Stieber vs. Maple

By | September 26, 2013

Lineups are starting to be announced for the NWCA All Star Classic.  A BIG match-up was announced that is equal to the Dake vs. Taylor event from last year.  This year, NCAA champion Logan Stieber from Ohio State will be wrestling NCAA champion Kendrick Maple from Oklahoma. At last year NCAA championships, Logan won at 133 and Maple at 141. Logan is going up a weight to wrestle Kendrick. This year they’ll be at 141 and 149 at the NCAA’s.

The All-Star Classic will take place on November 2nd at 7:15pm on the campus of George Mason University.  To purchase tickets to the event, visit the Ticketmaster website.  For more information on the All-Star Classic, visit the NWCA website.

It’s Time to Expand National Scholastic Rankings

Every week during the season wrestling’s electronic and print media outlets rank six different collegiate wrestling divisions two ways. First they rank the Top 25 teams in D-I followed by D-II, D-III, the NCWA, the NAIA and then the National Junior College programs. Then they rank at a minimum the Top 8 to a maximum of the Top 20 athletes in each weight class.

But on the scholastic level that has over twice as many teams wrestling as the colleges have, there is only one national ranking system. Why is that? Why do we combine schools that have a graduating class of 25 students with schools that have up to 6000 students not to mention those well-to-do private schools that have dormitories and various forms of financial assistance?

Wrestling’s various media outlets need to create a system of national rankings for the scholastic community comparable to that on the collegiate level.

Who would this hurt and why haven’t we done it before? How can we fairly or reasonably put Blair Academy in the same division as Petersburg (Alaska) high school who recently won the small school state championships but graduate somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 boys a year?

Administrators who make decisions about having or keeping wrestling as a sport need to know the resources they’re committing have a chance of paying dividends. Athletes from smaller schools who work just as hard as those from larger schools should have an equal opportunity at All- American status in size appropriate divisions. Then there are those teams who are well coached and tough as nails but don’t have access to the same sized gene pool as others do.  They should be able to be ranked as one of the nation’s elite too.

Most every state (except California) understands the importance of hosting multiple school divisions; isn’t it time the sport does that at the national level?

One thought on “Stieber vs. Maple

  1. mike

    Rivalries drive excitement and enthusiasm–in any sport. This will be fun to watch and great to kick off the season.

    Reply

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