and yet still had time to poke fun at basketball and Richie. good times

It doesn't help either when all other sports have 4-5 coaches and wrestling has 1 head coach that oversees middle and high school as well as kids club and doesn't have a budget to get but maybe 1 or 2 assistants if he's lucky.

there are 12 or 14 varsity spots on a basketball team but there are only 5 STARTING spots

And how many of those 12 or 14 people actually play and if they do, how many of them see more than a few minutes in the 4th quarter of playing time? Compare that to a kid who is a STARTING varsity wrestler and will actually compete at every tournament and dual for their team.

Just askin but why do we care about basketball?

We don't (well, I enjoy watching the game, but I'd much rather go to a wrestling meet!) What I dislike about basketball is that if a kid has a personality clash with his/her coach, then that kid can be benched for an entire season with no explaination needed. It doesn't matter if the kid is a star player or not, it is completely up to the coach's discretion. And then there are the excuses - the ref didn't call this, or so-and-so didn't pass when I was wide open. In wrestling it's kind of hard to make excuses when you lose.

----and how many kids are out for basketball at Manhattan and Derby?

Okay, enough with the basketball stuff. What I would like to know is......How many schools have under 25 kids out for wrestling? Which schools had the most kids go out?

Chapman has 20 kids out....1 senior

I think Derby was around 70, maybe a few more than that.