I decided to go outside the box this week with a logistical look-in for the final few days of the IHSAA boys wrestling season. Rather than a strict breakdown of what Wawasee is doing, I (Mike Deak), decided to address a few things before getting into Kaleb Salazar’s and Donnie Blair’s chances this weekend. These items were coming up quite a bit, both by our camps and several of those around us whilst competing at the Fort Wayne Semi-state.

We’ll go ahead and start by beating the dead horse with the short term problems the IHSAA created this year. Let’s get this one out of the way…

Evansville. State Finals. Bad idea.

To get to the southern-most part of the Hoosier state, mind you where IHSAA commissioner Paul Neidig spent a majority of his professional career teaching and administrating, one can look at some numbers. Per Google Maps, it’s 321 miles from Wawasee High School to the Ford Center in Evansville, where the 2024 IHSAA Wresting State Finals will be held this Friday and Saturday. It’s listed as a 5-hour, 18-minute trip if all goes well and no one needs to stop and use the bathroom or reroute to find a Chick Fil-A along the way. And there’s a few Chick Fil-A’s along the route, depending on how you go. For wrestlers at Crown Point, Penn, Mishawaka and Northridge, it’s even further.

Larger metropolitan cities closer to Wawasee (or northern Indiana for that matter) than Evansville include Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky; Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio; Detroit, Flint, Lansing, and Traverse City, Michigan; Milwaukee, Madison and the Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin; and Davenport, Iowa, just to name a few. Looking at the bracket for Donnie, 10 of the 16 per the eye test in relative geography have to travel more than four hours, eight in Salazar’s bracket. Think about some of those logistics for a second: you can get to Canada, the upper peninsula of Michigan, the Mississippi River or watch an SEC basketball game sitting next to Ashley Judd before you get to Evansville.

Just to editorialize, the State Finals are in Evansville for one year, a stop-over deal by Neidig getting help from some old friends because the usual host, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, is hosting the NBA All-Star Game this weekend. Fair enough. And for those suggesting other professional venues, Hinkle Fieldhouse is hosting Butler men’s basketball on Saturday, the Pepsi Coliseum is hosting the Indianapolis Boat, Sport and Travel Show, and Carmel is still on the IHSAA’s short list, read into that what you will. No word on why Ball State and Worthen Arena – home of the IHSAA volleyball and gymnastics state finals – didn’t offer, they don’t have a booking this weekend, but Mackey Arena at Purdue does, and so does Assembly Hall at Indiana University.

The other chatter was about whether a high school could host the state finals, especially because it’s a one-year deal. Neidig addressed that last year when the IHSAA announced it’s intentions with Evansville, it noted over 10,000 fans come to Gainbridge to watch the two-day event, which puts a lot of strain on high schools to not only provide ample seating, but parking, staff help, media attention, etc.

Fair points.

Now, it was also brought up that Indiana has nine of the largest gymnasiums in the country, including New Castle in the middle of the state, as well as Seymour, Southport and Marion with plenty of room to foster a cozy, raucous environment like an Al Smith tournament or a Fight Club sequel. Neidig again pointed to wanting a professional venue to host, even though New Castle has more than enough seating and is within an hour from the center of the state.

So that’s where we are, committing up to four days for a two-day tournament unless you have a tour bus driver who is willing to travel at night. The state is breaking it up differently this year, as well, with the heavier weights going first (150-285) starting at 3 p.m. Wawasee time (Evansville is an hour behind in Central Standard Time) followed by the lighter weights (106-144). That puts Blair and Salazar somewhat close in start times, but you’re still looking at somewhere in the vicinity of 5-6 p.m. before the first round is done if the semi-state at Fort Wayne was any indication. If either of the two get to where they want to go, finals start at 8:30 p.m. Wawasee time on Saturday. Aint anyone coming home after that. That’s four days of commitment unless you redeye it Friday morning and leave at the crack of dawn, then redeye it home. That also puts you at a multi-day stay for hotels, meals, multiple tanks of gas, their $35 T-shirts ($40 for a long sleeve), and whatever else presents itself. That’s a lot of commitment for adults who are on the come-down from Valentine’s Day on Wednesday, just saying.

Do we do this for travel sports? Were we willingly committed to travel to Indianapolis to see the finals most years? Yes. Did we sign up to add six additional hours of travel and twice the financial and physical time commitment? I can speak for a few when I say, no.

So with the IHSAA horse now fully convulsing from the verbal beatdown, take into consideration a few quiet, good things about going to Evansville.

1. It’s still a State Finals appearance. It’s why these kids have been in the room every day, watching what they eat, sacrificing their Saturdays for day-long tournaments, building those lifelong bonds, all the proverbial stuff.

2. It’s far from distractions. Think a lot of these dude’s girlfriends are going to drive all that way? Not nearly as many as would to Indy, where there’s a bunch of structural distractions and other stuff to do. With the long trip could be some hidden focus.

3. Time to think. How many of our own coaches refer to our wrestlers needing to focus on their match one step at a time? One opponent at a time? One move at a time? Five to six hours in a bus gives Salazar and Blair a lot of time to think about Nathan Rioux and Kaden McConnell.

Neidig promised the state finals will be back in Indianapolis next year, and realizes this is a royal pain for one weekend. Albeit a very important weekend in 224 wrestler’s lives. If anything, IHSAA TV will have a broadcast and Track Wrestling has a couple options to follow along. Buying the broadcasts are literally cheaper than an official T-shirt. I paid $15 for boneless wings and a popcorn at the Coliseum last weekend, it’s $15 to watch the IHSAA broadcast.

And you know coach Salazar and his staff will be updating as things happen.

Short term pain, but hopefully for two of our senior leaders, long term gains.