Region 1 A/AA

[Weir_Coach]

According to the coaches poll, there are 6 weight classes with 5 or more Region 1 wrestlers ranked in the top 10 in the entire state (120[6], 126[6], 132[6], 138[5], 144[5], and 165[5]). This means there will be at least 9 top-ten wrestlers in A/AA who won't even qualify, and the State Tournament will not be represented by the top 16 wrestlers in almost half the weight classes. Not to mention, there are no other regions that even have four top-ten wrestlers in any weight class except for Region 1 who also has four top-ten wrestlers in 4 additional weight classes (150, 190, 215, and 285). That means that 10 of 14 weight classes in Region 1 will send 4 top-ten wrestlers to the State Tournament this year. One could legitimately argue that the Region 1 tournament is as hard or harder than the State Tournament. I wonder how many states can say the same. I would think we would at least want to try to have the best wrestlers in each weight class to represent the state at the State Tournament. Also, winning a state team title out of Region 1 is significantly more difficult than out of any other region due to the difficulty of qualifying your entire team for the State Tournament. Why not qualify top 6 from each region and do a 32-man bracket with 8 byes? If a region doesn't have 6 wrestlers in a weight class, pull from other regions to fill the brackets based on available criteria. It may be a little more work, but it'll be worth it because the kids who deserve to wrestle at States will actually get to wrestle at States. Could someone from the WVSSAC please address the elephant in the room? Surely, something can be done to fix this obvious problem.

[wrestling00]

I couldn't agree anymore with you even on the bearhugger rankings on the weight classes he says the region 1 guys need to be moved around its honestly sad to see that high caliber state wrestlers not even qualify for the state tournament in all the years they've been wrestling because the region is more stacked yet guys that they beat will probably qualify for the state tournament i hope in years to come they fix this is some sort of way

[BsWrestler72]

I have notice this for years. A few years ago the top 5 in the state were in the same region. The 4 that qualified finished 1-4. The 1 that did not qualify probably would have placed.
If we trust the polls. Give automatic qualify to only top 3 from each region and use the coaches poll to fill the others.

[Weir_Coach]

I have notice this for years. A few years ago the top 5 in the state were in the same region. The 4 that qualified finished 1-4. The 1 that did not qualify probably would have placed.
If we trust the polls. Give automatic qualify to only top 3 from each region and use the coaches poll to fill the others.

This is another good idea. I honestly wish they would just combine all three classes into one 32-man bracket and give trophies out to the leading teams in A, AA, AAA, and overall, and make it so there is only one state champion for each weight class. 32-man brackets for just A/AA might be too watered down, but at least it'll give kids in Region 1 an opportunity to place if they aren't top 4 in the region. Something needs to happen either way.

[aacoach70]

This is the flaw in a regional format for sports. If one doesn't want to increase the size of the state tournament, one idea would be to hold a last chance qualifier tournament after regions. Do regions same as now. Take the top 3 qualifiers from each region. This leaves 4 spots remaining to be filedl. Do a LCQ tournament for anyone that didn't qualify out of their region. Take top 4 placers from the LCQ. When the dust settles, if all 4 spots are filled by wrestlers from the same region, so be it.

[Weir_Coach]

This is the flaw in a regional format for sports. If one doesn't want to increase the size of the state tournament, one idea would be to hold a last chance qualifier tournament after regions. Do regions same as now. Take the top 3 qualifiers from each region. This leaves 4 spots remaining to be filedl. Do a LCQ tournament for anyone that didn't qualify out of their region. Take top 4 placers from the LCQ. When the dust settles, if all 4 spots are filled by wrestlers from the same region, so be it.

I like this idea too!

[RegionOne_fan]

I have to agree on this. Other regions may not want to make a change on this because they know the outcome will be fewer of their kids on the podium in Huntington because the extra region 1 kids will be beating them. Kids wrestling in region 1 also tend to have a few more loses on their records mainly because they are wrestling other kids in region 1 all season long, and kids from PA. As we travel around and listen to kids talk from other regions about the State Tournament they say "when I go to states this year...." because they know their path isn't that hard to get there. Those kids hardly place at a regular tournament, yet they are wrestling in the State Tournament every year.

I might also add they could look at shuffling the regions a little bit from a geography standpoint that could essentially alleviate some of this top heavy region 1. Anything east of Preston County move to Region 2. Slide the western schools in Region 2 like Doddridge and Ritchie up into Region 1. That would accomplish a couple more things. Generally speaking the eastern panhandle teams never see the rest of region 1 until the regional tournament. It's too far to drive and most are not doing it because of that reason. Berkley Springs has probably never been to St. Marys, Magnolia, or Weir, and vice versa. Add Wirt and Calhoun to Region 1 if needed to even out the numbers of schools.

