D5 semifinal results

[4him]

Louie, I agree that we need more schools and Somerset and Claysburg should be the first two. I have heard the excuse that they would have to be D5 for all sports and D5 would block that because they don't want those schools for such things as football. However, Windber competes in D6 for boys soccer and D5 for everything else so that obviously isn't true. I think there are some "high ups" in D5 wrestling that don't want to see these teams challenging for a D5 wrestling title.

Of course, these teams would have to petition to be accepted into the district, but I believe Somerset has done so and been denied. Perhaps they only want in if it is for all sports and have not petitioned for just wrestling.

[Head Roadie]

TIMEOUT....Hold on before everyone gets confused about how this works.

For a team to leave a district and join another district the following must happen:

1. The district they currently compete in must release them. The two most common reasons are because they geographically are located in another district or they compete in most of their games and their league is in another district and throughout most of the state a district will release schools to move on elsewhere if they meet one of those two criteria.

2. Second step is the district they want to come into must accept them AFTER they have been released.

Most recent example of a school coming into District 5 was about 20 years ago when District 3 released Fannett-Metal and then they were accepted into D5 because they play in the all D5 Sideling Hill League. Since then Claysburg (Geography--they are partially in Bedford Co.) and Ferndale (League affiliation-Westpac is predominantly D5) asked District 6 to release them and were turned down. There were rumors that if they had been successful Blacklick Valley and Portage may have followed. District 6 also has turned down Lewistown and Indian Valley who wanted to go to District 4. The last school they released was Indiana to the WPIAL back in the 80's. District 6 is not releasing ANYONE. It's not a matter of District 5 accepting schools because I feel certain they would but District 6 has begun a trend of holding their schools. To my knowledge Somerset has not even asked to be released, probably a wise decision because they may be right back up in the higher classifications after this two year enrollment cycle ends.

The only reason Windber competed in 6-AA soccer (as did CR and Bedford) is because it is a statewide rule that you must have 4 teams to have your own District playoff. There were only 3 in 5-AA soccer so they are subregionalized to D6 just like Bedford and CR are in football.

I can assure you District 5 is not the holdup on any schools coming in.

On another note, and back to JuniataLax's post.....Just for fun I compared points scored at districts with male enrollments of the schools (I know...I have too much time on my hands). Two schools scored as many points (or slightly more) than there current male enrollment, Hyndman and Northern Bedford.

[4him]

I now recall you explaining that all before, HR, about the moving of districts. I tried to remember as best as I could, but obviously not being as involved in such things as you, it doesn't stick with me all that well.

I thought that may have been the case with Windber soccer but when I checked the enrollment, I noticed they were below Everett and North Star. I just recalled, however, that they have a co-op with Shade for soccer, thus pushing their enrollment to 250+.

[Coach]

I actually don't think Bedford is as big as one may think. I'm not going to look up the numbers, but NS and CR are both pretty big. NB also has a big class right now as evidenced by the fact that they are AA in hoops. Now that doesn't happen often and they'll go back to A, but it shows that right now their class is larger than normal.

I think it boils down more to tradition and what parents did when they were in school. This has a huge influence on kids.

Most schools aren't great in both BBall and wrestling. NS is great at everything this year so they are the exception.

CT and TM have two of the better basketball teams in the area. At TM, tradition is basketball as well. Look at the last 8 years and count their district champion wrestlers. This isn't a one time deal. Hoops rules there. Look at Bedford hoops. They haven't been really all that great for a while either.

Enrollment isn't everything. NB beat Hollidaysburg and Bedford smashes teams like Altoona. Hyndman a few years ago could have probably beat or stayed right with Hollidaysburg. It comes down to what the kids in the school are interested in. Most are interested because of tradition, parents, or what is the top dog at the school type of thing.

Bedford was dominating last night. Ripple, Brett, and Cook pulled off upsets (in a lot of people's eyes). Hats off to them for being so dominating. They went through a mini dry-spell (in terms of Bedford's expectations). Their dry spell would have been greatness for other schools.

I feel like I rambled off about a lot of points in a lot of diff directions, haha. I just wanted to add my .02 in the matter...because this is an interesting topic.

[Lefteyelouie]

good post coach.

Ripple was a huge upset. Cook has beaten Lascari a couple of times I think and Brett healthy is a state caliber kid.

[NS grad]

Conrats to Bedford. They're performance last night was definitley impressive. I'd look for them to make a serious run at a state title next year with 13 of 14 wrestlers returning. How can anyone knock their accomplishments? Let them enjoy their success. It was, after all, their first district tournament team title since 1998. People should be proud teams like Bedford this year and North Star in years past getting D5 some respect on the state level.

Taking nothing away from Bedford's performance (with this team they probably would have won in any year), but this year's D5 tournament was the weakest I've evey seen. After the top four teams (Bed, CR, NS, NBC), the competition takes a STEEP decline. It was actually sad to watch, once proud programs like CT and Berlin, struggle so badly. Except for a few individuals, Pfahler in particular, D5 is going to get embarrased at regionals, way more than in previous years.

Hope that someday D5 will get some new teams added like Somerset or Claysburg to make the tourney stronger, but I don't see District 6 letting them leave anytime in the near future.

[Dep]

I do agree, it was a weak tournament. With Bedford, NBC, CR and NS the only really competitive teams. What has happened to CT? They were awesome for years and years and now they have become a non-factor. I enjoyed the Koba lead group that always challenged for the title and it makes everyone better. Berlin is small, but had outstanding teams too. It is a shame that many of these teams cannot challenge for the title. I would prefer a tight team race with 6 or 8 teams in the hunt.

[southpaw]

Bedford had a great day and tourney. They stepped up, sucked it up and got the job done. Really impressed with Ripple's preformance.

Now to the lack of parody currently in D5 wrestling. Some schools are small especially Hyndman. Berlin coops with Rockwood and maybe Shanksville. Shade coops with Windber so their enrollments are comparable with Ridge and Bedford.

I think that the piaa and nfhs should consider reducing the number or weight classes. 20 years ago there were only 12 weight classes and now we have 14. If things went back to 12 the smaller schools could be more competitive in duals as they have a better shot at fielding a full team. 14 weights is too many IMO. NCAA only has 10 weight classes.