Revamping districts

tom1944

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Feb 22, 2008
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I was talking to a wrestling coach, and he felt they should revamp the districts. The parochial schools were so dominant he felt it made sense that they go into 2 districts (North and South) made up of all parochial schools and that you could even allow 4th place participants from those districts move on to the Regions.

Basically, the district tournaments became non-competitive, and this might be a way for some kids to stay at their home school and by allowing an extra place winner to move on you do not punish the parochial school kid.
 
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SCNJ

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The talent in districts is as spread out as it’s ever been. They’re not going to water them down even more by moving perochial schools to their own district in an individual tournament. Chances are the kids who miss out aren’t going to damage moving forward anyway. I get there are certain weights in certain districts that end up forcing a good kid to miss out on regions, but that is always going to happen one way or the other.

The real solution is to crack down on perochial schools and certain public schools openly recruiting, which is constantly going on but the state completely ignores it.

Southern Regional had like 11 district champs, 9 region champs and 12 state qualifiers or something along those lines. I get feeder programs exist, but really strange how every other school nearby is pretty bad at the sport. Suppose it’s just a coincidence though and guys like Frank Molinaro, Keith Dillard, Kyle Casaletto, and most recently Eddie Hummel all decided to move to Stafford Township on a whim in the middle of their high school wrestling careers.
 

13duke st.

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Sep 3, 2007
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That’s incredibly surprising. I still think they need to crack down on the recruiting first.
It’s hard to prove. Family just has to say we moved for work, bigger house etc. recruiting to the parochial is impossible to prove. “Well my kid was gonna go to Linden public schools but now he can go to Delbarton, every parent would send them to Delbarton”. It was really disappointing to see how dominant the parochial have become at states. It does take away a lot from the rivalries and tradition of the public schools. I just don’t have a fix for it. Some places like southern will hold on with a coaching staff like that but most high schools will essentially become FCS league.
 

RUAldo

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Sep 11, 2008
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Bergen recruited for years - had kids living with families and even heard they rented a townhouse for some wrestlers to live in. SJoes heading down same road and will take any transfers, just look at their line up. Delbarton totally different and I think has only accepted one transfer wrestler in history of program and he wasn’t anything like a Yannis Charles.
 
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SCNJ

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Bergen recruited for years - had kids living with families and even heard they rented a townhouse for some wrestlers to live in. SJoes heading down same road and will take any transfers, just look at their line up. Delbarton totally different and I think has only accepted one transfer wrestler in history of program and he wasn’t anything like a Yannis Charles.
All these top schools do similar. They find distant 5th cousins for the wrestlers to “legally” reside with
 
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Leonard23

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Feb 2, 2006
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That’s incredibly surprising. I still think they need to crack down on the recruiting first.

It’s hard to prove. Family just has to say we moved for work, bigger house etc. recruiting to the parochial is impossible to prove. “Well my kid was gonna go to Linden public schools but now he can go to Delbarton, every parent would send them to Delbarton”. It was really disappointing to see how dominant the parochial have become at states. It does take away a lot from the rivalries and tradition of the public schools. I just don’t have a fix for it. Some places like southern will hold on with a coaching staff like that but most high schools will essentially become FCS league.
Unfortunately, it's only going to get worse with private schools actively recruiting, and some public schools too. Some schools use club coaches to recruit for them. And some of those club coaches are eager to do it, because they want to make a name for themselves and their club, so they align with some private schools and push their kids there. Some private schools also hire a club or rec/town coach and take many of their top kids which kills a public school program from elementary school all the way through high school.
 

SCNJ

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Unfortunately, it's only going to get worse with private schools actively recruiting, and some public schools too. Some schools use club coaches to recruit for them. And some of those club coaches are eager to do it, because they want to make a name for themselves and their club, so they align with some private schools and push their kids there. Some private schools also hire a club or rec/town coach and take many of their top kids which kills a public school program from elementary school all the way through high school.
Yep. Again, there will always be feeder programs for public schools but the line always gets crossed by somebody. Kind of insane that Harvey Ludington moves from Nevada to NJ and lands in a town with a prominent public school. Hunter Mays moves from Pennsylvania and labds in a town with a prominent public school. A lot of in state kids move into Southern regional territory.

One day I want to see a nationally ranked wrestler move to NJ and go to Hoboken
 

Leonard23

Heisman
Feb 2, 2006
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Yep. Again, there will always be feeder programs for public schools but the line always gets crossed by somebody. Kind of insane that Harvey Ludington moves from Nevada to NJ and lands in a town with a prominent public school. Hunter Mays moves from Pennsylvania and labds in a town with a prominent public school. A lot of in state kids move into Southern regional territory.

