A lot is made every year about the eight team districts in Class A and how easy it is to make it to the state meet. I have included the average bracket size below for the districts posted on Huskermat. After looking at the numbers is it really that much harder to qualify in B, C and D Districts? Does an extra 1-3 kids make that big of a difference?

District Average Bracket Size
C1 11.79

C2 11.785

C3 11

B2 9.07

B4 11.57

D1 9.5

D3 9.57

Any wrestler that takes the mat this upcoming weekend would dispute the "easy" part of the attempt to qualify. To rephrase, it would be better to say it would be more difficult to qualify for the state tournament in a bracket with more kids.
Whether it's Class A,B,C or D there will be some weights that will be more even in the talent level from the top seed to the lowest seed. In which case it wouldn't matter if the bracket had 8 or 16 wrestlers.
Good luck to all the wrestlers this weekend.

My son wrestled 135 his freshman year in class D. He won his first match at districts, lost his second. Won his third and fourth match, then lost his fifth to be denied a spot at state. What class A wrestler has to win more than two matches to qualify for state?

Blaschko again has to minimize the smaller classes to justify going to a 3 class system. If Nebraska ever does go to 3 classes, I suggest that Class A is dropped and the remaining classes are B,C & D. Still a 3 class system but we won't have to listen to Blaschko's Class A rhetoric.

Yes Maxcat you're right class A wrestlers only have to win two matches but there are many class D brackets that are also only have eight people or less. Plus you are not taking into account that Class A school have more people in the school meaning they could potentially have many more kids out (not always the case but mostly its true) meaning they often had to win two or three wrestle offs to wrestle varsity. What about the Grand Island JV kids that have won two, three, or four meets this year. They have all beat several kids that will make it to state. Is that fair? You darn right it is. Parents could have sent them to another school. They didn't have to wrestle. They could have moved to another weight. Too many people focus on what others are doing and don't focus on what they can control. I have no affiliation to any team just a fan mostly follow class B but enjoy all wrestling. I get Skutt gets to pull kids from everywhere, but that is the rule we have. Many of these arguments are played out. Class A has too few teams, this district is tougher than this district, Catholic schools should be in higher classes, refs out to get me. WHY? What does any of that have to do with how you wrestle. If you went out and did your best then that is all you can do. If the team you cheer for went out and did there best, cheer for them but don't cheapen the sport but making excuses.

Should Clarify that I was the same way in high school. Made it to state only one year. Freshman year not even close. Sophomore year beat a couple of kids that made it. Looked at my district bracket and thought man this is tough. Made the same lame excuses, man if I would have been in another district, another class, another weight class. What if I would have said well I could be in the same boat next year what do I need to do to make it out of there. Maybe wrestle at a couple of more tourny's in the summer. Maybe learn greeco and freestyle. Maybe run just an extra couple of miles a week outside of practice. Drill in the morning. I'm not trying to call anybody out, I am just telling you that making those excuse will not get you any closer to the state tournament.

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when my youngest son was a freshman, and even into his sophomre year. He just wanted to win the bracket in as few matches as it took to do so. Now in his junior year he is really enjoying the competition and gets kinda bored in small brackets. I love seeing him wrestle and more matches is good for both of us. But I do think if all class A district meets can only be 8 man at max, something should be changed. Three districts? I am talking out of my *BLEEP*, because I don't follow class a at all and don't know if they currently have 4 districts.

I honestly do get tired of this discussion. The numbers don't lie there are more kids in Class A schools. That's obvious. What alot of people don't see are there are also kids in Class D that wrestle J.V and are beating state rated kids from Higher classes.

Sports are a great way to teach individuals the art of competition and doing something to the best of your abilities. Not to teach individuals that one can blame the system for the lack of their success.

I have been around long enough to know that the top 24 kids in the state don't always get the state medals. Even though knowing that, I am proud of our state because all 24 kids that earned medals worked their tails off and are proud of the medals they earned.

I think that Blaschko makes a good point here. It gets so old hearing about how weakness of class A. Going to state is an accomplishment in itself in any class. Yes, some class B, C, and D districts may be more difficult to get through, but I don't think that class A is a walk through by any means.

I'm not calling class a weak, just eight man max district brackets small.

Now really, isn't the difficulty of a bracket based on the talent in the bracket and not the number of entries in the bracket? Is this idea so hard to grasp?

Talent can stretch farther then an 8 man bracket. as B3 is a great example this year

competition is a great thing.

Some folks think that it is harder for a class A wrestler to make his teams starting line up. I guess the thinking is; that in a larger school there would be more competion for the same 14 spots then there would be in smaller school. Is there any truth to that premise?

Throwing another log on the fire here but I believe track and wrestling should be a one class system. While football basketball volleyball etc should be four classes.

Patriot, I do think that there is alot of truth to that in a school with a good program. But that can be true for any class school with a good program. I know that in certain class A schools there is big competition. I went to one. My kids don't. Also you will have to forgive me.... district/state insomnia with wrestling on the brain 24/7. All I want to do is talk wrestling.

state dual tournament with 4 classes, individual 1 class.

I think we need a State Duals Championship also. With each classes Champions and Runner-up competing. This allows more teams to get some more practice in before state individual championships and creates more of a team atmosphere. Wrestling is a individual sport at times though being a part of a dual team makes it more attractive to more kids. That is the ultimate goal is participation. Everyone has a goal.

quote:

Originally posted by Cornfed:
state dual tournament with 4 classes, individual 1 class.

ABSOLUTELY NOT! and individual 1 class will not and should never happen. There was a thread about this previously and if you want the argument go back and find it.

On the other note about Class A 8 man district brackets. They are awful in my opinion because of the fact that you have teams like Omaha South, Omaha Benson, Omaha Northwest etc...that don't even field close to a full team. Now I used those schools as example because you never hear of any of their kids. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. Someone care to shed some light on how many Class A teams, with ALLLLL those kids to pick from have full teams? Everyone always seems to use the GISH factor where they have stellar JV kids and get stuck there...but is it like that at any other Class A school besides the top team in the class the past 2-3 years? I can tell you right now that I watched Kearney JV's get beaten by Class C JV's this year. So what does that mean? Those Class A kids had a tougher route to get to varsity than those of a Class C? Gimme a break, Class A people are just that, ignorant to anything outside of their own class.

I told myself I wasn't going to post on this topic but whatever, ya'll got me fired up!

LegRider,

Wishful thinking: is when one interprets facts and events to justify conclusions that makes one feel good.

Jumping to conclusions: is when one tries to prove a conclusion from a small number of unrepresentative cases.

I don't think that South, Benson and Northwest are very representative of class A. Also, one shouldn't conclude anything from the fact that on some occasion, some class C JV team beat some class A JV team.

LegRider, you sound like a good guy and a very solid coach. But let me suggest that you don't get caught up in this silly discussion. Doing so only generates resentment. And really, I don't hear anybody from class A putting down class B, C, or D. I'm sure class A folks have nothing but respect for class C.

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