Thanks for the kind, and accurate words.

When there was no place to get results from USAW tournaments, I took the brackets home and entered the results and posted on the website so everyone had the opportunity to see. When the high schools started to go to computers (not Track yet) I had them send the completed brackets to me and I posted them so everyone could see the results. When there were no rankings out, Kurt Lange put some together and I posted those on my site for everyone to browse. When Kurt stepped down after a few years I ended taking up the slack and doing them myself. I posted those so all could enjoy and discuss. As other volunteers stepped up, I added divisional rankings, and eventually the team rankings based on the individual rankings. Those were posted for all to view, for free, like everything. Those rankers were instrumental in allowing the rankings to expand as they did. Trackwrestling came along, and once everyone got involved with that then the need for posting brackets by me eventually went away, and that was fine with me. Saved me a LOT of work. I continued with rankings and I have had a good number of solid rankers, but also some years a division had 2 or 3 rankers quit mid season, once they realized how time intensive rankings really are. I have about 4 or 5 solid rankers that have committed to covering about 75 percent of the divisions. After 30 years, I don't have the drive and desire to train a bunch of new rankers, and the website is in a state of transition right now.

Over time, other sites have popped up on the internet to provide what only I provided for so many years. Trackwrestling with results, Facebook pages for discussions, YouTube and Instagram for podcasts, etc. It is an exciting time and I am glad to see young people coming along to pick up the mantle and provide those services. With other sources available for wrestling news, it is not imperative that I continue on with the site as I have in the past. This has been a gradual transition over the past few years since Covid changed a lot of things. I also missed the 2023-24 and 24-25 seasons do to injuries. I am back now but am cautious about over-committing on the mat. I will have some rankings this year, with my die-hard rankers, but a number of divisions that are now empty will probably remain empty. I will continue to moderate the message board to remove and block abusive posters, but that seldom happens anymore, although I did delete one thread today.

Google changes things all the time, and not always for the better, and the revenue from the message board is now gone because that platform doesn't have they ability to put in certain technical items in to the root directory. As a result that revenue, that used to pay to host the web site and message board is gone. There is still some revenue from the website Google and the advertisers to go direct with the banner ads, but it could get to the point were I have to subsidize the site out of my pocket.

This site has always been a labor of love for myself, and also all the volunteers that have helped over the years. I have been involved in many endeavors over the years, and those all had a lifespan, and then it was on to other things. I have spent thousands of hours for wrestling as a coach, parent, official, board member, etc. I have spent 10's of thousands of dollars on wrestling traveling all over the country with wrestlers as a coach, back in the day, and then as an official. My days of coaching were with my son in the 90's, the Cadet and Junior Dual teams in the 2000's and then with the ORCA Team I was involved with from 2010-2015. My days of officiating at Nationals went from around 2005-2013. After that it was just too much time out of the office to do that when I had so many other things I wanted to take time off for.

We have new refs we are training, but not enough to meet the future need so I encourage anyone with the desire to help wrestling to contact your local association, get trained and get involved with giving back to the sport. The reason I am still officiating, at my age, is because we are short on officials in general, and in numbers of seasoned, experienced officials. I have served as an official for almost 30 years now and I am in the twilight of that career. I hosted the web site with results, rankers and a forum to energize the community, but that career is also in the twilight, and I hope that the next generation jumping in will hopefully be able to give it a 30 year run! Wrestling needs to to continue.

Everything is really falling into place for me to ride off into the sunset and just focus on skiing, golfing, hiking and being with my grandkids, family and friends. There is a circle of life, and that is coming full circle as we watch.

It has been an honor to be involved with this great sport since I first stepped on the mat in 1968. I had no idea as an 80 lb, 7th grader that I would still be involved with wrestling almost 60 years later. I have become great friends with so many people in wrestling over the years, and it has always been sad for me to see the ones older than me retire from the sport, but now I get it. We all have our day, and in the end you, just try to do the best you can, and leave a lasting legacy. I gave it my all.