billyhoyle

I didn't read the post, but I fed it into chatGPT, and asked it to rewrite it for clarity and split into multiple paragraphs. The result is below. I have no idea how well it did (because I didn't read the original post), but at least it's something to start the discussion. There are many factors that are trending high school wrestling towards becoming a niche sport. These issues have been discussed in various posts, but it is unclear which factors can be addressed most easily. One factor is the growing battle for participants, especially with fewer multi-sport athletes. Another factor is the trend towards co-ops in small districts for sports such as hockey, swimming, gymnastics, and even football. This could lead to a similar trend in wrestling. Another issue is the increasing number of forfeits due to a lack of willingness to consider fewer weight classes. This not only reduces opportunities for wrestlers, but also negatively impacts fans who may not know if the wrestler they want to watch will have a match or a forfeit. The reliance on long tournaments also discourages many families from committing to them. Finding coaches who are also teachers within the school is becoming more difficult, making it harder to recruit new wrestlers and exacerbating the belief that youth experience is necessary. The continued reliance on coaches for input on improving the overall health of the sport is also an obstacle, as most are only willing to support initiatives that benefit their team in the short term. While the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) has provided some guidance, the concept of offering three options for weight classes further weakens the health of the sport. It is hoped that younger minds will come up with ways to grow the sport, as little progress has been made in the last 20 years. It is also hoped that someone will convince their state to pilot something new and different, such as margin of victory scoring or matside weigh-ins with locked line-ups. This could help convince fellow students and casual fans that watching a dual match can be time well spent.

How was it a mess? The Iranian soccer team was courageous in their actions at the world cup, and the US team offered them support.

Dean is probably 25 or 26 at this point. Guys that age aren't gearing up for an entire 4 month season. I bet he in form in March.

My take on Askren is that he is a genius-he essentially reinvented folkstyle wrestling. The only other person I've seen do it is John Smith, but arguably Askren's effect was even more significant because of how different it was. But like a lot of geniuses/creatives, he is drawn to outlandish conspiracies and nonsense. And because he is so brilliant at one thing (wrestling), he is convinced that even his most ridiculous ideas outside of the sport are correct. So I can't listen to his FRL or read his book because so much of what I have seen from him recently makes no sense to me. I prefer his wrestling opinions.

If this forum grows, maybe give the larger programs like PSU or Iowa their own section to talk about topics that are very specific to the program that the rest of us don't really care about (like recruiting, RTC news, assistant coaching drama, scheduling, etc). I'm not sure a conference-specific board is necessary because at this point, the majority of the discussion in the general section is about the big 10 anyway. But there's a lot of team-specific info that probably isn't posted on a national forum.