FAIRBANKS: Eliminating conflict with football would aid both sports, board says.
FAIRBANKS -- The Fairbanks school board wants to see wrestling take place in the winter rather than the fall.
Rousing applause from the audience in school board chambers, made up mostly of local high school wrestling coaches and parents of wrestlers, accompanied the Fairbanks North Star Borough Board of Education's unanimous adoption of a resolution Tuesday night asking that the Alaska School Activities Association change the state wrestling schedule.
Currently, the sport's season starts in October and runs through mid-December. Next year, ASAA wants to start wrestling even earlier in the year, meaning the season will overlap with even more of the football season, making it difficult for students at schools with football teams to take part in both sports.
"There's typically a lot of crossover between football and wrestling," Lathrop wrestling coach Tom Ritchie Sr. said, noting that both sports have been hurt as students choose between them. "Participation numbers in both football and wrestling are way down. We have 20 kids (at Lathrop) who would play football that are not because it overlaps."
Superintendent Nancy Wagner said she wanted to see the wrestling schedule changed because currently the state championships are the week before finals in December, making it difficult for students to prepare academically and athletically.
Local coaches, school district administrators and the school board would all like to see wrestling start in December or January and run until March or April. That would keep the state championship from interfering with finals and would allow the football players to wrestle, a win-win as far as local wrestling advocates are concerned.
However, that schedule wouldn't be a good thing for most of the schools in the state, according to Gary Matthews, ASAA's executive director. The changes the school board proposes would overlap the wrestling and basketball seasons.
"If you overlap wrestling with another major sport like basketball that would be a major problem for smaller schools," Matthews said.
Statewide, only a small number of high schools have football teams, Matthews said. But nearly all of them have basketball teams, and having wrestling and basketball at the same time would severely reduce the sports options for students at smaller schools. Having wrestling in the fall and basketball in the winter is the perfect setup for most Alaska schools, he said, since it means students can participate in both sports.
"The big problems or needs for 4A schools, the very large schools, are very different from our smaller schools," Matthews said.
The large schools and small schools used to have different wrestling schedules. Walt Armstrong, the Division 6 representative on the ASAA Board of Directors and the activities director at North Pole High School, said he thinks there would be support from the other members of the board of directors to go back to such a system.
Vern Dulany, a longtime wrestling coach at Eielson High School, a small school with a football team, said he would rather have his young wrestlers compete in the winter even if it meant they had to compete against larger schools rather than those in their own division.
"I'd rather have wrestled and lost than not wrestled at all," he said.
As of Wednesday
Compiled by AKmat.org
Class 4A
Team -- 1) Colony; 2) Lathrop; 3) Chugiak; 4) East; 5) North Pole.
103 -- 1) Charles Coisman, Colony; 2) Mathew Malnoski, East; 3) Skyler Moore, East; 4) Eric Tupper, Lathrop; 5) Bryce Wilson, Skyview.
112 -- 1) Anthony Ricketts, Service; 2) Jeremy Simmons, Lathrop; 3) Kuani Tilman, West Valley; 4) Michael Abt, Sitka; 5) Steven Temple, Lathrop.
119 -- 1) Nathan Hofer, East; 2) Kyle Wilson, Colony; 3) Michaela Hutchison, Skyview; 4) Kyle Foote, Ketchikan; 5) Mike Chafin, Wasilla.
125 -- 1) Dustin Maxwell, East; 2) Luke Shelley, South; 3) Zach Beauchamp, Colony; 4) Sam Loggins, Colony; 5) Dan Simmons, Lathrop.
130 -- 1) Jimmy Eggemeyer, Kodiak; 2) Aaron Boss, Colony; 3) Lipho Thirakul, East; 4) Doug Templeton, West Valley; 5) Steven Kichura, Chugiak.
135 -- 1) Grant Sullivan, Chugiak; 2) Wes Mills, Soldotna; 3) Derek Templeton, West Valley; 4) Tom Applehanz, Homer; 5) Noah Fields, Kodiak.
140 -- 1) Josh West, Colony; 2) Eric Antesberger, North Pole; 3) Trent Lemmons, Lathrop; 4) Jake Minturn, Palmer; 5) Danny Huls, Bartlett.
145 -- 1) Quincy Voris, Chugiak; 2) Levi Jutiila, North Pole; 3) Nick Staller, Palmer; 4) Levi Kruger, Colony; 5) Jon O'Hara, Chugiak.
152 -- 1) Steven Dyer, Juneau; 2) John-Paul Croffut, Dimond; 3) Blake Brown, South; 4) Carson Roberts, West; 5) Trys Brymer, Homer.
