About the Recent Split......

[reftn]

nevermind

Edited February 18, 2014 by reftn

[reftn]

I started this, then decided to delete it but couldnt figure out now to.

 

But rather than derail another thread, what do you feel might be the ramifications of the split? 

 

In one of the A-AA Regions, at least six coaches told me some of their wrestlers were disappointed they weren't competing in the AAA State.  Now I think this will go away with attrition as these guys graduate, maybe. 

 

But what might be some unforeseen consequences of the split?

 

I will state for the record I am totally opposed to any split; A-AA, Public/Private, D1/D2, what have you.

Edited February 19, 2014 by reftn

[RealSoddyBoy]

Good lord, the D2 brackets had 8 wrestlers in it. Talk about, win one match and place. I mean, this isn't even the hardest tournament of the year for those guys. I would be looking forward to this tournament, thinking about winning one big match and that's it. That is where my complaint lies

[drem2achive]

The split will help wrestling in the state of Tennessee. Wrestling fans are alway's going on about there only being 1 number 1. Usually all knows who the best is, the split will help someone else have success beside Cleveland ,Bradley, Soddy. It's good to see the middle tn. teams coming on. Clarksville has been good for years, Franklin has had some goods years, now Wilson, Blackman, Ravenwood, and others are coming to the party this is good for the sport will cause growth. A-AA needs the chance to grow. Believe it or not it does not diminish Clevelands win in AAA that Hixson won A-AA all knows that Cleveland is the better team. But Hixson will have pride in what they accomplished and Alcoa, PF it will help Tennessee wrestling in the end. Schools like Sullivan East that had 2 medalist 1 in the finals this will help wrestling at S.E. South Greene had a medalist this is great for this very young program. It will grow the sport. Having different divisions does not diminish anyone's accomplishment's. Accept the change it will make us stronger over time.

[nununu]

I for one say hooray for this happening.  Being a coach at a AAA school, and participating in a tough region, I saw lots of young men that had a chance to compete for a state title, let alone wrestling at the state tournament.  It may not be the BIG KAHUNA.  But schools like, Stratford, MLK, Pearl-Cohn had placers, that would have never made it out of Region 6 with the likes of the Williamson County Schools. Its hard enough with the larger schools getting out of the region, let alone these smaller schools. Most of these kids season would have been over a couple of weeks ago, yet it was extended, and they can go back to their respective schools and say, I won a medal in the State Tournament. The Stratford 120, would have NEVER been able to navigate the gauntlet of Region 6, yet in the A-AA tournament he made it through a tough region still to place at state.   The Pearl-Cohn kid is only the 2nd state qualifier in 20 years from the school, and he can have a claim as the 1st state placer.  A school whose program has been non-existent may now return with more bodies.  Alcoa, a football school, has a chance to grow.  Do I think it was the right thing to do. Yes.  Will everyone agree, NO.  Its their opinion.  I feel that D2 should only medal 4.  I feel that A-AA should go to a 16 man bracket and medal 6, and AAA should be 8. Those are my opinions.  But I do support the split for the growth of the sport. 

[Sommers]

How does Alabama make 5 divisions work? Ga I can understand. They have 40+ more counties down there than us & a couple million more folks.

[wildcat85]

Currently Alabama is 6 seperate classes for football and most other sports. For wrestling its 1A-4A together and a seperate one for 5A and 6A. Next year they are adding a 7A division so everything shifts up one. The 32 largest schools are 7A then the next 60 are 6A and the next 60 will fall 1A-5A. There really only needs to be one state wrestling division and one true champion. If it works for California it should work anywhere.

[tnlonghorn]

How does Alabama make 5 divisions work? Ga I can understand. They have 40+ more counties down there than us & a couple million more folks.

Have you seen Alabama wrestling? It's horrible . Before you copy and paste a Brandon Womack article we all know he's good but most of the others not so much.

[tnlonghorn]

I for one say hooray for this happening. Being a coach at a AAA school, and participating in a tough region, I saw lots of young men that had a chance to compete for a state title, let alone wrestling at the state tournament. It may not be the BIG KAHUNA. But schools like, Stratford, MLK, Pearl-Cohn had placers, that would have never made it out of Region 6 with the likes of the Williamson County Schools. Its hard enough with the larger schools getting out of the region, let alone these smaller schools. Most of these kids season would have been over a couple of weeks ago, yet it was extended, and they can go back to their respective schools and say, I won a medal in the State Tournament. The Stratford 120, would have NEVER been able to navigate the gauntlet of Region 6, yet in the A-AA tournament he made it through a tough region still to place at state. The Pearl-Cohn kid is only the 2nd state qualifier in 20 years from the school, and he can have a claim as the 1st state placer. A school whose program has been non-existent may now return with more bodies. Alcoa, a football school, has a chance to grow. Do I think it was the right thing to do. Yes. Will everyone agree, NO. Its their opinion. I feel that D2 should only medal 4. I feel that A-AA should go to a 16 man bracket and medal 6, and AAA should be 8. Those are my opinions. But I do support the split for the growth of the sport.

Hmmm... I suck at my job but I'm going into work today and tell my boss to give me a raise because otherwise I would never get one. Maybe since it's just given to me I will work harder and get better at what I do. It's really not fair anyway because I live in a small neighborhood and some of my co-workers live in neighborhoods with 100's of people. Sounds crazy doesn't it????

[tnlonghorn]

What's going to happen next is the really small schools are going to complain they can't compete with big schools like Hixson. Hixson is way bigger than a lot of those schools. There is a much larger gap between Hixson and some of those schools than there is between Hixson and some of the Aaa schools. We have just opened Pandora's box and there will be more divisions coming. How many new teams did we have this year because of the split??? One year into it and did we see a growth rate any higher than we normally average?? Let's check on that next year and see if 2 years into it we have grown at any higher of a rate.

[baller95]

Hmmm... I suck at my job but I'm going into work today and tell my boss to give me a raise because otherwise I would never get one. Maybe since it's just given to me I will work harder and get better at what I do. It's really not fair anyway because I live in a small neighborhood and some of my co-workers live in neighborhoods with 100's of people. Sounds crazy doesn't it????

In this analogy who is "I suck at my job"? The wrestlers or the coaches? Just curious cause the kids certainly didn't ask for a split.

[russianbear]

I was completely opposed to the split. And I was very vocal about it. I was shocked to discover that I seemed to be in the minority. At least among the people that spoke out about it. However, I've opened my mind  (and heart) up a bit and am not ashamed to say I may have been wrong - at least to some degree.

 

I've personally witnessed a few things over this last year. I won't make this long, but lets just say it is a tremendous boast for local communities. Local communities that need encouragement. Good news. Hope. The split has accomplished that and will continue to do so. More so then I anticipated. Yesterday our Principal was able to stand up and say Red Bank HS had their first State Champ in 5 years. Did he lie? No. Politicians hear that. Businessmen hear that. Parents hear it. Middle school kids hear it. To be honest all they hear is "state champ". Is that bad. No. Does it mean we need to split again? No. 

 

Like most other controversial topics the truth and answer is somewhere in the middle.

 

Apparently D A-AA will get a bit smaller next year as D2 gets a bit larger. 

I hope and pray that there is no more 'splitting' until our participation numbers grow from the current 4300 to well over 6000. We need to set a mark and stick to it before the discussion on 'splitting' even comes up again.

Edited February 19, 2014 by russianbear