SOURCE: drive.google.com

January 29, 2016

New York Needs A Real State Tournament
NYSPHSAA's Single Entry, Intersectional Format Is Fundamentally Unfair to The Wrestlers and Bewildering to Most Fans

Saving Wrestling Installment #9

One of the great ironies of scholastic wrestling in New York is how a sport obsessed with fairness at every level and in every rule can be so fundamentally unfair in its qualifying process for its state tournament. NYSPHSAA still clings to the one entry per section intersectional championship format established more than half a century ago despite the fact that the sections were then and still are now wildly unequal in school populations. The result is that a wrestler's path to "the states" can be vastly different depending on where you live. If you live in Section Five and attend a small school, you must come out on top after as many as eight bouts over two weekends of competition (or hope your record qualifies you for one of the four coveted at-large spots in the state). If you live in Section Ten and attend a large school, you need only to win your bout against the other large school wrestler at your weight in the section (or as was the case last year in five weight classes, you can receive a forfeit and go to the states without a single qualifying bout).

Of the 49 state tournaments in the nation - only New York does this. Other states either draw equal sections or use a proportional entry system based on number of schools in a section. Pennsylvania and California adopted this format for its unequal sections decades ago.

For sure, the at-large entries have been a welcome addition to the intersectional tournament and certainly proved, beyond the shadow of doubt, that for decades deserving wrestlers were wrongfully excluded from the state tournament. The nine-year "at large entries" experience has shown that dozens of these wildcard entries left at home every year prior to 2007 would have made it to the medal stand - including the top of the medal stand. But, as welcome as "at large entries" have been to compensate for a fundamentally flawed qualifying system, they remain an artificial substitute for head-to-head competition.

New York wrestling was once very close to reforming the state tournament qualifying process. In 2008, after years of resistance, NYSPHSAA appointed a working group to develop a proposal that would address the inequities in the qualifying system. Made up of members of the NYSPHSAA Wrestling Committee and the NYS Wrestling Coaches Association, the group came up with a "NYS Regionals" proposal that won the overwhelming approval of the NYSPHSAA Wrestling Committee. Of the state's eleven voting sections, only Sections 3, 7 and 8 opposed the measure. Based on a proportional allocation of entries from each section to four regional tournaments, the proposal got through NYSPHSAA's Championship Committee and was set for a vote by the Executive Committee when a moratorium was imposed on any and all changes in NYSPHSSA's championships because of a looming state fiscal crisis. Seven years and the fiscal crisis have passed. The moratorium was, for all intents and purposes, lifted when NYSPHSAA's added Competitive Cheerleading Championships last year.

It's time for NYSPHSAA to dust off the Regionals proposal, update the numbers and adopt it.

Next: The campaign to save wrestling.