Missed this the other day - William Allen beat Bethlehem Catholic 42-18 in their junior high match. Cupboard bare in Bethlehem? (Kidding)
District 11 Wrestling
- Thread starter RoverNation05
- Start date
It stinks.
I recognize the problem - the Team States event is not a popular one with spectators, and the Hershey arena is way too big for it (and probably expensive to boot). So I get moving it to a smaller venue.
But Altoona is far from everything. I know nothing about their gym, I’m sure it’s nice. The pictures look nice. But you’ve moved the event further from most of the teams that show up to the event the most, which I think will dissipate attendance even further.
What I’ve come around on the last few years for state duals is this - I would like to go back to a single qualifier for each district and have just an 8 team state bracket. Yes, that means D11 getting both finalists wont happen even when they have the two best teams. And that’s good.
What I’ve decided I don’t like is when Nazareth and Becahi or Easton and Northampton wrestle the biggest match of the year with the biggest stakes in Hershey where the full Lehigh Valley fanbase is not going to travel. If the D11 championship is loser goes home, you rachet that event up through the roof, and you’re in the Valley where full fan bases are going to come out to Liberty/Freedom/PPL/wherever you want to host it. That could be my age showing, and the fact that the 2003 and 2004 Easton-Northampton matches in the D11 duals when both were in the top 5 in America are some of the best sporting events I’ve ever seen. To re-wrestle those in Hershey in a non-sold out gym would have been anticlimactic, even if it would have been the state final. I think that happened to Beca-Nazareth in 2017, which is one of the best duals ever, and would have been in the stratosphere if it was at Liberty in front of a full house instead of the Giant Center in front of everybody’s parents and some crazies like me who like team states and drive the couple hours. But what do I know.
At some point I think they need to consider just having a home team / higher seed host some of these finals, if for no other reason to make the atmosphere state championship worthy. If the gym holds 1000, then 250 tickets are allocated to the visitors. There has to be a better way than these neutral sites that don't draw fans.
They're going to have the home team hosting until quarters, and not having wrestlebacks for teams that don't make quarters - which makes perfect sense. But the tournament is too big, there aren't four District 1 teams or whatever that need to be competing for a state championship in duals or whatever it is. The early round match ups are largely a joke in this tournament. And absolutely nobody cares about taking 3rd in the state team tournament, I'd be fine if they eliminated wrestle-backs all together. What it's nice for is getting a couple extra matches against good competition for your best kids before the individual tournament series, but again, I think that can be sacrificed.
I don't want to come off as not liking duals - I think having a dual champion is the best thing wrestling can do, and I wish that the NCAA did the same thing. And the PIAA has been trying to figure them out. The original version (that Northampton coach Don Rohn boycotted by sending his JV team) was during the week before individual districts and totally messed with guys weights for the individual postseason and was dumb and hastiliy thought out. They pivoted off of that pretty quickly (again, one of the best teams in the country sending their JV team to the tournament made quite the statement). The version from 2000-2004 that made sense in the calendar and had the winner-take-all District 11 championship was magical for us. Northampton in 2000 and Easton in 2001 and 2002 were a cut above and won it pretty easily, but the 2003 and 2004 duals between those two were absolutely incredible. (now i'm just going down memory lane, feel free to stop reading).
For the uninitiated, in 2003, Northampton was #4 in the country, Easton was #5. The last Saturday of the regular season, Northampton beat Easton 31-29 by winning four of the last five matches of the dual. The following week, in the D11 finals, Easton turned the table and won 34-23, the catalyst being (current P'burg coach) Brad Gentzle, who lost to John Paukovitz by 15-0 tech fall in the second period, then beat Paukovitz in the D11 final, 7-5. Never seen a one week turnaround like that. Bryan Hart beat state champ Joey Ecklof two matches later and Easton rolled to the win, then ran away with the state championship the next weekend. In March, Northampton tied the record with four individual state champions, while Easton medaled seven at states and both teams were more than 30 points ahead of the field.
In 2004, they were #3 and #5 nationally. Once again, Northampton beat Easton 31-30 in the final week of the regular season. The following week, Easton won maybe the best dual I've ever seen, 29-25, highlighted by Sean Richmond (RIP) getting a match-up with arch-rival Billy Haydt (who finished 3rd and 4th in the state that year) and reversing Haydt in double overtime to win 3-1 and win the dual. That was one of three bouts that night that went to overtime, and Easton won all three. Again, Easton rolled to a state title again the next week. That March, Northampton set the PIAA state record for points in a tournament (132.5) and medalists (10), which included three champs, while Easton put three in finals.
All four of those duals had to be moved to Liberty High School (with it's 5,000 seat gym) to accommodate the crowds. It was pretty cool, one of the high points in Valley wrestling.
Beast of the East starts at 8:30 tomorrow morning. It is Easton’s first trip to Beast since the 1997-98 season - no champs for the Rovers in their only trip, with a then freshman Gino Fortebuono taking second at 112. Gino went on to win a state championship as a senior, then eschewed Division I wrestling to go to NYU film school. Not something you see everyday from nationally ranked kids. Interesting cat, I see his name in credits on Netflix all the time.
Pennsylvania obviously well represented at Beast with Easton, Northampton, Nazareth, Becahi, both Council Rocks, Downingtown West, Faith Christian, Germantown Academy, Gettysburg, the Haverford School, Kennett, Northern Lebanon, Norwin, Notre Dame, Radnor, Red Lion, Saucon Valley, Southern Lehigh, the Hill School, Thomas Jefferson, Whitehall, and Wyoming Seminary.
Lots of overlap with the Ironman field, but swap out all of the local Ohio schools at Ironman with local Jersey schools for Beast. lots of Virginia schools at Beast too (weird that Great Bridge isn’t a player in the team race, they were so good for so long, and have gone to Beast forever and been in the hunt a lot).
Pennsylvania obviously well represented at Beast with Easton, Northampton, Nazareth, Becahi, both Council Rocks, Downingtown West, Faith Christian, Germantown Academy, Gettysburg, the Haverford School, Kennett, Northern Lebanon, Norwin, Notre Dame, Radnor, Red Lion, Saucon Valley, Southern Lehigh, the Hill School, Thomas Jefferson, Whitehall, and Wyoming Seminary.
Lots of overlap with the Ironman field, but swap out all of the local Ohio schools at Ironman with local Jersey schools for Beast. lots of Virginia schools at Beast too (weird that Great Bridge isn’t a player in the team race, they were so good for so long, and have gone to Beast forever and been in the hunt a lot).