NEW FORMAT EXPANDS FIELD OF WRESTLERS
Friday, December 29th, 2006NEW FORMAT EXPANDS FIELD OF WRESTLERS!
The new format of expanding from to two to four teams and from 28 wrestlers to 56 will have a huge impact of giving more wrestlers from more schools a chance to be recognized as All-Stars.
“We felt that there were certainly at least 56 wrestlers deserving of recognition,” remarks the 2007 Utah All-Star Classic Committee Chairman Dr. John Webb. “It was felt that our new format would reach out to segments of the Utah wrestling community that the past all-star format couldn’t reach.”
If one views the list of All-Stars wrestling this year, that case made by Dr. Webb has strong merit.
In the previous five All-Star duals, only one 1-A wrestler has competed, Bryant Anderson from Wayne HS who wrestled and lost a tough one-point decision to Box Elder star Jeff Newby. This was in the second All-Star dual and since then not one single 1-A wrestler has been invited back. It’s not that there weren’t good 1-A wrestlers, it was that with the two team format it proved difficult for the 1-A wrestlers to break through against other 2-A and 3-A wrestling stars. 3-A has been considered by most wrestling experts as the toughest classification in the last five or six years and this just compounded the difficulty of 1-A wrestlers being selected.
This year there will be five 1-A wrestlers and all are very deserving. Jeff Stephenson of Wayne HS, Aaron Butler of Monticello HS, John Herrera of Rich HS and a pair of Altamont wrestlers in Colton Miles and Bryce Fisher will be apart of the 1-A/2-A team.
But having more 1-A wrestlers in the All-Star field hasn’t been the only other expansion.
Salt Lake’s Region 6 has seen their first selections ever, and like the 1-A, they broke through with several wrestlers. Taylor Tate will be the first ever Highland wrestler in the event, Marcus Mayeda of West HS will strap it on as the school’s first ever entry while Cyprus stud Matt Brown and Murray’s Dillon Shail will make their school’s debut as All-Stars. Bountiful, a former member of this Region (now Region 5), will have only their second All-Star ever as Cam Young joins his namesake Cam George in the All-Star wrestling fraternity.
Going through the entire list of all-stars (which can be seen at HYPERLINK “http://www.rockymountainwrestling.com” www.rockymountainwrestling.com and HYPERLINK “http://www.utahwrestling.com” www.utahwrestling.com) shows that several other schools are also making their debut appearance in the All-Star classic. Jason Busenbark (Union HS), Casey Pettus (Hurricane HS), and James Geloff (Manti) will be the first All-Star selections for these schools. Snow Canyon will have its first wrestler ever in Marty Rubacalba as will South Sevier in Cody Willis. Layton will have two All-Stars this year in Chris Moat in Adam Fager as will Bingham with brothers Kade and Mitch Moss, and 5-A’s Copper Hills will make its all-star debut with David Williams.
So as one can see, the expanded format has brought a new array of wrestlers and schools which was an important goal for the All-Star Classic Committee.
The All-Star Classic or dual created in 2001 has been successful in general but there was some concern that interest has leveled off.
“We didn’t see an increase in crowd size in the 2006 event from the 2005 event,” noted current Utah Amateur Wrestling Foundation (UAWF) President Cole Kelley. “In fact, the crowd size decreased last year from the years previous. It was time for a change in not only how the All-Star teams were selected but on how the event was presented. We want to keep the great things the event’s organizers started in 2001 but change things up a little bit as well,” said Kelley.
The main change in presentation is that there will be 28 bouts, but these bouts will done on three mats. “This will streamline the event greatly,” says Kelley, “and it will make it very exciting for the fans. Even in matches of elite wrestlers, sometimes the action may be lacking as far as the casual fan is concerned. So if the action in one match is lacking there will be two other matches the crowd can watch and get into,” states Kelley.
The committee wants the casual fan to note that there isn’t going to be 28 matches on just one mat with event taking several hours. “Once the wrestlers are introduced at 7:00 PM, we want the event to be over by 9:00 PM. We are simply taking 28 matches and putting them on three mats. Since we expect the matches to be competitive, fans should not expect the event to last much longer than a typical dual meet, but it will be very special for the contestants and fans,” notes Webb.