I would like to personally thank everyone who attended the 2017 "Battle of the Belt." I think we ended up with somewhere close to 1400 competitors this year and had at least 7 different states represented. For the most part I feel the tournament ran pretty smoothly, once we got going. The majority of the issues we faced occurred Friday night or early Saturday morning.

I'd like to address some of those:

1. COACHES' PACKETS - there was a huge miscommunication on where the coaches' packets were on Friday evening. The individual that ended up with them wasn't even aware she had them, and wasn't accessible by phone until about 1/2 way through weigh-ins. The Maize Wrestling Club would like to extend our most sincere apologies for the numerous inconveniences this caused.

2. FLOOR PASSES/COACHES' BANDS - this too should been handled much better on our part. I assure you that it will be done the right way next year, with much more preparation.

3. SATELLITE WEIGH-INS - we face this issue every year. In terms of competition, I'd honestly say we are right at the top along with Tournament of Champions in Salina. With this being said, we want to try and accommodate as many wrestlers as we can. Bringing in out of state competition isn't something that just any tournament can do. We started with 33 satellite locations from last year and trimmed that number down to 20. However, as we reached out to various clubs and received multiple requests that number quickly rose to a final 34 locations. We tried to keep that satellites under the control of trustworthy clubs, but that can only go so far. We have tossed around the idea of on-site weigh-ins in the future, or possibly just having 4 additional locations in state.

4. FLOOR CONGESTION - for the most part the floor wasn't too congested, but we feel we can still improve on this come next year. Having 14 full mats on the floor provided us with 16 different surfaces, but also cut into any excess room we would have. During our clean-up we were already planning a better layout for our future tournaments.

5. TRACKWRESTLING - for some reason Trackwrestling wasn't updating very well throughout the tournament. Fortunately we didn't have any major computer issues, but for those following on their phones it became somewhat of a hassle when the brackets were taking longer than expected to update. This caused us to have to make a large number of calls to the mats for wrestlers who weren't present. I guess when in doubt go old school and read the brackets on the walls.

6. NOVICE DIVISION - once again there were some issues with wrestlers entering the novice division that should definitely be in the open division. We tried to screen the entries as best we could during the seeding meeting. We actually moved a handful of wrestlers out of the novice and into the open division after doing a little research on them. Unfortunately there will always be trophy hunting parents.


We would love to hear any feedback, positive or negative, that you may have so that we can continue to build this tournament in the years to come.

Again, thank you to all the participants, coaches, officials, parents, and volunteers!

KANSAS WRESTLING IS ALIVE AND WELL!!

Derek Patterson
Maize Wrestling Club

Hi Derek! Thank you for all the hard work that was put into this tournament and for another day of some good, competitive wrestling! I know there is months of work that goes into this, but I would like to kindly make a suggestion. Our coaches were there this year for 13 hours, as were others I think it would be nice if "you" could offer coaches a meal. $7 for a large slice of pizza isn't necessarily ideal. Also, while I appreciate wrestlers being able to bring their drinks in, I think we should be able to bring them something to eat. I understand the concession stands sold fruit, but that gets extremely expensive, and there isn't many healthy options to choose from. To be honest, I think we should be able to bring our lunches in instead of being "forced" to buy from the concessions, or make several trips to the vehicle. I'm sure there are many reasons that play into this decision, but it's just a thought. Again, thanks to everyone who played a part in making this run smoothly. We are looking forward to next year!

Thanks for a well run competitive tournament in a great facility. Everything was great but one thing I was disappointed in was the coaches bands. We brought 3 kids from our club and was not given a band and had to purchase one for 15 dollars so our kids would have a coach. I was told it was because we didn't have 5 kids. I feel like if a club is bringing 5 or less they should get 1 band and then another for every 5 more they bring. Thanks again for hosting this tournament.

Hi Derek -

First year wrestling parent...... Thanks for hosting an awesome tournament. My son was truly excited about the location/layout. Even though he had hoped for the belt, the medal that he won was of great quality.

