State Wrestling Part II

Well, the WV State Wrestling Tournament is drawing to a close. Tomorrow will be the consolation semi-finals and the finals.....sadly, Moorefield will have no competitors in these rounds. My boy lost his preliminary round bout Thursday night, then dropped his first round consolation round bout Friday morning. Both were hard fought bouts, where he laid it all on the line........which means I could not have asked for more from him.

I am proud to say that I took a first year varisty wrestler to the WV State Tournament, and his perforance was an acceptable one. Next year I feel he will do much better, and possibly even place.

After watching some very good wrestling over the past two days....I have some comparisons that need to be made for those of you from PA reading this.

1. PA Wrestling
   Path: Districts, Regionals, States
   Must place in the top 4 at each previous level
   Each tournament requires atleast 3 wins to place 4th or better
   
2. WV Wrestling
   Path: Regionals, States
   Must place in the top 4 at each previous level
   Tournaments range from 5 to 12 wrestlers at each weight (due to forfeits)

What does this mean. In PA, if you make it to the state tournament you have come through a rigerours set of trials....there were no bye matches into the semi-finals or finals. You have had to beat several extreamly talented wrestlers to get to the round you are in (even if in just regionals) While in WV, you can (in the case of Region 2, 103lbs) get a bye into the semi-finals, lose, then wrestle one match into the consi-finals....there were only 5 wreslters in this weight class so 4 of the 5 go to go to states.......how many times do you hear of this in PA??????

I never made it to PA states so everything i am saying is simply assumptions......but i don't think a single person at the state tournament didn't belong there.....i honestly can say that some wrestlers at the WV state tournament had no buisness in a venue of this caliber......

After this week I can honestly and truely say that I have could have been a WV state qualifier, and most definitely placed at this tournament had my family moved to WV for my high school years.............though i am glad they didn't.....i can PROUDLY say that i was a 2x PA Regional Qualifier out of District VI......I never thought missing out on attending Hershey Arena would stab at my loins 8 years after graduation.......

I love and miss you Pennsylvania Wreslting..................