I respect and admire all the officers and state supporters of the USA State Tournament for freestyle and Greco in the state of Nebraska, but unfortunately there is a declining participation rate in this state and I highly doubt that without the panhandle and central Nebraska participating it will get any better.
This is purely an Omaha event now and it is very unfortunate for the kids.
The reason I think it is so unfortunate for the kids is that when colleges come scouting ,they are doing so at Fargo, ND and we are bringing so few there, due to the fact this style is becoming less and less popular to the masses.
Good luck in the future to all those that dedicate themselves to these awesome styles of wrestling, I hope you get the right amount of training to allow yourselves an opportunity to compete at the national level.

I was also sadden by the attendance at the state meet. I think moving it to Omaha hurt this event. I am from Northeast Nebraska so it was closer for us, but we did not get to wrestle against anyone from western Nebraska and the attendance from the Omaha schools was about the same. My question is where was Lincoln. Sencond largest city in Nebraska and they could only muster up a few wrestlers. Travel time could not be an excuse.

The job done by the referees was much better this year than in past state Free/Greco tournaments. The meet was ran very smoothly. The quality of kids that attended was also very good.

I think many kids do not want to learn a new style for the fear of not being successful. I have found out that if they try other styles many times they like Free/Greco the best. I will say that in our area there are no Free/Greco meets, which makes it hard for our kids to become really good. Our kids that went did very well and many of them told me that they liked Greco or Freestyle better than folkstyle. This was the first experience that they had wrestling Greco in competition.

I appreciate the people that are still giving kids the oppurtunity to try these styles. My kids will get great matches at the Cadet and Schoolboy duals. I thank the rest of the kids in their weight classes for taking this time off and not trying Free/Greco. We will be higher on the medal stand next high school season than you.

So what happen to the Triple Crown Award?

Well, there a a couple of things going on here, I have been at 2 State meets in Kearney, and this one in Omaha. By the way Lincoln did have wrestlers there. 10 wrestlers, not many but at least some. The west has pretty well given up on the styles also. They have not been present the last 2 years. The numbers have been declining every year. If you have any answers please put them forth. The board has been open to anything and have tryed to do anything to help change the numbers. No one has tryed to more then Alan and Jay, to get more wrestlers interested in the sport.
If the High School Coaches dont help and promote this, it will never change. If we dont have central training sites,that Coaches can send there wrestlers, wiould send there wrestlers to it will never change. If the NSAA is going to sanction Coaches for promoting Freestyle & Greco wrestling, and by this i mean pentlize the coaches coaching and teaching during the time between March and June. This sport will die a slow death. If we can not get together and change these rules and situations, we will never grow and get wrestlers will never get recruited to Colleges to wrestle. Its very simple.

Keep preachin' brother! FYI: L.T not at state b/c broken hand.

Neverresting,

The reason why we move the tournament to Omaha is because for the past 3 years the Western wrestlers haven't been coming in good numbers to the state tournament even while in Kearney. If we would have left it in Kearney your son still wouldn't have wrestled western kids.

We would love to move this tournament back to Kearney. Show us the support from western Nebraska and we'll move it back. Keeping it in Kearney without western support is only taking money out of the organizations hand that helps the kids.

I'd be willing to bet if western nebraska could bring a showing of 40% or better, we'd move it back. That line drawn would be considered Kearney and West of there. That comes out to be around 65 wrestlers.

Nebraska's folkstyle season is too long and this is hurting the freestyle and greco. Only the upper level kids are wrestling this style and they are the ones starting in Oct. and Nov. with folkstyle. Then our season doesn't end till mid April. 6 1/2 months of one style and then expect them to go right into another one is too much...we are losing the kids.

I thought the tournament, though low in numbers, was ran well and had good competition.

The other thing that hurts is the fact that if a wrestler wants to wrestle more after the state tournament its a pretty expensive road. Any dual team, Northern Plains, Nationals will cost quite a bit. For the kids just getting started, going two and out at Northern Plains or Nationals isn't cutting the mustard. Yes I know some of you took those pains early or in your son's career...I did too....believe me, but some won't. I can't say I blame them with the rising costs of gas etc.

Never resting, your comment about 'first ever greco' reminded me of my son Josh going to Enid Oklahoma duals his first year.Entered the Greco, and this was his first Greco meet ever.In his pool were Mark Moos,now at U of Michigan,Mac Reiter now at Minnesota, and Luke Smith, now at Eastern Michigan.Suffice it to say he learned a lot.He actually got the first takedown on Smith but couldn't turn him.Ended up down in par tier and got teched.A couple years later Jordan went, and in a match got suplayed for 5.Pretty funny really.

No response to the Triple Crown award, was it dropped or what?

C'mon Badger or 525 lets hear it.

