I just watched the Iowa State Championships. I thought their Grand March was much better than our Parade of Champions. They honor all metal winners in the march and turn down all the lights to use a spotlight. The Quest should consider doing something like this next year. It's pretty cool how they do it.

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Originally posted by underdogg:
I just watched the Iowa State Championships. I thought their Grand March was much better than our Parade of Champions. They honor all metal winners in the march and turn down all the lights to use a spotlight. The Quest should consider doing something like this next year. It's pretty cool how they do it.

Qwest has nothing to do with the format of the tournament. That's set up by NSAA.

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Originally posted by Frank Ryan:

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Originally posted by underdogg:
I just watched the Iowa State Championships. I thought their Grand March was much better than our Parade of Champions. They honor all metal winners in the march and turn down all the lights to use a spotlight. The Quest should consider doing something like this next year. It's pretty cool how they do it.

Qwest has nothing to do with the format of the tournament. That's set up by NSAA.

You are correct that the NSAA controls the parade, however if you think the Qwest is going to allow the NSAA anything extra you are mistaken. Heck the team champions can't even get a picture taken without the Qwest pushing them out the door. To Omaha and the Qwest center State Wrestling means absolutely nothing but the bottom dollar plain and simple.

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Originally posted by Bulldog:

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Originally posted by Frank Ryan:

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Originally posted by underdogg:
I just watched the Iowa State Championships. I thought their Grand March was much better than our Parade of Champions. They honor all metal winners in the march and turn down all the lights to use a spotlight. The Quest should consider doing something like this next year. It's pretty cool how they do it.

Qwest has nothing to do with the format of the tournament. That's set up by NSAA.

You are correct that the NSAA controls the parade, however if you think the Qwest is going to allow the NSAA anything extra you are mistaken. Heck the team champions can't even get a picture taken without the Qwest pushing them out the door. To Omaha and the Qwest center State Wrestling means absolutely nothing but the bottom dollar plain and simple.

NSAA needs to negotiate all of those things into the contract. I think venues normally give what is set in the contract. I doubt if they give a lot of extras for any other event that is held there.

The state tournament in Iowa is a grand function! The fans are knowledgable and do a great job of supporting all of the wrestlers! I have been watching the posts this week and it is good to see that fans recognize the difficulty it takes to qualify and eventually place in the Iowa HS meet! While there are a couple of losing records liested in the entire state, those are trully the kids that may have been injured or sick during the year, but came on strong to go through the rigerous qualifing process to get to state!

Champion is Iowa has Meaning!

Now there you go again...just after I applauded your post elsewhere, you imply that a state championship in Nebraska has no meaning...thanks for making a liar out of me Mason.

I was not implying anything. I was supporting the Iowa state champion. That is not a slam on Nebraska Radio man!

You have to admit that the records at the Iowa state meet represent the toughness of that tournament and that when a losing record does make it into the tournament, they have earned it! How is that being disrespectful to NE?

Come on now...based on your previous posts....you know that it was an indirect shot at Nebraska wrestling and the more losing records it has at the state meet than Iowa. Better records don't necessarily equate to better wrestling/wrestlers either...you'd have to break it down further than that(strength of competition) to prove anything. Even then, it can't be proven without a large scale head-to-head competition...period.

I was not back handing NE in this post. I had already drawn that conclusion about the weakness of your state tournament in previous posts. While you want to compare IA to NE...all that is in place at the current time is the Border Brawl...last years results point to the strength of Iowa. We will see what this year's results show! I am guessing much of the same!

I never said I wanted to compare Iowa and Nebraska...that's your gig...I just want to see steady improvement. There's no doubt Iowa has good wrestling, but that doesn't necessarily make them the grand measuring stick of good wrestling...they just happen to border Nebraska. The other states that border Nebraska have pretty darn good wrestling too. Though the Border Brawl does contain some great wrestlers from both states, it hardly represents the overall talent of one state versus the other...regardless of the states that compete.

My observation has been that the difference between upper level states and the others is not qualty of talent but rather depth of talent. The talent of the top ten kids in most reasonably competitive states(Nebraska,Missouri,Kansas,Washington,Oregon etc.)is fairly equivalent to that of the top ten kids in the upper level states ( Ohio, Pa.,Ia.,N.J.,)but the next thirty kids are very different in talent among those same states. Of course, such states as Maine, N.H., Delaware, etc., would be a third tier of lesser wrestling states, with exceptions.

