First, I want to give a huge shout out to the USA Wrestling Utah staff for putting on a great event at The Hive in Nephi. Youth and Junior High Super State was just what, a super competitive experience for our highest level youth wrestlers. 

So it saddens me to bring up some of my gripes about high school wrestling here, where I spent the greater bulk of my coaching and life experience. It is a shame that we can’t give our high school athletes the type of experience Youth and Junior High Super State is for those competitors. It saddens me that every weekend there are much more demanding competitive experiences than our state tournaments. It is pathetic that we call something a “state tournament” when there are hardly more than a dozen teams and byes in the bracket. And since I’m a fan and vocal supporter of female wrestling, it saddens me that the best the Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA) could offer our rural female grapplers was a state competition with just 77 wrestlers spread out over 14 weight classes. The UHSAA must do better, and we must demand they do better.

It is further perplexing that I would see better wrestling from third graders than what I often see at our high school state tournaments. Not just skill level but just plain competitive matches. Matches that go the distance. I shouldn’t be seeing several first-period pins in the championship matches. I shouldn't be seeing 17 falls and two technical falls in the semifinals either. (And what gives today with all the pins? When my brother took state, he won his first match 5-1, his second match went to overtime, he won by a major decision in the semifinals but his opponent blew out his knee but still finished the match and tournament, and then won again in overtime to take state.)

So what I loved about these young-ins out there in Nephi this past weekend was they fought, they fought and they fought. And when it got down to the semifinals and finals, matches went the distance and these young grapplers just battled. I saw some pretty remarkable high bridges. 

I also realized that years ago as a young coach I might have been wrong about some things. Or I maybe didn’t have the wisdom at age 28 as I do at age 58. I support the idea of each team having at least two wrestlers going to divisionals with the chance to go to state. And way back when I was for both wrestlers scoring. But as I talked with a great coach (Jeb Clark of Payson) for another piece I am writing, he was bold enough to say that we need to change that system, a system that benefits his program. But he says just having a few programs having a chance to take state leads to non-competitive team races that aren’t good for the sport. He’s right. And I truly respect that he will actually go against what is in his own best interest for the greater good for the sport. 

People don’t realize this but when I coached at Provo we were actually the third school to put a JV wrestler in the finals to wrestle against his varsity teammate. We were before Pleasant Grove, Uintah, Juab and even Millard. Delta or West Jordan, or I think it was actually West Jordan rather than Delta that did it first. I was gung-ho, our second place wrestler scored and for one state tournament Provo High actually had the most points scored by jayvee or second-string wrestlers at the state meet. But sadly, Provo in 2024 is trying to regain its footing and will probably finish some 275 points behind the winning team.
Since girls wrestling and their programs are basically in their infancy, the competitions this upcoming weekend will be more compelling with several teams in 4A, 5A and 6A having realistic chances to win the gold trophy. I would hate to see girls wrestling morph into the type of (team) competitions we now have in boys wrestling where often 200 points can separate the team champion from the team that placed fifth, let alone 20th.

So right now I don’t get why four classifications are only scoring one wrestler per weight class and the other two are. It doesn’t make much sense to me. Let’s get on the same page here. 

I also have this grandiose idea of a single state tournament. Or what they actually call Super State at the youth level. I just announced at the event last week, I don’t know if you actually have to qualify for the event or you can just come. I know there is a Northern Utah State and a Southern Utah State then a couple of weeks later Super State. Somebody please fill me in on how you qualify for it. But I love it. I love the idea that the best wrestlers from all over the state are in one building battling it out over two days. (I hope my announcing added to the fun by the way.)

So my grand plan was to have divisionals to the classification tournaments. And the classification tournaments would be much like they are now, small schools against small schools, large schools against large schools. You can still call yourself the 1A champion. But the “state” tournament would bring the best wrestlers from these classifications together in one tournament. I would have 32-38 wrestler brackets and place eight.
 

And based from what I saw at Youth and Junior High Super State, it wasn’t just the urban kids winning. Yes, plenty of athletes from Sanderson Wrestling Academy, Westlake, Shootbox (in St. George I guess) were winning oversized trophies, but I also saw wrestlers in the finals from Richfield, Moab, Millard, Juab, Delta, Uintah (I guess they’re not so small now) or basically from all over the state, from clubs that will feed 6A schools down to clubs that feed 1A and 2A programs. I suppose maybe 1A and 2A club participation was down because maybe they were watching their older brothers and sisters wrestling in Richfield at their state tournaments.

But if we can’t do my grand plan, can we just get rid of a couple of classifications? I’m almost ready to give up on 1A and 2A, or rather their administrators, but can we divide 3A through 6A into two less classifications? Going down to three or four would be a great start. And by the way, girls wrestling is growing big time but it isn’t big enough to have five classifications. I think those 1A/2A girls deserve a better tournament than weight classes with just four to six competitors.

And another get off my lawn moment. Why I love girls wrestling is that they seem to have a much better attitude about the sport and competition than their male counterparts. Before you say I’m all crazy, not one female wrestler that I know of griped about who they matched up against at the All-Star Dual or just chose to sit it out altogether. They are grateful for the opportunity, they want to test their wares. 

I do find it refreshing when a wrestler might go up a weight class at a dual meet to challenge himself against an elite wrestler. I mean I see too many duals, even when two good teams are competing, where there are 12 pins out of 14 matches. I mean, couldn’t we find a way to get two elite wrestlers on the mat against each other?

I actually had a wrestler (Nathaniel Holt) give up winning three state titles to challenge himself. He lost in the quarterfinals to McKay Sanderson his freshman year and the next year he said I’m going down a weight to wrestle him. He didn’t beat him and placed second, but I loved his attitude. It was no wonder he took second at the NHSCA Senior Nationals and wrestled in the Olympic trials.  
 

And us older types remember how Seth Wright stalked (in a good way) Cyler Sanderson. He wanted to avenge his loss the year before though going up or down a weight class would lead to an easier path. Seth had won a state title then placed second. His older brothers, one who became a great coach at Delta, simply told him, "you won your state title, but you have unfinished business.” And it gave us wrestling fans one of the all-time greatest matches ever. But the UHSAA had to screw that up a bit with the match being in the semifinals in what I called “Bracketus Interruptus”, one reason I became such a proponent of the divisional system versus the old formula system that often put the two best wrestlers on the same side of the bracket, hence the term I invented called Bracketus Interruptus. 

And most of us older folk fondly remember the first All-Star Dual when Brighton’s Robb Maxwell and Judd Sweat was the featured match that exceeded our expectations. But I’m glad they agreed to wrestle each other (for the third time that season) and that they weren’t afraid to lose. They didn’t like each other then (not sure about now) and it made for incredible drama. 

So there it is in a nutshell. My unsolicited praise of the staff of USA Wrestling for organizing a great competitive event, my desire for less classifications (I’ll start with four and go from there), a change in the scoring system to where we just score one wrestler but let two wrestlers go to state if they qualify, and maybe just challenging our male wrestlers to embrace competition like our female wrestlers. And yes, can we teach our (older) wrestlers to fight the pin better?