Just spit balling ideas here.

[Weir_Coach]

I have to agree on this. Other regions may not want to make a change on this because they know the outcome will be fewer of their kids on the podium in Huntington because the extra region 1 kids will be beating them. Kids wrestling in region 1 also tend to have a few more loses on their records mainly because they are wrestling other kids in region 1 all season long, and kids from PA. As we travel around and listen to kids talk from other regions about the State Tournament they say "when I go to states this year...." because they know their path isn't that hard to get there. Those kids hardly place at a regular tournament, yet they are wrestling in the State Tournament every year.

I might also add they could look at shuffling the regions a little bit from a geography standpoint that could essentially alleviate some of this top heavy region 1. Anything east of Preston County move to Region 2. Slide the western schools in Region 2 like Doddridge and Ritchie up into Region 1. That would accomplish a couple more things. Generally speaking the eastern panhandle teams never see the rest of region 1 until the regional tournament. It's too far to drive and most are not doing it because of that reason. Berkley Springs has probably never been to St. Marys, Magnolia, or Weir, and vice versa. Add Wirt and Calhoun to Region 1 if needed to even out the numbers of schools.

Just spit balling ideas here.

All great ideas! I've always wondered why they moved the Eastern Panhandle teams to Region 1. They weren't in our region when I wrestled. Of course when I wrestled, all three Marion County teams (Fairmont Senior, East Fairmont, North Marion) were AAA, and Williamstown was a Region 1 team. Things have definitely evolved quite a bit in the last two decades.

[WVU]

Feb 9th A-AA Individual Rankings:

Number of Ranked wrestlers per region:
Region 1: 58 (41.4%)
Region 2: 30 (21.4%)
Region 4: 30 (21.4%)
Region 3: 22 (15.7%)

Region 1 has almost the same as regions 2 & 4 combined, and almost triple the amount of region 3

[aacoach62]

Maybe because one principal had a lot of influence and kept all the teams in his county in one region, it was just a rumor back then. If you look at the region map, you see what county would have been much closer than the Eastern Schools.

[mscoach4]

I'm not sure how you would work this into wrestling but in high school track people became aware that the top 16 athletes in events might not qualify because of a similar scenario in which the top 4 individuals in each region were going to the state tournament in each event. They changed the regionals to include the top 3 individuals in each region and the next fastest 4 times across all regions. Through that process it became possible for as many as 7 individuals from a particular region to qualify for the state track meet.
The problem is that this is easy to do in track where the numbers speak for themselves. In wrestling it would have to be based on someone's opinion, not sure I like that idea. Although I suppose you could arrange some type of post regional mini tournament of the 4th, 5th, & 6th place finishers in a weight class and I just don't see that happening.

[Jeremy_Callen]

According to the coaches poll, there are 6 weight classes with 5 or more Region 1 wrestlers ranked in the top 10 in the entire state (120[6], 126[6], 132[6], 138[5], 144[5], and 165[5]). This means there will be at least 9 top-ten wrestlers in A/AA who won't even qualify, and the State Tournament will not be represented by the top 16 wrestlers in almost half the weight classes. Not to mention, there are no other regions that even have four top-ten wrestlers in any weight class except for Region 1 who also has four top-ten wrestlers in 4 additional weight classes (150, 190, 215, and 285). That means that 10 of 14 weight classes in Region 1 will send 4 top-ten wrestlers to the State Tournament this year. One could legitimately argue that the Region 1 tournament is as hard or harder than the State Tournament. I wonder how many states can say the same. I would think we would at least want to try to have the best wrestlers in each weight class to represent the state at the State Tournament. Also, winning a state team title out of Region 1 is significantly more difficult than out of any other region due to the difficulty of qualifying your entire team for the State Tournament. Why not qualify top 6 from each region and do a 32-man bracket with 8 byes? If a region doesn't have 6 wrestlers in a weight class, pull from other regions to fill the brackets based on available criteria. It may be a little more work, but it'll be worth it because the kids who deserve to wrestle at States will actually get to wrestle at States. Could someone from Huntington please address the elephant in the room? Surely, something can be done to fix this obvious problem.

How/why is this a Huntington problem? The SSAC office is in Parkersburg. I do not believe the answer is to expand the brackets to 32 wrestlers with 8 byes in the first round. Yes, unfortunately some of the best wrestlers in the state get left home which I’m sure is the case in many states. That’s just the way the chips fall sometimes. I’m not sure there is a real answer or fix to this.

[aacoach117]

In wrestling it would have to be based on someone's opinion, not sure I like that idea.

This entire discussion is based on the opinion that a R1 wrestler is staying home while a wrestler from another region that is less worthy of going to states will be there.

