District 1 Tournament- Olathe Facilities/Staff

I was disappointed in the size of the factility at Olathe for this years District 1 Tournament.
Dangerous numbers of people in the building.

I was disappointed in the safety zones around the mats, in the way the mats were seperated.


My son wrestled on a mat that had a inch and half difference in height to the next mat. This was the out of bounds line. I thought this was dangerous for ankles when the mats were of that different height.

I was disappointed in the weigh ins. Excluding everyone but wrestlers, means the kids lose clothes, have to come back if they are young and need their nails trimmed. Wrestlers also reported to me limited scales, which really slowed down the process, and use of bathroom scales to weigh. Don't know I couldn't see the scales. I am concerned everytime something is done excluding the adults that work with these kids all year.

I didn't witness, but heard concerns from others about the way spectators were treated by staff.

These were my disappointments, typed in the most polite manner that I can force myself to use. I don't know what everyone else thought. Please post your ideas for Distict 1 wrestling next year.

I was there, and one of the guys at the weigh-in door, which was part of the staff, had yelled at my coach to go change our singlets in the bathroom and approached him in a very angry motion. i was dissapointed that it took over 40 minutes to even get to the doors to weigh in, and then had gotten told to go to the back of the line to change into my singlet when there was a whole gym full of empty bleachers.

I personally think for next year, to not have it in olathe, where it was, but at a more organized and put-together place.

this is my opinion anyway

I agree with everything that you said. Plus, the fact that it was so hot in there, that it made the day even that more miserable. I never ran across the rude staff, because I stayed up in the stands.
I don't know of any other facility in our Dist. that would be big enough without having to use two different rooms or buildings which always makes things alittle more difficult, except for Pittsburg. But, then again, they might not have enough room for the seating, I'm not sure.

Oh, and about the bathroom scales, I seen them go in and I was told by some people also, that they were using them.

yeah it was hot in there also, im sick right now, and dont know what caused it.

the building that it was in probably would've been big enough if they had done a split format.

I heard that Johnson County College might have a big facility. I haven't seen it, so I'm not for certain, I was just told that.

Unknown wrestler, don't critize all of Olathe because of this. We actually had a tournament with 500 kids and it started on time and was finished by 2:00 and had plenty of space.
I heard this was not the first choice and was the back up facility.
I do agree that the staff was horrible for the most part. I had a Barney Fife want to be-I think he was Campus Security in my face about moving out of the door way. I told him to find me a seat and I would. He said there was plenty of seating....yeah right.

I also agree with the abouve posts. There were also people allowed at matside that should not have been. I think it is probably a great place for a smaller tounament but not this type of tournament.

agreed

I agree with all of the above. In addition, not letting parents and grandparents in the building. I understand we were over capacity. If this wasn't the building that was promised at the district meeting, what happened?

And, 6u State had larger mats than 10 and under had in Olathe.

I think it was great to see so much support for kids wrestling. First time I have ever seen a sold out venue for a kids event. I bet thats the biggest crowd that basketball gym has ever had.

Great point Deeohh! A nice problem to have!!

I thought the facility was terriable. This is a exciting time for parents and wrestlers and when you cant even get in the door to see your kid wrestle I think that is terriable. Also the staff was not nice at all, I seen them throwing people out just because they were standing along the rail trying to watch their kid wrestle. Come on people> I hope when you vote for next years District tournament facility its not there.

Hold the event in the mens room and you will be "sold out" every year. Bottomline, these type of situations cause problems for all involved and each district should have the common sense to make sure they don't happen. This is when our sport REALLY becomes dangerous. When you pack people into tight surroundings, tempers flare, as this thread will attest to.
We had simular, although not as bad circumstances in D-2. For whatever reason our coaches/club directors continually vote for coaches hospitality rooms over increased mat size.

I have to agree with sportsfan02 a bit here. Seldom, can you hold a facility to blame.

Also kudos to Olathe South WC, from what I saw, they worked very hard at making their facility work!!

What about Washburn University? I know a few years ago they had Southern Plains and the Topeka Tornado tournament, which were both big tournaments with plenty of seating.

The problem in the past with Washburn is they couldn't commit to our schedule.

If we cant get nobody big to commit we definetly need a split format that was awful if the mats were bigger the outcomes on matches would of had a different outcome some wrestlers got robbed.

