Is there any movement to add teams from around the state?

It's nice to see Prestonsburg back wrestling. I thought Lexington Christian was trying to resurrect their program as well.

There's a great chance to get another EKY program in the next couple of years when South Floyd and Allen Central consolidate into Floyd Central High School. In 2017 Fayette Co., will finish their new school and that should add another program as well.

Hopefully the powers that be get the program back at Graves Co., and Harlan Co. has been placed in region 8 the last couple of years but haven't offered a team.

Lexington Christian is focusing on a middle school and youth program for now.  I imagine they'll add a high school program in the next couple of years and be competitive five years from now.

Bardstown was added this year

I tried to offer my services in restarting the Graves County program last year. Didn't even receive a phone call back. Not sure how serious they are in restoring wrestling.

Sad, There was a doctor here in Maysville who's son wrestled and I understand he volunteered to donate a new set of wrestling mats to the school to start a program and was rejected. The son then wrestled for CC 2 counties away. and did very well from what I understand.

1 hour ago, depperschmidt said:

Sad, There was a doctor here in Maysville who's son wrestled and I understand he volunteered to donate a new set of wrestling mats to the school to start a program and was rejected. The son then wrestled for CC 2 counties away. and did very well from what I understand.

That was Korey Shotwell, he was a great kid and a heck of a wrestler.  Doctor Shotwell actually works here in Cynthiana, KY (Harrison County) now.  

I'm sure Mason County would have a hard time pouring any money into another winter sport aside from basketball.  That would be a great place to start a program.  

Highlands could be a powerhouse in a couple years with the right coach there.

Butler and Ballard are the two remaining Louisville public schools without wrestling to my knowledge.
 

Ballard had a good wrestling program back in the day. I lost to a state champ from there at state my junior year (1975) 132lbs.

Did you mean Highlands High school in Ft. Thomas?  I always wondered why they have never started a program.

Newport Catholic always had a outstanding program as well when Brother Joe Wilhelm was at the helm.

Henderson County was really tough my freshman year, they dropped the program after that year. Guys like Bryce Alexander could beat anyone in the state, it would be a great thing to see that program come back.

Ya Ft. Thomas Highlands, with how successful they are at football a wrestling team should be a no brainer

Getting them to support wrestling combined with football would be the issue......  If they went in like they do with Football, no doubt.  Considering how much support most teams get from Football; don't know how successful that would be.

14 minutes ago, Coach Wagers said:

Getting them to support wrestling combined with football would be the issue......  If they went in like they do with Football, no doubt.  Considering how much support most teams get from Football; don't know how successful that would be.

I think youre seeing that issue with Lexington Catholic.  Ive always thought they could be a powerful team, but so far the numbers arent there. I dont know if other sports are hindering the growth there, but doesnt seem to be helping. Hoping they will grow more and keep the team in the future

Getting football coaches to "buy in" in today's time of single sport elite"ism" is killing all sports, at least in my opinion.  Long gone are the days of multi sport athletes.....  If you want to be highly successful that is.

18 minutes ago, Coach Wagers said:

Getting football coaches to "buy in" in today's time of single sport elite"ism" is killing all sports, at least in my opinion.  Long gone are the days of multi sport athletes.....  If you want to be highly successful that is.

I completely agree Coach Wagers, I am the defensive coordinator for HC. And its hard getting our 6+ft tall basketball players (athletes in general) to play. They all think they have to specialize in order to become a division one athlete.  

11 minutes ago, CUTiger184 said:

I completely agree Coach Wagers, I am the defensive coordinator for Harrison County. And its hard getting our 6+ft tall basketball ball players (athletes in general to play), They all think they have to specialize in order to become a division one athlete.  

Crazy how many people think they can become division 1 athletes and get "full rides"......  If only it were that easy.

Division 1 probability- straight from NCAA website.

9 hours ago, Coach Wagers said:

Getting football coaches to "buy in" in today's time of single sport elite"ism" is killing all sports, at least in my opinion.  Long gone are the days of multi sport athletes.....  If you want to be highly successful that is.

Not so sure ,I have seen kids play football wrestle in season. And wrestle freestyle and greco and do well .

What about Winchester? They are big enough to have a program!

On January 30, 2016 at 10:16 PM, NatureBoy said:

Not so sure ,I have seen kids play football wrestle in season. And wrestle freestyle and greco and do well .

2 of Michigan State's football signees just won state titles in Illinois 

Dante Jiovenetta, one of the top heavyweight recruits in the country, does wrestling in season/out of season and still has time left over for football. He was a Fargo AA and it didn't seem to slow him down in football.

On the flip side we started the year with something like 8 heavyweights and 5 of them all quit at once to do offseason football lifting. The football coach did what he could to get them to go back in to the room, but the kids would rather transfer then come back and work.

It's tough to get football players who haven't wrestled to come out for wrestling and tougher to get them to stay on the team.  I'm the football coach at the middle school in addition to being the wrestling coach.  I talk about wrestling all the time and while every year I get around a dozen kids that are interested and say they will be on the mat, when push comes to shove, I only get 1 or two that actually show up.  The ones that do have had success.  It gets tougher and tougher to recruit new kids as they get older.  It's gotta start at the youth and elementary levels.

There is only two ways to build wrestling numbers and that is start Elementary wrestling or have a dedicated coach in the middle school program. I have seen a few programs in Indiana that were tough as nails without Elementary wrestling. Evansville Central had a four year string of very tough teams and had no elementary program. Their head coach was a PE teacher at the middle school. He taught wrestling in class. He did that for 5 or 6 years. Had about 45 kids on his middle school team. They were very good athletes as well. James Brimm was a State champ for that group, went on to wrestle for Michigan State. As a matter of fact the head coach was not very knowledgeable about wrestling. He was a great salesman. He did a great job of recruiting. He also coached 8th grade football. Later on he accepted a PE job at the high school. Their program went down hill fast. I'm a true believer of an elementary feeder league, just like little league baseball, Pop warner leagues and the rest, but a strong positive middle school coach is the best option. I really feel if you want to coach wrestling at the high school level and your trying to build a program, you need to be in the classroom in the middle school. It's a tough job, but I promise you will build and retain kids better. I believe your supper stars and supportive parents come from the elementary leagues. I just don't understand in Kentucky why parents want a high school program now. I think it would be a grave mistake to start a high school program without a solid middle school foundation. You could even hurt your chances of keeping the high school program as well. If I were younger and wanting to start a program, I would teach at a middle school and I would wait for two years before I would begin the high school. Good support from football can help, but don't count on it.

I think the way to grow the sport is through youth and college programs.  With youth the reason why is obvious, college not so much so I'll explain.

A high school wrestler who competes in college has a greater understanding of the sport as they are now exposed to others from outside Kentucky and the higher level of competition simply by moving up.  These wrestlers are also more likely to become involved in coaching because they know quality coaching is needed at all levels in Kentucky, something we're sorely lacking in our state.  These former college wrestlers are going to fill in the gaps we have at all levels, therefore not just growing the sport but also improving the quality of wrestling in Kentucky, which in turn will help the sport grow even more.

Why do I bring this up?  Go support the new programs that have started programs in Kentucky by attending their duals and helping them with fundraising.  Take your teams to go watch, most of the programs won't charge your for admission.  Force the dual meets to be held in the basketball arena instead of the wrestling practice room so that it gets noticed more by the local media.  Let these current coaches and administrators tell other small colleges in Kentucky about the interest they've had at their school, perhaps inspiring more to start programs.  This will accelerate the cycle I outlined above about former college wrestlers becoming involved in coaching.