Posted by Steve Davis on 12/2/2025, 8:32 am, in reply to "Rankings "
February 20th, unless you want to throw some out here for discussion.
Re: Rankings
Posted by Really? on 12/3/2025, 8:51 am, in reply to "Re: Rankings "
Is WWR actually not doing rankings anymore? That would be sad. Despite the cute Feb 20th response, rankings are fun and Dave has proven that he can facilitate high quality rankings year over year over year.
Re: Rankings
Posted by Better rankings on 12/4/2025, 11:44 am, in reply to "Re: Rankings "
Posted by Steve Davis on 12/4/2025, 1:50 pm, in reply to "Re: Rankings "
Dave G has ran this site for 30 years. It used to be the only place you could find, Freestyle, Folkstyle, Greco Roman, High school results. Before Track, this was the place to be for local tourney results. The rankers were very solid and never seem to get appreciated for the amount of time and effort it takes to be good. I'm glad WWN has picked up the rankings and promoted the sport so well. This site is still a great place to debate and for me to get connected with people that can help with our Washington State Wrestling History. Big thanks to Dave G and to the boys at WWN for continuing to promote Washington Wrestling.
Re: Rankings
Posted by Dave G on 12/8/2025, 5:55 pm, in reply to "Re: Rankings "
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.
Re: Rankings
Posted by grateful on 12/11/2025, 7:42 am, in reply to "Re: Rankings "
Thank you, Dave! Your contribution to Washington and wrestling in general are invaluable.
Re: Rankings
Posted by C'mon man on 12/9/2025, 11:45 am, in reply to "Re: Rankings "
The guys that run that page are great for the sport. But their rankings are nothing to write home about. Dave G and his clan of rankers have done a great job over the years, and continue to. The WWN ranks wrestlers that haven't even done anything in high school yet. Which makes those rankings very subjective, not fact based. The HUMINT One did 3A last year, as well as 4A, and he was pretty accurate with the rankings and how everything shook out come February. Let's give them a couple weeks before inflating parents' heads with rankings.
Re: Rankings
Posted by DUMPSTER FIRE of failure on 12/11/2025, 7:59 am, in reply to "Re: Rankings "
This site has filled the information void that seems to prepetually exist in the wrestling community.
To this day, wrestling is awful at promoting itself. Epic fail.
As a fan, who is willing to drive to a dual or tournament, it's extremely tedious and time consuming, if not impossible, to figure out what's going on.
As I write this, many league and district web sites still have nothing posted for schedules. But they have nice pretty blank web site features for schedules and calendars....Useless.
It's the norm for individual schools to not have wrestling events and schedule info listed on their own web sites. Some do, many don't. And the ones that do, it's half accurate.
When you look at the districts, schools and leagues across the state, it's a complete DUMPSTER FIRE of failure to make any effort to disseminate information regarding even basic schedule information. Not to mention results....forget about it.
You have to text a coach or a parent on the team. You're run of the mill wrestling fan has to be an insider to enjoy the sport.