Ottawa always ran districts very well and ther is plenty of space with the two gyms

Split format discussion- I asked one the men organizing the district 1 tourney several weeks ago, he will remain nameless as I can't name names on this forum, about running subs and districts as a split format and was told it was too hard for on the director to plan. Split formats had no advantage over the regular format and less flexiblity for the director to run. He really dressed me down for asking. It appears that if District 1 wants a split format it will be only after a motion for a split format at the next meeting. This same gentlemen insinuated in the halls that those who were unhappy with how this tourney was running could easily be removed from this tourney and for next week. He appeared to like power too much for my taste.

I did fail to point out that the awards room at the District 1 Tourney was run very well. They had enough staff, something many tourneys don't have, did their jobs quickly and efficiently, were very patient with wrestlers and people that had questions when I was present.

The hospitality room was great. Good food and nice staff. Don't know whose little girl that was that helped behind the tables in the afternoon. I could tell manners and expectations for her behavior were valued very highly in her family.

We had wrestler who went out to his car to get something to eat after losing first match. He wasn't allowed back in the building and missed his second match. My guess is he wasn't the only one that had this experience.

Hey Jeff who ever your talking about dont,know what he's talking about if we had a survey, split format would be favored 100 to 1.

Wow! Somebody didn't communicate well on that one. Surely they would have let a wrestler back in to finish the tournament.

Okay this was my son's 2nd time to Districts and even though he didnt make it to State this time....I am still happy he got this far.
I do have questions about the District tourney. I am sorta a new one at this so bare with me. Can anyone tell me, do they always make the 1st place kid from Sub District wrestle a 4th place kid from Sub District? Make more since to have the 1st place from S go against the 1st place from N and so on.
I have to agree on maybe get a bigger site to have Districts. (Where was it last year, I forgot?) Or maybe split, older in morning and younger in evening. Just an idea! It was so stuffy in that gym, where was the ventalation? And to do with the police officer at the tourney....he was getting people (mostly kids) to move off the rails. And he allowed ones who were taping or taking pics of their kids stay until their match was done. The problem at the rails was people were standing at them , but after they sat down it was better. I have to admit there was one who got on the mic and yelled at everyone, which was quite rude and unnessary, in my opinion.

That is the way it is done at tournaments that have qualifying tournaments or a seeded tournament. The State tournament does it the same way. I believe the theory is that you want the top wrestlers to meet in the later rounds and ideally the top two in the championship match. Basically the objective of the tournament is to structure the brackets so the best wrestler will finish first in the tournament, the second best wrestler will finish second, and so forth. This would not happen if the two best wrestlers meet in the first round unless it is a round robin bracket.

You earn this higher seed advantage either thru the qualifying tournament (Subs) or thru past performance (which is how the wrestlers are seeded for Subs or tournaments like the Park City Classic). Just about all sports that have tournaments do this like tennis and NCAA basketball as examples. In these qualifying tournaments where the 1st place wrestler from one Sub faces the 4th place wrestler from the other Sub, I have seen the 4th placer wrestler win the match several times. It happens at State too.

Thanks for replying to my question. I am not into sports except soccer. So, this will help me out in the future with other sports too. Again thank you!

I hate to bash anyone who attempts to run something of this size. It is a massive undertaking at least. Anyone who has helped at such an event can attest to this. With that said I do have issues with this year. The facility was not up to size for either the floor space or the stands. I understand that the dimensions of floor space was not communicated well and resulted in overly cramped conditions. This was compounded by the parents that soon realized that there wasn’t anyone controlling the back hall entrance to the floor. Within an hour of this it was almost impossible as a coach to get to the mat to coach a kid. At one point it took 8 minutes to get from the brackets in the hall to mat 2. By mid-day steps had been put in place to correct the situation, but the damage was already done.
The process of weigh-ins was also a joke at best. Only two scales for a district event?
I must agree with Jeff about the hospitality room and the staff. The young lady you were speaking of that was helping could give some manner lessons to the adults running the doors.
The need for a larger facility is at the bottom of all the problems. We have a good problem that our sport has grown to the point that district 1 can now fill something the size of a stadium. Let’s not forget that we are here to support our sport that we dedicate so many hours to and the kids that participate in it.
With all of this in mind we as parents, coaches, and wrestlers need to voice not only opinions, but suggestions for a fix. Mine would be not to run split secessions but to find a larger facility. What about Jo County, Baker, or even Memorial Hall in KC?

