All in all I'd guess EC is embarrassed by the tourney this year. Apparently refs weren't scheduled by the state, and nobody followed up from the school to check up on the state. Refs were eventually found, but the tournament was already compromised. Wrestling started about two hours late, switched to single elimination for the first round. All went well til about 2pm when it was decided to take all winners of consi QF contest for fifth place, and champ semi losers contest for third. The resulting revamp of the brackets crashed the system and the tournament stopped for another two hours.
Highlights from the wrestling:
145 - Veleas over Roberts 8-7
132 - Julian over Accousti 4-2 OT
126 - Hudson over Folino 12-6
As a state we need to stop focusing so much on developing individuals and more on developing programs. Our overall participation numbers are dropping, the number of kids entered into the class tournaments is dropping every year, even as our elites get better and better the sport is withering away in this state. For every Danbury or Southington theres a New Cannan or a Joel Barlow who always have a few great wrestlers but can't even fill 10 weight classes this year. Then there's all the schools with only 7-8 (Or less) weights even filled, and coaches who don't see that as their biggest problem (which it is) If we as a state don't start building full programs, not just elites, the sport isn't going to be healthy here for long.
I was told by a longtime coach that the reason they are going to Flo is to be able to quantify quality matches and dodgers.
The seeding definitely matters if the competition between the wrestlers is close. It doesn't matter if someone is dominant.
If a coach is willing or purposely doing that, then he shouldn't be a coach. Ive seen horrible coaches in a lot of youth and high school sports and its sad.
At the end of the day you just have to wrestle your best and seeding usual works itself out.
The tough part of that is it makes it some what subjective. I agree witH the concept. always say the creame always rises to the top come tournament time. But it can screw a kid that gets a bad seed
I think I read somewhere here where teams will start getting penalized for padding records for forfeits and bumping around better kids. I believe the same should be applied based on level of difficulty of their schedule and who they’ve faced. Having 35 wins and 0 loses and not facing any of the boys who went 33-2 or 32-3 per se but they faced all the top ranked kids shouldn’t be seeded higher at opens if they’ve not gone head to head All year with the boys who had a much tougher schedule. I’m sure some will disagree , especially those who’s boys and or coaches do this but it’s only fair and how I feel.
i agree - i see teams with huge win records and then look at their schedule and laugh. and those records influence team rankings. though the only thing that matters is the ability and not the record, i just have to remember back a couple years where the 106 (i think from st paul) was seated first because he had 50% forfeits. and he was out in 2.
How come Barlow doesn’t jump into some real tournaments ? Are they trying to pad their kids records nice and easy? I know they have a few good wrestlers but why does it seem like every tournament or dual meet they do is so easy? If I wasa parent of the couple good kids I wouldn’t be happy about that. Nothing better than seeing all the top kids before opens.
1. Enfield 134½, 2. Manchester 120, 3. East Hartford 111, 4. Northwestern 106, 5. Canton 98, 6. Notre Dame-West Haven 97, 7. Glastonbury 90, 8. RHAM 84, 9. Newington 79, 10. East Catholic 77, 11. Newtown 74, 12. Joel Barlow 57½, 13. Berlin 54, 14. Maloney 49, 15. Stafford 48, 16. Rocky Hill 40, 17. East Windsor 18, 18. Derby 12, 19. Seymour 4, 20. Rockville 0
What teams were there?
Unreal