By Brian Jerzak
Two years ago I had a few conversations with The Guillotine brass about doing this story. I am not ashamed to admit it, but I chickened out. Even as I am writing this I don’t know if I am going to let this get into print. When I was trying to come up with an angle, I realized that part of the reason I was interested in doing the story this time around was I didn’t know much about it. I wanted to know what I didn’t know. I would guess a number of high school sports fans are in the same boat. They hear rumors and think they know, but like me, probably don’t.
My intentions are not to single out any one program, coach, athlete, or as I found out – athletic director. My intentions are to show both perspectives and let the reader decide. I did go into the story with a personal bias, but by the time I got done interviewing a number of people not only in wrestling, but other sports, as well as the media, I got frustrated because I realized I could see both sides of the debate. I was hoping for an issue that was black and white, but in the world of high school transfers there is a whole lot of gray.
One quick disclaimer - while doing research I talked to five current wrestling coaches, two retired wrestling coaches, a boy’s basketball coach, a girl’s basketball coach and a member of the media who covers high school sports mainly in the metro area. Some of the coaches were fine with me using their names for this story and some asked to remain anonymous. Because of the sensitive nature of the story I decided to leave almost everyone anonymous. I also tried to contact the Minnesota State High School League multiple times and did not receive a response.