Our family used to love split sessions at Kids tournaments. In fact my son always looked forward to the splits at District 1. He liked the shorter waits between matches and the shorter overall day. He really liked a faster paced day. He always did his best wrestling at split tournaments. More than once he would tell me on the way home from a split tournament that he really had fun and enjoyed that tournament because of it being a split tournament.

So my suggestion would be to reconsider the split session for District 1 and maybe schedule the second session to allow for at least a half hour to an hour break between sessions so referees, coaches and table workers can have lunch. It would also allow the morning session wrestlers and fans time to leave before the second session wrestlers and fans need to enter the facility.

I agree Vince. As a coach I'm going to be there all day anyway. The facility at Olathe would work well with a split tournament. I think getting table workers for both sessions can be a problem though. I remember some tables being short handed at Ottawa in the past. But that can always be a problem at any tournament. The cramped conditions made it difficult for coaches and wrestlers to get to the mat needed without crossing other mats in front of other coaches and table workers. It also made the referee's job of protecting the wrestlers tougher. But I believe those responsible for the running of the tournament worked very hard to make the tournament run the best it could. I doubt anyone felt more tension about the tournament the the people running it. The best way to ensure a better run tourament is to volunteer to help. The more help the less pressure there is on each individule and its a good way to see how much work the volunteers do. I dont know of any club director, coach or district volunteer who is trying to make things more difficult. I dont always remember that myself. Good luck to all at state.
Jon Murray
Parsons Wrestling Club

Mr. Nowak you must be the smartest person alive!!
I agree 100%. How can anyone not see the advantage of a split session tournament after
the debacle saturday.

Thank you. I have printed out your post and I have it displayed it in the house to remind everyone.

Jon, I agree with you on this. I know they all worked hard to bring us the tournament. I know a lot of hard work happens to bring a tournament of this size. I think the first time you have a District tournament at a new facility that you encounter some difficulties that are difficult to forsee until you actually have a tournament there. I was working a NCAA volunteer group signup table upstairs in the lobby. I appreciated very much the opportunity they gave me to have a table there that day.

I only went out for a very short time to watch one match while someone covered the table for me. The spectator areas did seem completely full and the wrestling area did seem pretty crowded. I had a number of people comment to me as they were signing up as volunteers that the facility was too small for the tournament. At that time I was wondering if it would be a workable facility under a split tournament format. Jon, it seems that you and some others seem to think the facility would work under a split format so maybe that is the first year unforseen thing to learn this year. Maybe the facility could work for District with a split tournament format.

I think everyone agrees they worked hard and put in lots of volunteer hours. I didn't hear a complaint about brackets or match numbers. The complaints I heard about were facilities, weigh in procedure, scales and staff attitude. I received an e mail from the gentleman who made the insinuation about being removed from this tourney and the next week. He says he wasn't an organizer of the tourney, he was a volunteer. He also stated it was a running joke during the day, not anything he intended to do. This makes me feel a little better about it.

This facility and format still don't work. We don't have anything big enough where I live to take on an event like this. Where should this be next year and in what format?

I think everyone agrees they worked hard and put in lots of volunteer hours. I didn't hear a complaint about brackets or match numbers. The complaints I heard about were facilities, weigh in procedure, scales and staff attitude. I received an e mail from the gentleman who made the insinuation about being removed from this tourney and the next week. He says he wasn't an organizer of the tourney, he was a volunteer. He also stated it was a running joke during the day, not anything he intended to do. This makes me feel a little better about it.

This facility and format still don't work. We don't have anything big enough where I live to take on an event like this. Where should this be next year and in what format?

I am not at all a fan of split tournaments, but this venue screams for a split format. In that particular facility, which was very nice, I think a split format is the only way to have a tournament run smoothly. Thanks to everyone that worked so hard on the District 1 tournament.

I also thought the staff could have made the announcement that they were going to check wrist bands on the mat for those that were not supposed to be down there alot earlier than waiting till the tournament was almost over.

I think it is obvious the facility just didn't work. But I can understand how at first sight it would look to be of sufficient size. So I believe the staff did a good job w/ what they ended up with. So the question becomes next year. I understand there are some facilities big enough but they will cost a little more. With 700 plus kids going, increase the costs by $2 or $3 and get a bigger place.

Or we could just give it back to Ottowa. If they will have us back!