I too enjoyed the parade of champions. When I was in highschool the Devaney turned down the lights and used a spot light on the wrestlers. I strongly believe this aspect of the Nebraska state tournament should be brought back.

Some other thoughts on the Iowa state tournament. I didn't like how the winning wrestlers were allowed to throw their headgear in celebration. Many also threw their legbands in celebration. In my opinion this is excessive and warranted misconducts.

Additionally, I think the award ceremonies take too long. The do two or three commercials between each class for each weight. Heck the heavy weights didn't wrestle until almost 4 hours after the parade of champions.

Other than that I thought the wrestling was great!

But, they weren't rushed through everything to make room for a basketball game. In Iowa the commercials were local and small town businesses sending support and congratulating their local wrestlers. It's pretty cool actually.

Remember-CLONESRULE!!!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mr. Pin:
Additionally, I think the award ceremonies take too long. The do two or three commercials between each class for each weight. Heck the heavy weights didn't wrestle until almost 4 hours after the parade of champions.

[QUOTE]

I thought the same thing last night but as I thought it over I realized that someone has to pay the cost of that broadcast. Those sponsors want to have their ads seen if they are going to pay the freight. Four + hours is a long time but I think if you could compare that total to the time that was actual wrestling related, wrestling, awards, etc. the percentage of actual wrestling time was probably much higher that the Super Bowl, College World Series, etc.

This is the second or third year of this commercial TV. Before that Iowa Public TV broadcast it. Then this commercial TV network came to the Iowa High School Athletic Association waving large checks and their knees buckled.

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Originally posted by dswitz:
My observation has been that the difference between upper level states and the others is not qualty of talent but rather depth of talent. The talent of the top ten kids in most reasonably competitive states(Nebraska,Missouri,Kansas,Washington,Oregon etc.)is fairly equivalent to that of the top ten kids in the upper level states ( Ohio, Pa.,Ia.,N.J.,)but the next thirty kids are very different in talent among those same states. Of course, such states as Maine, N.H., Delaware, etc., would be a third tier of lesser wrestling states, with exceptions.

I believe that you are overlooking a few very good wrestling states. If I remember right Utah and Idaho were near or at the top of producing 2006 NCAA DI qualifiers, on a per capta basis.

quote:

Originally posted by Mr. Pin:
I too enjoyed the parade of champions. When I was in highschool the Devaney turned down the lights and used a spot light on the wrestlers. I strongly believe this aspect of the Nebraska state tournament should be brought back.

Some other thoughts on the Iowa state tournament. I didn't like how the winning wrestlers were allowed to throw their headgear in celebration. Many also threw their legbands in celebration. In my opinion this is excessive and warranted misconducts.

Additionally, I think the award ceremonies take too long. The do two or three commercials between each class for each weight. Heck the heavy weights didn't wrestle until almost 4 hours after the parade of champions.

Other than that I thought the wrestling was great!

Let the kids celebrate. Who cares.

I was at the Iowa State Finals and I have a few complaints. I think that marching out all of the medalists is a good idea, but still have the parade of champions for the finalists. The olympic music that they play does not have the same appeal as "We are the Champions." I am sure glad the the NE finals do not have commercial breaks, the IA finals were over 5 hours long. I do not like having the medal after each weight, too much of a break and parents are not allowed on the floor to take pictures. It just seemed that the Iowa finals are a lot about the show, presentation (maybe too much), and the product. While the NE finals are about the actual product (wrestling). I will agree that Iowa has more depth but I would put the top in Nebraska against the top in Iowa (at least this year).

Why do parents need to on the floor to take pictures? In this day in age when you go to your computer and print pictures that you took on your digital camera or pictures that someone e-mailed you why can't they just take a couple of shots of the podium and post them on the NSAA web site and have it done with. The one thing that to me that should sink in to all of our minds is that Iowa's finals are on during primetime programing on commercial TV. I could care less if it took 24 hours, our sport is getting exposure, in a time that it needs it. I didn't pay that much attention but it seemed to me that their stands stayed full for pretty much the whole time, heck in Nebraska if your kid wrestles in the light weights people leave and go home. The problem here isn't the length of the finals it is the dedication of the state and the fans to the sport, if you truly love wrestling then get there early and stay late.

Yeah, then the NSAA can charge $9 for a picture of your son on the podium. And the stands were not full from the beginning, so definitely not at the end (weather had to do with that). And I dont know about you, but I go to a wrestling meet to watch wrestling not 3 mice race on a big screen (after every weight this happened), and not to listin to Walk Like an Egyptian.