Change the format, please.
I’m talking about wrestling in Northern Nevada in which it’s not even worth turning the lights on in the gym for dual meets.
Many duals are littered with forfeits. Carson has been the beneficiary of six walkovers in each of its last two matches against Wooster and Galena, respectively.
When Carson visited Wooster there were less than 40 fans in the stands, and I would guess the attendance to be maybe 100 for the home match against Galena this past Wednesday.
Disappointing.
Wrestling coaches do a lot of complaining and a lot of talking, but nobody’s stepping up to the plate and doing anything about it.
One of my biggest gripes is Sierra teams don’t wrestle their High Desert counterparts in duals.
Big mistake, and it wouldn’t take much to fix it.
All it would take is one or two Saturdays in addition to the weekly duals to accomplish it.
Nick Redwine, Carson High assistant wrestling coach, said he would like to wrestle all the Division I schools.
“I’m old school,” Redwine said. “I’d like to see us go back to where everybody wrestles everybody else. I’d like to see us just have one league. I like duals. At some of the big tournaments, it’s a lot of sitting around.”
“It could be pretty cool to do that (wrestle everybody),” said senior Kevin Rusler. “It would be more competition, and it would help everybody get ready for regionals. It would be a lot better.”
Carson coach Justin Shine said he would be in favor of having two or three four-way meets on the weekends, and not wrestle on Wednesdays.
There are plenty of different ways to approach it.
The Sierra side is the weaker of the two large-school leagues. It’s basically Damonte and Carson every year. On the High Desert side, you have Spanish Springs, Reno, Reed and McQueen.
And the state meet? Don’t even get me started. If California can hold a “true” state tournament in which wrestler from all divisions are in one meet, Nevada should be able to do it.
The problem is the Las Vegas schools don’t want to see any of their wrestlers lose to lower-ranked wrestlers. Wrestling is an individual sport, and a kid from White Pine can be better than a kid from Carson.
Come on coaches throughout the state, let’s go back to one state meet. Coaches should be embracing the challenge of wanting to see the best wrestlers out there at a prestigious tournament.
•••
Congratulations to Cassie Vondrak, former Carson High and Western Nevada College softball player.
Vondrak was recently named an assistant softball coach at Columbia University. She had served as an assistant coach at NYU since August of 2014.
“We are extremely excited to have Cassie on board with us this season,” Columbia head coach Jennifer Teague said earlier this week in a press release. “Cassie will be working primarily with our pitchers and will bring another dynamic to our pitching staff.
“She has an incredible college playing background and has competed against, and beaten, some of the best programs in the country. We are looking forward to seeing that competitive experience added to our pitching staff and our team this year.”
Vondrak pitched at Long Island University-Brooklyn. She helped the team to the 2012 Northeast Conference championship game, earning tournament MVP honors.