525,

Don't get me wrong. I said the tournament ran very well and the competition that showed up was of good quality. I just felt that there were as many kids that came from the West as came from Lincoln. If it were in Kearney we would still have the same Omaha kids and a chance for kids from the west. I know that western Nebraska is tired of traveling to Omaha for all state wrestling events. So having the state meet in Omaha takes all chances of the western kids out. Lincoln has one club show up with 10 kids. That is a terrible number compared to other areas. We have a town with a population of 1300 and had four kids come. I would think that Lincoln and Omaha would get at least 200 kids to wrestle these styles. I would guess that the kids in the smaller school go out for track and golf which would take away from the free/greco, but the bigger schools specialize much more. Maybe it is more of a challenge to the bigger school kids than location.

I am not trying to offend anyone. I feel that free/greco is one of the best ways to raise the level of wrestling in Nebraska. If you look at the state finalist I would bet that the majority have wrestled some free/greco.

quote:

Originally posted by Kearney MatCat:
No response to the Triple Crown award, was it dropped or what?

C'mon Badger or 525 lets hear it.

It was talked about at our meeting and we decided to add it in for next year, since our folkstyle state tournament was well attended. We will post on our site a picture of the award as the time draws near.

quote:

Originally posted by Never Resting:
525,

Don't get me wrong. I said the tournament ran very well and the competition that showed up was of good quality. I just felt that there were as many kids that came from the West as came from Lincoln. If it were in Kearney we would still have the same Omaha kids and a chance for kids from the west. I know that western Nebraska is tired of traveling to Omaha for all state wrestling events. So having the state meet in Omaha takes all chances of the western kids out. Lincoln has one club show up with 10 kids. That is a terrible number compared to other areas. We have a town with a population of 1300 and had four kids come. I would think that Lincoln and Omaha would get at least 200 kids to wrestle these styles. I would guess that the kids in the smaller school go out for track and golf which would take away from the free/greco, but the bigger schools specialize much more. Maybe it is more of a challenge to the bigger school kids than location.

I am not trying to offend anyone. I feel that free/greco is one of the best ways to raise the level of wrestling in Nebraska. If you look at the state finalist I would bet that the majority have wrestled some free/greco.

Please don't take this the wrong way...but if the tournament was in Kearney, this year, there wouldn't have been any more western wrestlers than the amount that showed up in Omaha. The reason why I know this is because the tournament was in Kearney last year and the year before and the year before and so on. The last 3 years its been in Kearney the western wrestlers had their opportunity and didn't take it. Yes there were some that came, but I'd be willing to bet that there were more western kids wrestle in Omaha this year than in Kearney last year. After the 3rd poor showing from out west, we decided to move it to Omaha until some movement shows up in the western part of the state. I feel the state really needs these wrestlers from the west, but the question becomes, how do we get them to do this style of wrestling? They used to be the big players in this sport and now they aren't. As I said before, show western support for freestle and greco and we'll gladly move it back. All the directors feel the same on this issue. We aren't taking the opportunities away from the West, the West didn't take the opportunity when it was in Kearney, so we brought it to Omaha.

Don't know what town your from, but I appreciate that fact that you brought 4 kids from such a small area. I too, come from a town the same size and I wish I could get more kids involved than just my own.

I think Ted W. (as posted on another thread) has the ticket to this. If we can show the NSAA that these kids are training to be posssibly future Olmpyians and their HS coaches can coach them, then the door for more clubs will open....just my opinion.

With the help and support of our Head Coaches being involved in our clubs out here in the West, which not many , it is hard to convince the parents to wrestle FS/GR. I have opened our club to any one wanting to even give it a try, no takers. I feel that our head coaches need to be encouraging our parents as well as the kids to give this a try thus have more kids which intales more wanting to compete and travel. Then to get to the travel side of it, didnt see too many easterns at the state tournaments when this has been held in Westren NE., we supported FS/GR for many years and no support from the east(except: Exploridories& Bears)but we still made it to Kearney every year. It got old traveling 300 miles to wrestle the same people where we could have stayed home. this is not just Western NE. fault, we have all failed trying to make things more convienient for ourselves and not seeing the big picture. We can keep taking about it and nothing is ever going to become of it, we need to act now so we can make FS/GR back into what it was before USA Folkstyle took over.

How about we move the state tourney out west next year so we can help them get more wrestlers involved in FS and GR. If the tournaments right in there back yard why wouldn't they do it.
It's been a while since I've spent some time with Willie, Loop Dog and the rest of the Xtreme Boyz.

quote:

Originally posted by Kearney MatCat:
How about we move the state tourney out west next year so we can help them get more wrestlers involved in FS and GR. If the tournaments right in there back yard why wouldn't they do it.
It's been a while since I've spent some time with Willie, Loop Dog and the rest of the Xtreme Boyz.

Just put on a tournament or two out that way and let's see what happens. I'd be happy to come out there next season and help organize a tournament.

Are there results from this tournament anywhere?

results are at http://nebraskausawrestling.org