I like you idea of placing the top three and let the final four spots be filled on the mat. Of course then the complaint would be that the #3 placer from R2/3/4 is less worthy than the 5th placer for R1 and then the cycle begins again.

[KSRefBP]

This isn't a popular statement, as I made it before and got chastised.

Any state that has a sectional/regional format to determine who goes to states...whether it's in wrestling, basketball, track, baseball, softball, soccer, whatever.....the focus is not to get the best 16 people to Huntington. It's to have equal representation per region.

Football, I believe, is the only sport in WV that has a true rating system that ignores equal representation to make the post season.

It's unfortunate that sometimes a good wrestler (or team in other sports) will get left behind when they could be the 5th ranked wrestler in the state. But it's a reality that it is going to happen, perhaps more often than not.

[aacoach107]

This is merely a suggestion and only the thoughts I have had over the years to amplify our sport mainly grow our sport. This is not to pass out participation awards at all. I have always thought it was odd that we have our larger school in our state only compete against 32 other schools for a State title where those parts of our state have larger enrollment which in theory would have a better chance of fielding a full team, yet we have seen more times than I would expect a bye to the quarter finals in our State Wrestling Tournament on the AAA side. The state has made adjustments in our other sports, and lets face it, its all about the money, that can be argued but can't be denied. But here we sit with our A/AA who have 64 teams to compete with for a state title. Speaking for Region 1 A/AA, we have an average of 12 wrestlers per weight class and several with 14 or 15. I see AAA regional brackets with an average of 6 per weight class. And how much sense does it make when looking at our Regionals that Berkley Springs, Keyser and Frankfort have to drive 3.5 to 4.5 hours to wrestle in a Regional. There are currently 4 teams in 2 separate Regions that are literally 30 minutes or less away from where Region 1 A/AA is taking place this year. I could go on and on and no matter what there would be complaints and arguments and there really isn't a system that would make everyone happy....Except the one below...HAHA

I say this, The state is all about making money, they have extended the boys and girls basketball tournaments to now take place starting on a Tuesday and finishes up on a Saturday. So why don't we stop the wondering if a 5th or 6th place finisher in one region or another is better on the mat than a champ in another region. I say expand the tournament into two 32 man brackets. We have a ranking system, which is not always correct or spot on, it does seem very close most of the time to our top 8 or 10 in our weight classes. Some of the wrestlers left off are usually because teams don't post their results. I say the top 8 wrestlers in each weight class get automatic qualifier bids and do not have to wrestle in the Regional tournaments. We keep our Regions to 4 Regions and the top 6 per weight class in those four Regions will qualify for the state tournament and thus fills the 32 man bracket. In AAA they could hold regionals for ranking purposes, but basically with only 32 teams in AAA all kids would qualify. Would there be byes, yes there would, but like I said, its not perfect and merely a suggestion from a guy who doesn't know as much as he thinks he does.

[Lloyd Christmas]

1 class place top 8. Take 32 in each weight class. Give over all team award. Then overall aaa overall aa overall a. Award the top two teams in each division. Give ow to aaa one to aa and one to single a.

[wre157]

This isn't a popular statement, as I made it before and got chastised.

Any state that has a sectional/regional format to determine who goes to states...whether it's in wrestling, basketball, track, baseball, softball, soccer, whatever.....the focus is not to get the best 16 people to Huntington. It's to have equal representation per region.

Football, I believe, is the only sport in WV that has a true rating system that ignores equal representation to make the post season.

It's unfortunate that sometimes a good wrestler (or team in other sports) will get left behind when they could be the 5th ranked wrestler in the state. But it's a reality that it is going to happen, perhaps more often than not.

In track, I believe the top 3 from each region in an event qualify. Then, they take the next 4 best times regardless of region. As mentioned in the forum, a last chance qualifier would be very similar to this as you would have 3 wrestlers from each region qualifying. The 4th, 5th, and 6th placers in each region could wrestle in a 12 man bracket to decide the final 4 qualifiers. This would give you representation from each region while also helping get closer to having the best 16 wrestlers compete at the state tournament.

[KSRefBP]

In track, I believe the top 3 from each region in an event qualify. Then, they take the next 4 best times regardless of region. As mentioned in the forum, a last chance qualifier would be very similar to this as you would have 3 wrestlers from each region qualifying. The 4th, 5th, and 6th placers in each region could wrestle in a 12 man bracket to decide the final 4 qualifiers. This would give you representation from each region while also helping get closer to having the best 16 wrestlers compete at the state tournament.

