New Wrestling Web Page at UtahWrestling.org,
the Official Web Site for Utah Wrestling Coaches Association —
The Voice of Utah Wrestling

(Oct. 13, 2004) — The official Web address of the Utah Wresting Coaches Association, UtahWrestling.org, edited and maintained by Bill Kilpack. 

Kilpack said, "Utah wrestling has a lot to offer. We have quality athletes who are every bit as qualified and worthy of college scholarships as any other state in the nation. In a recent issue of Wrestling USA Magazine, eight Utah seniors were ranked nationally. That's down from the 13 in the preseason rankings from 2003.  This tells me that the magazine did not know enough about our Utah athletes. This sells short the work that coaches in Utah put into the sport, as well as the work of the athletes themselves. It also does Utah wrestlers no favors when it comes to college scholarships. It is my goal to help alleviate these problems."

Local Media

One solution to this problem is through promoting Utah wrestling in the local media. Newspaper clippings can be helpful in scholarship applications. Newspaper Web sites provide a venue for college coaches to research potential recruits for their teams. It's also just a good boost to your athlete to see his name in the paper, and can help improve your parental support by parents seeing their son's name in the newspaper.  It also helps reinforce your own position as a coach by helping promote the good job you are doing, reinforcing the image of your high school in your community.

Wrestling USA Magazine and American Adrenaline Magazine

The second solution to this problem is through promoting Utah wrestling through Wrestling USA Magazine and its Web site, and American Adrenaline Magazine and its Web site. Kilpack is the Utah Editor for these magazines and will use these positions to help the national editors recognize more quality athletes in Utah, as well as getting more information about Utah athletes in the magazines and on the Web sites.

The Challenge

It is physically impossible for Kilpack to attend every wrestling tournament and every dual meet. It's not even desirable. He is in no way making commitments to attend tournaments or dual meets.  He will attend some, he won't attend others.  Some parts of the state may never see him.  But that does not mean that he cannot provide the two solutions described above. To do it, all he needs is one thing: information.  The first step in doing this is filling out and submitting the information forms posted on this site.  Gathering information has become more of a challenge than initially anticipated.  Almost every piece of information on this Web site was gathered by Kilpack, with the help of very few coaches around Utah.  Only four coaches in all of Utah submitted information regarding their teams; of those four, one submitted it regularly.  Some information was provided by parents and other wrestling enthusiasts, but not nearly enough.  

The Coach Connection

If every Utah coach, parent, athlete and/or team manager tells Kilpack how your athletes perform, then he can compile it, quantify it and distribute it. Using this information, he will put together a state ranking system designed to limit the impact of his own subjectivity. This information will be distributed among coaches in Utah, others in the wrestling community, the local media, and the national wrestling media. As noted previously, the beginnings of this information will be compiled through the information on the forms on this Web site. It will continue to grow through Web pages where wrestling enthusiasts can enter the results of dual meets, of tournaments, of changes in team rosters, of opinions about athletes who are deserving of attention.

Nov. 9, 2003 Message