Wrestling disappearing in small schools ?

[Rumorman78]

Each year I try to get around District 5 and 6 to see different smaller school wrestling matches. I am starting to notice these past 2 years a disturbing trend developing. A number of the varsity matches were over in 30 min or less. The reason being large number of forfeits from each school, or having a student wrestle a wt class who has no experience and is just cannon fodder that gets pinned in less that a min. And I know I am going to be criticized for this, filling wt. classes with female students. One District 5 school had 7 female wrestlers between JV and Varsity all lost their matches, the majority by being pinned or receiving a forfeit. Last year I attended a District 6 match where a 1a school who once had a thriving wrestling program showed up with only 3 wrestlers. Out of the 3 2 were forfeits and the one match was a pin under a min. There was no jr high, or jv match. I was out of the gym in less than 15 min. I know covid has hurt wrestling programs the past few years. But in my opinion for what its worth is this. Wrestling is a tough sport ,it takes great dedication and will power to succeed. I don't think many of todays students are willing to put in the time and hard work it takes to be successful in the sport. I hope I'm wrong but if the trends I talk about above continues Small school will either have to combine with larger schools or drop the sport altogether'

[Capnweird]

This is unfortunately a trend in almost all sports, a trend that started before Covid, but certainly was not helped by it. Numbers are down in most sports at all levels of high school competition, it is just most noticeable at the small school levels. Football, basketball, wrestling, swimming, baseball, track and field, softball, all sports have seen roster size diminish.

One reason is the parent and club coach who convinces a talented athlete to just focus on one sport rather than 3. Having talented athletes not participating in sports does more than just take one name off the roster, it often has a ripple affect as his/her friends may not go out for the second or certainly third sport. But, also other kids may see that as an indication that a particular team isn't worth it as well. Then they all are shocked when Johnny doesn't get a full ride scholarship to Penn State despite carrying the team to a .500 record in single A sports.
Another reason is the kids do get coddled a lot more now days, not just by parents, but also by community members. I have seen teams get blown out only to have a full parking lot of people meet the bus when it returns celebrating how hard the kids tried. Then when the coach tries to point out what they did wrong after hearing from everyone else how great the kids did, and that it was just the officials that caused the outcome of the game, the kids just don't want to hear that negative stuff anymore.

Thirdly they are getting jobs, and are told that it is the money in their pocket that matters now, so they choose not to go out to compete, especially if it means hard work without monetary payment because it is a lot easier to work at the local hardware store and actually get money for their time.

The trend is troubling, and there are some communities that are doing a better job of avoiding it, but it seems once the trend starts it is harder and harder to turn back around. High School sports simply do not mean what they used to mean, not to the kids, not to the schools, and even not to the communities that would rather just have the kids doing other things.

[old school]

I could not have said it any better Capnweird!

[Colonel Mustard]

Its not just the A schools. Saw the box score (if that's what its called in wrestling) for Central v. Richland. Only 2 matches were actually contested. A pin for each team. The match was decided by a coin toss. Some team and a few parents traveled an hour for that. Yikes.

Year-round specialization really hurts individual sports. Multisport kids don't want to come-out and get dominated by some kid that wrestles and trains everyday of their life.

Lifting and working gets the girls. Getting pinned in .30 seconds, not so much.

I see wrestling becoming an individual tournament sport or travel club sport or prep school only sport in the near future.

[Roofee]

I have had this exact conversation with 2 different friends in the last week. Yea high school wrestling and in my opinion, other high school sports are in big trouble.

[Roofee]

And are we going back to the original formula this year? Where district 5 gets to take 3 to regionals, how long are they going to allow that to continue? I am a D5 guy, but let's be serious the D5 tournament is getting pretty bad.

[Earl34]

Hard times make hard men...hard men make easy times...easy times make easy men...easy men make hard times. Our society, right now, no longer values effort above outcome. Everybody, parents and players alike, want instant success.
We all know that there are exceptions to this, as we still see kids working hard, but little Jimmy who could go .500 as a senior no longer endures the hardships to see that senior season.

[CCDevil2012]

Hard times make hard men...hard men make easy times...easy times make easy men...easy men make hard times. Our society, right now, no longer values effort above outcome. Everybody, parents and players alike, want instant success.
We all know that there are exceptions to this, as we still see kids working hard, but little Jimmy who could go .500 as a senior no longer endures the hardships to see that senior season.

I can’t say I completely agree here, everyone from every generation prefers instant success. Humans haven’t changed that much in 60 years as much as we think they have. The difference between then and now is simply there are more options. “Jimmy” the baseball player first used to wrestle or play basketball because what else was he going to do in the fall and winter, now Jimmy can play fall baseball and then train inside year round for a sport he likes rather than a sport he’s just doing because there is nothing else to do except sit around. Wrestling for many kids was “something to do” until their favorite sport was up again. Now even football players just focus on lifting all winter and spring and would rather do that.

It’s too easy to say that “oh kids just aren’t the same anymore”, and that may be true to an extent. But I’d argue that more kids are focusing on their primary sport first and playing others if it doesn’t interfere too much.

[upnorth]

Hard times make hard men...hard men make easy times...easy times make easy men...easy men make hard times. Our society, right now, no longer values effort above outcome. Everybody, parents and players alike, want instant success.
We all know that there are exceptions to this, as we still see kids working hard, but little Jimmy who could go .500 as a senior no longer endures the hardships to see that senior season.

I can’t say I completely agree here, everyone from every generation prefers instant success. Humans haven’t changed that much in 60 years as much as we think they have. The difference between then and now is simply there are more options. “Jimmy” the baseball player first used to wrestle or play basketball because what else was he going to do in the fall and winter, now Jimmy can play fall baseball and then train inside year round for a sport he likes rather than a sport he’s just doing because there is nothing else to do except sit around. Wrestling for many kids was “something to do” until their favorite sport was up again. Now even football players just focus on lifting all winter and spring and would rather do that.

It’s too easy to say that “oh kids just aren’t the same anymore”, and that may be true to an extent. But I’d argue that more kids are focusing on their primary sport first and playing others if it doesn’t interfere too much.

I agree. You also have to factor in that some coaches unofficially mandate that their athletes focus on that sport year round. I've seen multiple instances of this in softball, soccer, baseball and basketball.

[knowitall]

River Valley 36 Richland 27. Richland actually won two of the three contested matches.