I think the key is to get ideas to individuals on the coaches committee. This would be an interesting approach, but I'm not sure how you squeeze it in. You could say the dead week between regionals and states, but that was purposely put there to be safe from any skin condition outbreak and allow for treatment to occur should an outbreak happen.

Wrestling has done a lot to try and improve the situation. From bringing in the assistant official to trying to ensure the top 2 wrestlers are on opposite sides of the bracket. I give the coaches committee and the WVSSAC some credit here. You've seen different things occur in different sports for the post season. Changes for the better. Changes that would not have occurred under different leadership years ago.

[RegionOne_fan]

The State tournament is 3 days long. Adding a couple kids to the bracket isn't going to be the end of the world. You don't make things better for the kids by punishing weak regions or small schools by not letting their 4th place kids compete. The idea is to get more kids into wrestling. Not every school can have 12 coaches like the blue bloods can. Many don't have 12 wrestlers. Many kids have no access to clubs within reasonable drive time to attend as regularly on a school night as they would like. It bothers me to see folks not care about the small schools and basically shrug them off saying if they want to compete they need to get better. A school with 100 or so kids competing against Fairmont Senior in any sport is honestly a travesty to those kids.

[Bearhugger]

The word on the street is there is something in the works. If true, it will fix a lot of this.

[Jeremy_Callen]

If there is something in the works, I would like to know what it is because I have heard nothing. I do not anticipate wrestling going to 4 classifications, but there could be other options that have not been discussed since the 4 classification system has been implemented in some of the other sports.

[aaacoach28]

As long as the wvssac is involved it will never get fixed. These people have no idea about wrestling at all. Look at the Regions that have schools close to each other and drive for hours. Example St Marys not in the same region as Williamstown, Wirt Co,Ravenswood and so on. Do away with Regions ,split AAA AA, and A in their own class and wrestle everyone. REGIONS are a complete joke that actually lose money in some! Again as long as WVSSAC is running things it will never get fixed!

[ringworm14]

Would regionals need fixed annually? Why is there not this same outrage when it was region 4? Why is it always us northern folks crying loudest? We got things to fix, but it probably is not regional alignment!

“Beware of the ringworm!”
— Caitlin Clark

[RegionOne_fan]

I'm not exactly new to wrestling, but how long ago was it the region 4 had twice as many ranked kids as any other to regions combined?

[KDunbar]

Would regionals need fixed annually? Why is there not this same outrage when it was region 4? Why is it always us northern folks crying loudest? We got things to fix, but it probably is not regional alignment!

“Beware of the ringworm!”
— Caitlin Clark

One always has to remember that it often is only 1, 2, or 3 people (not that that makes them wrong, bad, or inaccurate) and it is not necessarily everyone or a majority in an entire area that is feeling as strongly about an issue.

[ringworm14]

I'm not exactly new to wrestling, but how long ago was it the region 4 had twice as many ranked kids as any other to regions combined?

I don’t know about rankings, but region four placed more kids in Huntington and had more champs for a long stretch mid 2000s to mid 2010s I’d say. That’s when the Roane county boys were dominant, Calhoun was loaded, and I believe Point Pleasant has its first run. Recent enough I remember how good they were. I think region four finished 1-2-3 in a few consecutive years too but might be wrong in that. Only thing that changed that region was reclassification pushed teams up and down so they had to redo the regions to even it up. Nothing to do with the talent. The ups go down and downs go up!

“Beware of the ringworm!”
— Common Sense

[Lloyd Christmas]

Would regionals need fixed annually? Why is there not this same outrage when it was region 4? Why is it always us northern folks crying loudest? We got things to fix, but it probably is not regional alignment!

“Beware of the ringworm!”
— Caitlin Clark

Region 4 never had twice as many ranked wrestlers than other regions. If there is evidence of that id like to see it. thanks

[ringworm14]

Would regionals need fixed annually? Why is there not this same outrage when it was region 4? Why is it always us northern folks crying loudest? We got things to fix, but it probably is not regional alignment!

“Beware of the ringworm!”
— Caitlin Clark

Region 4 never had twice as many ranked wrestlers than other regions. If there is evidence of that id like to see it. thanks

You want opinions of talent over placement values at a real tournament? Ha! You are a real Lloyd Christmas! Once they post the regional results you can compare those to those precious rankings and see why I cited state results!

“Beware of the ringworm!”
— Harry Dunne

[Lloyd Christmas]

You said "where was the outrage when it was region 4" Im just saying it was NEVER region 4. Thanks

[ringworm14]

You said "where was the outrage when it was region 4" Im just saying it was NEVER region 4. Thanks

2006 region 4 places 33 at states…meaning the other 51 spots was between three regions…average 17 per region. Not quite rankings…not double. But…close.

You’re welcome.

“Beware of the ringworm!”
— Maui