I attended the last 2 days of the state tournament this year, and had a blast. Kentucky wrestling is definitely heading in the right direction....I don't want to come on this message board and focus only on the negative....so I decided to voice my opinion on things that i thought were good and bad about the state tournament.

The good:

Good sportsmanship. I seen a LOT of wrestlers, coaches, & fans with a lot of CLASS this past weekend. My heart goes out for the kids that work their butts off to win the gold and lose in heartbreaking fashion. A lot of people in the stands have felt that pain. But as a parent & coach, NOTHING makes me prouder than to see a wrestler who gave it all but loses and has the dignity & character to shake their opponent's hand at the end of the match and show them the respect they deserve. There was a lot of that, and it's great to see.

I thought the tournament itself was ran EXTREMELY well. My hat goes off to Julian Tackett, the KHSAA and everyone else involved in putting together this tournament. I can hardly wait until next year...I can't believe I have 12 more months to wait. It was seriously that enjoyable. Thank you KHSAA!!

The refs...there was 1 or 2 officials I thought were in a little over their head, but overall I thought the officials were outstanding!!

The quality of wrestling is getting much better. Most of the wrestlers in the finals went hard at it for the full 6 minutes. There were some great final matches.

The Bad:

Booing wrestlers....this is just completely classless. People who would boo at H.S. KIDS who put everything they have into this sport are just complete dirtbags if you ask me. Maybe if a kid does something really disrespectful...MAYBE...but just because they wrestle for a team beating you, that's just wrong.

Throwing of the glowsticks. I sat in a section near Woodford & Larue. I have to say, both teams have some of the CLASSIEST parents & fans I've ever been around. There were a few exceptions, but both sides seem to have great fans. Most schools can only dream of having that kind of support. Both of these teams have a lot to be proud of and thankful for! Then after the Banks & Courtney match.....Woodford fans were rightfully celebrating, twirling glowsticks....it honestly looked like a glowstick slipped out of a woodford fan's hand on accident. I say this because the first glowstick was only slightly lobbed in the direction of Larue. Who knows, this may or may not have been an accident....but then fans from both sides started blindly throwing glowsticks. The bottom line is these glowsticks could put someone's eye out...not to mention, getting hit in the face by a glowstick could easily lead to an all out brawl. The glowsticks are really cool to see in the finals, let's not blow it and have these banned from the state tournament.

On the same good note....I think the officials were the best I've ever seen at the state tournament.

Your going to have acouple of bad calls, they are human. But overall, very good. Last year not so good, this year awesome.

Congrats to them for a good tourney.......

I am impressed that the refs are able to work a tournament of this duration. They are out there from beginning to end and thats a lot of matches. They get an incredible workout at this tournament.

Do the refs work in shifts like so many hours on until relieved by another ref or crew or are they out there all day?

I noticed when they were out there they were rotating so they do get a break every so many matches but it appeared that they are still out there on the mat all day and all night. The fatigue has to be tough!

Overall a great job, I know there are always some mistakes they are human, but with a few exceptions it was well officiated.

I thought the tournament was well run, but the late Friday night and the early Saturday morning weigh-in is tough. It would be nice if they could:

a) allow the kids to weigh in Friday night before they leave so they dont have to be back so early if they dont have a match early Saturday

or

keep the scales open all morning for kids who dont have early matches so they can sleep a little longer and come in mid morn and weigh in as they get there.

How bout that Ervin girl singing the national anthem is she awesome or what! They need to book her now for next year before she gets to busy with other engagements. Great Job!

The Good

The refs were consistent. I thought that some, like Graham, were a little too quick with stalling calls - but they made the same quick calls for everybody.

The coaches and wrestlers displayed sportsmanship throughout the tournament. Many took the time to talk with their opponent after the match and offer congratulations or condolences.

Woodford and LaRue wrestlers were some of the most approachable guys there. In spite of their athletic excellence, they kept their emotions in check.

Even when it seemed like the entire place was cheering against them, the Woodford wrestlers remained focused and accepted the outcome in a dignified manner.

Not enough can be said about Richard Starks. I hope he wrestles in college so that we can continue to see his control and dedication at the next level.

The Bad

Getting out at 6:00 PM on Thursday and 12:30 AM on Friday/Saturday. Why don't we have a second round of Championship on Thursday night? If it took six hours to get in Round 1, it should take about half of that for Round 2. We'd then be getting out around 10:00 on Thursday and Friday.

When a team is chanting for their wrestler, an opposing team should just chant for theirs. Screaming "Sucks" after the other team's chant, booing, or derogatory chants against the opponent only show a lack of class.

I heard Richard Starks is going to West Point to wrestle.

Yes he is.

You think he's a machine now, give him a year at West Point. Wow :twisted:

The Good:

One of the most rounded state tournament in a long time. Woodford ran away with the points, but many schools had quality wrestlers there.

The most schools participating in the state "ever" (I think 69)

One of the greatest finals I've seen in a long time.

Tournament ran smoothly, and for the most part on time.

Wrestlers showed sportsmanship, I think only one incident the whole tournament.

The Bad:

I thought some of the officiating was inconsistant. (Not biased, just inconsistant). (Quick stall calls in first period and No stall calls later in the match)

Scales not available in the morning for very long to check weight.

Unsportsmanlike conduct of fans during the finals.

3 days of wrestling. Thursday only wrestle one match and done, a huge waste of time and money, for those schools that travel.

The Good:

One of the most rounded state tournament in a long time. Woodford ran away with the points' date=' but many schools had quality wrestlers there.

The most schools participating in the state "ever" (I think 69)

One of the greatest finals I've seen in a long time.

Tournament ran smoothly, and for the most part on time.

Wrestlers showed sportsmanship, I think only one incident the whole tournament.

The Bad:

I thought some of the officiating was inconsistant. (Not biased, just inconsistant). (Quick stall calls in first period and No stall calls later in the match)

Scales not available in the morning for very long to check weight.

Unsportsmanlike conduct of fans during the finals.

3 days of wrestling. Thursday only wrestle one match and done, a huge waste of time and money, for those schools that travel.[/quote']

You're about dead on. The only bad sportsmanship by a wrestler that i noticed was the guy hurting Paul Marks at 130, and then cussing and throwing his head gear when he got DQ'd (he did get body slammed, this aint wrasslin). If its because he thought he was faking the injury, please note Marks didn't wrestle the rest of the tournament.

One bad thing i noticed is a LOT of injury forfeits. I don't know what the reason was, but that sucks.

Good: I think the officials were pretty consistent. This is the first year they have really emphasized stalling, so there is no way to be perfectly consistent. But overall I think they did a pretty good job.

Bad: After all of the bad mouthing of Woodford Co that goes on, I was sickened by the Larue boos of Eric Bryant. You can point to one or two kids or fans that are bad sports for a lot of teams, but that was a "team" effort boo. It will be a long time before I forget that sad display by those fans. FYI, you may be the favorites going into next season, but I'll be rooting for someone else.