white_chocolate
Active member
You can say wrestling is an individual sport, and all have an equal opportunity to compete for a state title if in one combined division, however in reality that statement is far from the truth. I have been a head coach in all 3 divisions in Ohio. The access to depth for your program (number of bodies in your school) is so different from the large D1 schools to the smaller D2 and small D3 schools. This usually means different team budgets, differences in number of coaches you can hire, different in quality of practice partners, facilities, number of available kids to try and recruit to join your youth club, etc, etc. Yes, you can list a ton of D2 and D3 kids that could have won D1 state titles, or that did well in college all the same. But as far as running a typical D1 program vs a typical D2 program vs a typical D3 program, you are kidding yourself if you think things are on equal footing overall to be able to take the same kid and place them in all 3 average situations and expect that kid to develop the same at all 3 places when looking at the norm. Even in other sports that have an individual component, Ohio has more than 1 division - swimming, cross-country, and track to name a few. Call it watered down if you want, but it gives kids and teams of various sizes the opportunity to have a chance to have a competitive career and even team success with other programs on somewhat equal footing.
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