One day I want to see a nationally ranked wrestler move to NJ and go to Hoboken
Many feeder programs for public schools are dying a very slow death, because more and more kids are going to clubs and those clubs are telling them don't waste your time with the town feeder program.
 

SCNJ

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Many feeder programs for public schools are dying a very slow death, because more and more kids are going to clubs and those clubs are telling them don't waste your time with the town feeder program.
I meant the clubs are the feeder programs. There’s a lot of unofficial partnerships where the coaches at middle/high schools will more or less push younger kids towards Triumph or Shore Thing for example.
 
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mikemessner

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Psufan2427

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They do this every two years. I hope they don't take out the private schools and put them in their own district or region. If you don't want them taking your spot in AC train and get better. Private school kids aren't great because they sit home on the couch. Join a club, a gym and go to off season tournaments so you can beat them next year.

Champions are made in the off season.
its more than just get better …we have backups at these big time parochial schools that would be state qualifiers for their home towns while the home town programs wither away ..you know what would make public school guys better , if that back up at st joes just stays home and is a state qualifier for his public school , bc that motivates other guys on the team to get to that level, it also immediately improves all guys on the team practicing with said SQ everyday, also gives more of a reason for fans to come watch duals , which builds support for programs and then younger kids at the dual look up to local state qualifier and want to be like him and start their own journey to get better…that is how you build the sport , the way you kill it is having st joes get transfers every year , from other private schools, public schools , kids from South Carolina ,all while you have local state caliber kids riding the pine and their own town programs in shambles
 

SCNJ

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its more than just get better …we have backups at these big time parochial schools that would be state qualifiers for their home towns while the home town programs wither away ..you know what would make public school guys better , if that back up at st joes just stays home and is a state qualifier for his public school , bc that motivates other guys on the team to get to that level, it also immediately improves all guys on the team practicing with said SQ everyday, also gives more of a reason for fans to come watch duals , which builds support for programs and then younger kids at the dual look up to local state qualifier and want to be like him and start their own journey to get better…that is how you build the sport , the way you kill it is having st joes get transfers every year , from other private schools, public schools , kids from South Carolina ,all while you have local state caliber kids riding the pine and their own town programs in shambles
It’s a cyclical problem too. Most public schools especially the small ones are having difficulty keeping coaches (never mind finding good ones) for a number of reason. The pay is crap, the parents are worse than ever, in a lot of places the kids are entitled and everyone thinks they should be a 4x starter, etc. And unlike basketball or baseball where just about any adult former athlete knows the basics and can at least keep practices somewhat reasonable, wrestling is so specialized that there aren’t many options to choose from even if all those above problems didn’t exist.
 
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LETSGORU91

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Jan 29, 2017
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its more than just get better …we have backups at these big time parochial schools that would be state qualifiers for their home towns while the home town programs wither away ..you know what would make public school guys better , if that back up at st joes just stays home and is a state qualifier for his public school , bc that motivates other guys on the team to get to that level, it also immediately improves all guys on the team practicing with said SQ everyday, also gives more of a reason for fans to come watch duals , which builds support for programs and then younger kids at the dual look up to local state qualifier and want to be like him and start their own journey to get better…that is how you build the sport , the way you kill it is having st joes get transfers every year , from other private schools, public schools , kids from South Carolina ,all while you have local state caliber kids riding the pine and their own town programs in shambles
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!! My biggest beef is these parochial, all star teams then go and compete against the same towns/schools they pillaged from only to dominate a dual, district/county tournament, THEN thump their chest in victory. Give them their own league and let them beat up on each other. My favorite is when Delbarton was forced to play all the parochial powerhouse football teams, then tucked their tail between their legs and cried because it wasn't fair.
 
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SCNJ

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Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!! My biggest beef is these parochial, all star teams then go and compete against the same towns/schools they pillaged from only to dominate a dual, district/county tournament, THEN thump their chest in victory. Give them their own league and let them beat up on each other. My favorite is when Delbarton was forced to play all the parochial powerhouse football teams, then tucked their tail between their legs and cried because it wasn't fair.
The crying they do is hilarious. Some sports used to have a tournament of champions where all the public and non public team champions played down to 1 final champ. Theyre completely dominated by non public A teams.

I heard a story that a #1 non public was upset in their championship game and protested to the state that 2 at large teams should be granted.
 
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