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End of an era

Posted by Gramps on 2/19/2023, 2:01 pm

I’ve been attending mat classic for 30 years now and I can honestly say it has officially hit rock bottom. It used to be the showcase of the best wrestling this state has to offer. It’s not as much about the sport or the kids anymore as much as the all mighty dollar. It’s way over crowded and over priced. Used to be 3 classes with 3 mats in the finals. Now there’s 7. It is a school event yet you’re not allowed to bring even a stick of gum, let alone something to eat or drink. That’s right, not even water. No breaks by design so if your going to eat you’ll have to stand in line for hours to get a $10 hotdog or $8 cup of coffee or $5 bottle of water because the the water there isn’t fit to drink. And the only reason you’re there is to watch wrestling. Hard to do that if you’re starting in line. Got to be separated. Best way in my opinion is B A 2A and small school girls together somewhere on the east side and the rest on the west.

Re: End of an era

Posted by Voss on 2/19/2023, 3:31 pm, in reply to "End of an era"

Have been attending a long time as well.
Things have changed.
Girls wrestling will continue to grow. That's a good thing for the sport. Gets more people involved.
Population will increase, School's will grow.
Everything is a money grab anymore!
I think they should look at moving Folkstyle State so there is 100% focus on the high schoolers.

Re: End of an era

Posted by Jokester on 2/19/2023, 3:52 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

Here's the scenario for next year...
1 day tournament for B schools, 1A and 2a,1a 2b girls ... 2nd day 3A,4A and 3A/4A girls tournament.
You are all welcome !

Re: End of an era

Posted by Re on 2/19/2023, 5:09 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

Or a new environment altogether away from all the West side trash, homeless camps, and drug infested streets to a more student friendly atmosphere.

Re: End of an era

Posted by Worried on 2/19/2023, 5:12 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

How will WIAA make all their money? That’s what you need to ask first.

Re: End of an era

Posted by From the back row... on 2/19/2023, 5:44 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

What the hell are they doing with all their money? That's what you need to ask.

Re: End of an era

Posted by LC on 2/19/2023, 5:47 pm, in reply to "End of an era"

People have these weird pipe dreams of how how state will look if they separate everything.

It won't be putting separate divisions in the Sun Dome and Spokane Arena.

The reality is that most of the championships, especially B and 1A, will get switched to a high school gym.

Look at football and soccer. Everything is just at high school fields now.

Re: End of an era

Posted by 1A2A on 2/19/2023, 6:01 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

I'm a liberal bleeding heart as much as any, but my gosh, the classification changes based on "free reduced lunches" and whatever else, is absolute nonsense. The watering down of classes even more so.

Yes it should be 1A/B, 2A, 3A, 4A, and girls should still be 1 class with super 32 brackets.

As it stands, it's embarrassing. Multiple byes in a STATE tournament?? Yikes.

The Tacoma was always, and still is, a pain in the ass. What made it bearable was the tournament and experience. That's been lost. I've never been on the bash WIAA bus, but now I am, based on what they have done the last two seasons. It's unfortunate.

Re: End of an era

Posted by AAKA 16U state championships on 2/19/2023, 6:18 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

It’s no where near the same as it used to be . It lacks the fire and excitement it once had. There were legit 24 mats on the floor during the finals ,their walk of champions was bunk, their award presentation was bunk and the over all quality of wrestling was subpar due to all wrestlers being spread thin throughout all those classifications.

You would think it’s the 16U state championships,nothing but underclassmen in the finals everywhere you look. I remember a time where it was rare for an underclassmen to reach the finals of any division and even more rare when one actually won;nowadays you have double digit freshmen in the finals, and even all freshmen final in some cases.lol they’re handing out titles like crazy some of these “state champions” are,Nevermind.

4A used to be the pinnacle of what the state had to offer …nowadays the 4A champs are legit getting blown out by the 1A champs. I remember a time where guys like Mike Rodriguez and Cory vombaur were wrestling in the quarter finals. Two nationally ranked wrestlers and D1 commits(with Rodriguez being a fargo national champ and multiple time all American ).Crazy thing was neither one of them won the bracket.

