Part of a plan

The first round of the PIAA Class AAA Team Tournament was not kind to the state's two largest cities: Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Langley, the City League (District 8) champion dropped a 75-0 decision to Canon-McMillan in the first round and Frankford, the Philadelphia (Dist. 12) champion was shut out 73-0 by Council Rock South. That's a combined score of 148-0 for those of you who do not have calculators inside your pocket protectors.

I point this out not to make fun of the city league in those respective cities, but to show just how far these districts have to go in order to be competitive with most of the other districts in the state. That should be something the PIAA considers when, or if, plans are made to revamp the way qualifiers are determined for the individual championships in Hershey.

The Southeast is overcompensated with four qualifiers in Class AAA just as the Southwest is undercompensated by the three qualifiers they receive in each weight class. The PIAA uses a system that takes into account the percentage of schools that offer wrestling when dividing up the 16 spots of each weight class in the state bracket. It's proportional but not fair.

My idea: grant a minimum of two qualifiers in each region and distribute the remaining qualifiers based on the success of the region in the previous year's postseason. Cap qualifiers at four to a region. This would motivate districts to strengthen their wrestling programs and reward regions that are successful. It would not punish a region such as the Southwest simply because a few schools drop to Class AA in a cycle.