160 -- 1) Nolan McBryde, Chugiak; 2) Nick Herron-Webb, East; 3) Marlon Branson, Kodiak; 4) Zach Baldwin, Chugiak; 5) Casey Katchinska, Wasilla.
171 -- 1) Jessy Amos, South; 2) Jimmy Caswell, Kodiak; 3) Taylor Lewis, North Pole; 4) Tyler Milner, Colony; 5) Joe Potter, Dimond.
189 -- 1) Ken Osborn, Lathrop; 2) Eddie Buffington, Skyview; 3) Chris Crane, Wasilla; 4) Chaz Johnson, Chugiak; 5) Curtis Ferris, Dimond.
215 -- 1) Andrew Wilson, East; 2) Matthew Strieby, Soldotna; 3) Jackson Collins, North Pole; 4) Trevor McDonald, West; 5) Justin Crowley, Houston.
HWT -- 1) Nathan Strieby, Soldotna; 2) Les Baker, Soldotna; 3) Alex Lutton, Dimond; 4) Peter Amau, Lathrop; 5) Terrel Burke, Bartlett.
Class 1-2-3A
Team -- 1) Dillingham; 2) Kotzebue; 3) Petersburg; 4) Bethel; 5) ACS.
103 -- 1) Randy Hanson, Bethel; 2) Luke Charters, ACS; 3) Matt Parker, Nikiski; 4) Jesse Rogers, Mt. Edgecumbe; 5) Matt Rae, Kotzebue.
112 -- 1) Billy Peterson, New Stuyahok; 2) Matthew Johnson, Dillingham; 3) Chris Frazier, Eielson; 4) Ryan Baxter, Craig; 5) Matthew Rogers, Mt. Edgecumbe.
119 -- 1) Kevin Hansen, Kotzebue; 2) Joe Hunt, Dillingham; 3) Kyle Mundy, Cordova; 4) John Hanson, New Stuyahok; 5) Bryce Phillips, Petersburg.
125 -- 1) Jordan Neace, ACS; 2) Harold Lie, Kotzebue; 3) Cody Miller, Dillingham; 4) Matt Baker, ACS; 5) Terry Rogers, Mt. Edgecumbe.
130 -- 1) Josh Baker, ACS; 2) Bret Lopez, Petersburg; 3) Pat Laurion, ACs; 4) Reed Tennyson, Dillingham; 5) Kirk Howarth, Kotzebue.
135 -- 1) Wes Richards, Dillingham; 2) Josh Merioles, Valdez; 3) Alberto Cabrera, Nome; 4) Tim Erickson, Petersburg; 5) Sigmund Patterson, Barrow.
140 -- 1) Mike Miller, ACS; 2) Tim Field, Noorvik; 3) Joe Hirt, Barrow; 4) John Mendenhall, Kotzebue; 5) Cody Merrifield, Dillingham.
145 -- 1) Stephen Bolen, Kotzebue; 2) JJ Larson, Dillingham; 3) Peter Walls, Grace; 4) Jonathan McIntyre, Bethel; 5) Peter Andrew, New Stuyahok.
152 -- 1) Marvin McDonald, Bethel; 2) Douglas Larsgaard, Dillingham; 3) Dylan Beck, Seward; 4) Bobby Egen, Petersburg; 5) Jared Miller, Kotzebue.
160 -- 1) Austin Vanderford, Ninilchik; 2) Kyle Chavez, Bethel; 3) Chris Stockton, Klawock; 4) Jesse Beedle, Cordova; 5) Kaddy Egen, Petersburg.
171 -- 1) Jeff Davidson, Wrangell; 2) John Herman, Bethel; 3) Aaron Phillips, Kotzebue; 4) Trygve Angasan, Bristol Bay; 5) Josh Vance, Nikiski.
189 -- 1) Nolan Ivanoff, Galena; 2) Nicholas Wasierski, Bethel; 3) Claude Young, Mt. Edgecumbe; 4) Patrick Quigley, Craig; 5) Chase Kaus, Tok.
215 -- 1) Brandon O'Brikis, Seward; 2) Michael Gonzalez, Barrow; 3) Michael Berkley, Metlakatla; 4) Patrick Quigley, Craig; 5) Chase Kaus, Tok.
HWT -- 1) Nate Hughes, Valdez; 2) Kevin Whitley, ACS; 3) Billy Craig, Petersburg; 4) Kaden Thomas, Bethel; 5) Derek Weiler, Nome.
