Why wait?
One of the silly quirks of the wrestling season is the month-long break from wrestling teams go through while the team tournament is going on. The last scheduled dual meet for some Class AAA wrestlers was January 19. The Class AA sections begin Saturday but the Class AAA wait a week because there is one less event, no regional tournament.
It makes more sense to begin the section tournaments for all wrestlers Saturday and give Class AAA a week off before the state tournament. That would at least allow injuries to heal.
One other thing that ruins the section tournaments is the large number of qualifiers out of each weight class, five. It's pretty difficult not to advance to the next level. It's worse in Class AA, where the top seven wrestlers in the WPIAL advance to the regional tournament in Johnstown. That type of cushion takes away any drama from the event.
It makes more sense to begin the section tournaments for all wrestlers Saturday and give Class AAA a week off before the state tournament. That would at least allow injuries to heal.
One other thing that ruins the section tournaments is the large number of qualifiers out of each weight class, five. It's pretty difficult not to advance to the next level. It's worse in Class AA, where the top seven wrestlers in the WPIAL advance to the regional tournament in Johnstown. That type of cushion takes away any drama from the event.
posted by Joe Tuscano at
8:18 PM
9 Comments:
Triple-A had the break a couple years ago. The coaches thought they wanted that, then, after having it, decided they didn't. You might want to check with them on that subject.
And shame on coaches that don't have dual meets or tournaments after Jan. 19th. This isn't the first year of this schedule (about the 15th). So anyone not keeping their kids on the mat over this time has done it to themselves.
Soon, we'll be reading the "numbers on the singlets" annual diatribe...
The problem with your second point is that you assume these dual meets that occur after the team tournament begins are just like the regular-season matches. They are not.
Lineups change, younger wrestlers get some mat time and the whole aura of the match is different because it feels like an exhibition rather than a regular season match.
I almost forgot about the number on the singlet issue. Thanks for reminding me and stay tuned . . .
ALL matches, except for the 4-5 sub-section dual meets, are exhibition matches. And most of those sub-section duals are less exciting than any number of exhibition matches that teams could and do schedule.
SC AAA region does have a week off before states, I think this is unfair because they travel that week off to scout other regions.
You are confusing non-section matches with exhibitions. An exhibition match in wrestling mostly happens after the season, such as all-star events.
You are the one who is confused. Any dual meet that does not affect the meaningful standings of teams is an exhibition match.
The same is true in every sport--section games count in the standings. All others are exhibition.
The WPIAL AAA did sections, then WPIAL and ended a week early a couple years ago.
They did horrible at states.
Its better to go right into states ready to do battle than sitting back the week before. It lowers intensity.
In high school sports we have section contests and non-section contests. The non-section contests still count towards the overall record. Exhibitions do not....there is a difference.
A lot of the readers issues with the break in action, is the break in action. They want more action. One way to solve this, is to report on schools feeder programs. Who is coming up, and going to make some noise next year. I know, the feeder programs double and triple the size of the high school programs in most cases. Schools like Waynesburg, Charlori and of course C M are sending some studs to the varsity next year. Who are these kids?
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