Re: End of an era

Posted by Dave G on 2/19/2023, 9:20 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

The pinnacle was 4A until 2007 when the WIAA re-distributed the schools evenly over all the divisions. During the years between 2000-06 it seems that half the kids were in 4A. It was brutal and I remember watching the match between Rodriquez and Vombaur from mat-side and it was very exciting. Rodriquez was the favorite but Vombaur toughed it out for the win. Mikey wasn't able to continue after the loss and had to injury default out of the tournament. Corey lost to Lester Brown of Lake Stevens in the final. Most of the Fargo AA's back then were in the 4A division. Here is a picture of Mikey from USAW freestyle nationals back in the day. He is on the left side and all the Cadets in the photo were 4A.

Re: End of an era

Posted by Kamiakin Greats on 3/14/2023, 3:27 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

Mikey and Tyler on the same time. 🤯

Loved watching those guys wrestle.

Re: End of an era

Posted by Ace on 2/19/2023, 8:37 pm, in reply to "End of an era"

There are a lot of flaws with the way the Tacoma Dome/WIAA are running the state tournament. It has become so flawed that it is time to hit the reset button and break away from the Tacoma Dome format in order to create a better experience going forward. As it is, It seems that we are trying to just get the high school state tournament done and over with to make room for the kids state tournament the next day.

Re: End of an era

Posted by Going where? on 2/19/2023, 8:49 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

Where are the reasonable alternatives to move to? What other arenas can hold 24 mats? I worry that if we leave the dome we’ll be split up. And lose the last of the Mat Classic magic.

Re: End of an era

Posted by Ace on 2/19/2023, 9:05 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

Well, that is the point. The magic is gone. Time to reimagine high school state and do right by high school wrestling, high school kids, and families.

Re: End of an era

Posted by Idea on 2/19/2023, 10:23 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

3 boys and 1 girls divisions, 6 mats per class.

Solved

Re: End of an era

Posted by Good ol days on 2/20/2023, 8:24 am, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

Dave, what do you remember about this bracket? We’re talking about a bracket where the returning state champ is going to overtime in his very first match and then getting pinned in the quarterfinals… where the undefeated tri state champion(back when tri-state was tri-state) is getting dominated in the quarterfinals . Kubec vs sherfey was fireworks in the quarters , as well. You can only imagine what the finals were like.😁

image uploader

Re: End of an era

Posted by Good ol days on 2/20/2023, 8:34 am, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

Not to bring up a sore subject,but this bracket was also insane . I was Mat side for the controversy in the ‘starks vs gilbertson’ match ,but I forget exactly how it all went down .care to elaborate? You just knew something special was brewing when Gilbertson majored Rodriguez,and Starks majored Shawrtz.

free image url

Re: End of an era

Posted by Another crazy bracket on 2/20/2023, 9:01 am, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

Not a fan of any team in this bracket, but this one also comes to mind. Crazy quarters, semis and final. Wilson from South K out of nowhere to win it all.

Re: End of an era

Posted by The Pinner on 2/20/2023, 10:45 am, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

Brutal
The "Rogers curse" would be broken by a kid named Palmer in the next final that night.

Best kid to never win a title?
Gilbertson & Evans on the top of that list somewhere.

Re: End of an era

Posted by 1A2A on 2/20/2023, 3:40 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

Jordan Bradbury, 4x runne rup, 2A, Monte.

Steven Hopkins was an incredibly classy and talented wrestler. Just never made it to the top.

I feel like an entire thread could be made reminiscing about some of the gnarliest brackets out there that were stacked top to bottom.

Days when either everyone was too hard headed to move up or down, or couldn't due to team commitments, and it made for some fun things to watch. Similar to the days when Regionals sometimes left placers at home.
I don't like talking about "Back in the day", but gosh, there were some Regional brackets in the 2000s and 2010s that would blow a lot of State brackets out of the water now.

Re: End of an era

Posted by Wow on 2/20/2023, 1:18 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

Look at all those 1-3 point matches scattered throughout the bracket. This was a good one with a lot of big names

Re: End of an era

Posted by Actually on 2/21/2023, 5:49 pm, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

Only reason Starks majored Jake Swartz, is because he blew his knee out and had to injury default out the rest of the tournament. Because of that and Auburn not receiving any points because of the default, caused them to lose to Battle Ground by a few points for the state title.

Re: End of an era

Posted by blank on 3/7/2023, 12:10 am, in reply to "Re: End of an era"

If I remember correctly, the metro official didn't give Gilbertson the nearfall nor reversal on the Peterson even though there was both control & Starks was fighting off his back. Final score should have been 5-3.
DaveG amiright?

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