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BENEFICIAL: Tweaking tournament may help the smaller schools

Changes in store for SCT
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 02/4/06

The best wrestling showcase in the state will be held this afternoon at Southern Regional High School when the semifinals and finals of the Shore Conference Tournament are held. It will be marvelous event with a packed house and the four best teams in the area going at it. Heck, at one time or another Jackson, Howell, Southern and Ocean have been ranked nationally this year and all have been in the state top-10 poll at some point.

Sounds perfect.

But is it?

Perhaps after crowning 30 SCT champs, it is time for a change.

The current event calls for a seeding committee to come up with 16 teams for the annual event. Teams which have won a division title are ensured a spot in the 16.

But 16 teams appear to be too many.

When the last four seeds go against the top four seeds on opening nights, the results are overwhelming. A team such as Keansburg, that came in with a glorious 12-1 record, and the B Cetral championship, had
no chance against Howell. They wrestle at a different level. Howell and the top teams usually have a far deeper roster, more coaches and kids with more experience from recreation and middle school programs.

How different is the wrestling?

In 29 previous SCT events, only four traditional Class B schools have made it to the finals, Pinelands twice (1990, 1993), Lacey (1999), Central (1996) and Point Boro (1978). None has ever won the title.

"This tournament is all about those top five or six teams," said Dave Kirk, Point Pleasant Boro High School, a strong team among schools its own size. But it faced an uphill battle against the wrestling elite from its No. 10 seed. It wrestled Central in the first round at Howell, the No. 2 seed.

Kirk voiced an opinion brought forth by other coaches on the seeding committee, including Rob Nucci of Raritan, that perhaps the SCT should be two separate tournaments, based on size.

The seeding committee uses the weight of a team's schedule to determine placing. That's how Toms River East, with a 6-8 record, was seeded sixth in this year's tournament, and Toms River North (6-9) was seeded 13th despite having been shut out by Southern during the regular season.

But the outcomes mean smaller schools have hardly any chance at all of winning the tournament.

So what should they do?

How about two tournaments, one for the Class A schools and another for the Class B schools.

Each tournament would have eight teams seeded. They would wrestle the quarterfinals and semifinals on one night and the championships for both the A and B tournament on the same day.

"I think it's a good point. It's awful tough for a small school to beat the big schools," said John Stout, the Southern coach who has brought his team to wrestle perhaps the toughest schedule in the state.
"Kittatinny, Delaware Valley and Paulsboro are small schools that compete against the great teams every year. But that's three out of a huge pool."

John Gagliano of Howell understands the problem.

"Being from a smaller school, I think it would be an advantage for something like that (two tournaments)," Gagliano said. "Having schools of similar size would give more kids something to wrestle for. I think that helps promote the sport."

Of course using that format would have knocked Toms River North and Middletown North from this year's event.

"That's a problem," Stout said. "A team like (TR) North would beat almost all those Class B schools, but they don't get in.

"Honestly, if I was coaching at a small school, I think I'd still like the chance to beat a big one," Stout said.

That would mean, however, that two more Class B schools would be part of the tournament. That could have been Colts Neck, Monmouth, Point Beach or Shore.

Scott Goodale of Jackson thinks breaking the tournament in half is a great idea.

But he sees a different way to go about it.

"I think teams 1-8 should have one tournament, and the bottom 16 should have the other. It would give two teams a chance at a championship. They could wrestle the finals side-by-side."

But keeping the 16 seeds is important, he said.

"There's a lot of pride in making the 16," Goodale said. "And you won't have teams being punished for their schedule being tough."

Goodale, however, said some good comes out of those first round mismatches.

"You occasionally get a great individual matchup," Goodale said. "That can have some impact on seeding or it can get your whole team excited when one of our kids meets a top kid."

But there is no hiding the impact.

In the first round, Southern beat Middletown North, 58-9; Jackson beat Manchester, 62-6; Howell beat Keansburg, 60-9 and Ocean beat TR North, 56-13. That's not a tournament. That is Slaughterhouse Four.