Just a one suggestion -

The amount of people standing inside & outside of the fencing area. I know there were several instances were volunteers "attempted" to police. With this said, it was difficult to see for the majority of the morning session.

Again, thanks for hosting a truly exciting tournament. My son cant wait for another shot at winning the belt next year.

The mere fact you are soliciting criticism speaks volumes as to why this is?/is becoming the premiere kids tournament in the state. The issues you pointed out were really the only issue/s I could see from a coaches point of view. I will say the coaches band fiasco was an issue the year before as well, but all in all one of the tournaments my son insisted be on the itenerary in this, his last kids club year. Keep up the good work, I regret we have outgrown the ability to participate in future iterations of this great event! This is the model that I hope someone uses to solicit a tournament to BluHawk Arena once it is completed here in Overland Park.

At this point, I'd say this IS the premier tournament in the state. With as many, if not more kids than ToC, getting them in and out in the split session format was the way to go. Very well run and we will be back.

I too agree on the food situation. As a coach/parent, it is extremely aggravating when you are forced to buy food within the event, especially when the prices are ridiculous to begin with. Unfortunately it seems this is the case with any tournament in the state that is hosted at an arena (i.e. Bi-Centennial Center, KS Expo, KS Star Arena). I really have an issue with not allowing wrestlers to bring in outside snacks. Each year we try and come to some sort of agreement with the arena which allows everyone to be "happy." We will address this issue again for next year's tournament, hopefully with a better outcome for those involved.

Thank you very much for supporting our tournament and we look forward to seeing you again next year. Also, thank you for the feedback!

Derek

This issue was brought to my attention just before the afternoon session began. I was outraged to learn that we had not/were not issuing coaches' band to clubs unless they had 5 entries or more. I promise this will be resolved next year. 1-5 entries will automatically guarantee 1 coach's band, 6-10 will get you 2, and so forth.

I appreciate the other feedback you provided as well! Thank for supporting our tournament and look forward to seeing you again next year!

Derek

Yes, this is one of the larger issues that we felt we could faced this year, but at the same time feel we can make adjustments next year to fix it. Our plan is to push the guard rails all the way back to the stands and lose the first row of seats. This will provide more area on the floor, with hopefully less congestion.

I hope your son enjoyed the tournament and we look forward to having him back next year to take another shot at that belt! Thanks for the feedback, it's much appreciated!

Derek

The coaches' band issue WILL be resolved next year!

I'm sorry to hear that you guys are "out-growing" youth wrestling, but that means its time so see all that preparation pay off at the next level! Thank you for the kind words and I wish your son luck at the high school level!

Derek

I think we ended up with about 300 more kids this year than did TOC. Both are very competitive, fun tournaments for the kids. Sometimes I wish they weren't scheduled back-to-back (not to mention Tulsa the weekend before TOC), but right now it's just how it falls.

Thank you for the feedback. This is how we plan to keep this tournament growing for years to come! Maybe even one day get that "national" status.

Good luck the rest of the season!

Derek

Derek, our club, like maybe most, have a parent or two whom we would never allow to coach for us and would prefer not to be on the floor. When a tournament sells floor passes to non-coaches, it takes our oversight and discretion out of the picture and to a degree defeats one of the reasons for background checks. I understand why tournaments sell the floor passes to non-coaches but it does bring with it a liability, at least in reputation, our club would prefer not to suffer. Please rethink selling floor passes.

or sell em at sign-up through track maybe?

Coach,
First I would like to say that your tournament is awesome! In my opinion the best in the state. I understand there was a miscommunication with team packets and things happen but like you have said you already plan to address this. I had one thought... Is it possible to put a row of folding chairs inside the barricade running the length? It would give coaches a place to sit and improve viewing for all fans. I took a knee on the concrete often as I felt I was in people's way when waiting to coach my kids. Again, I tip my hat to you and your club and everyone that worked hard to make this continue to be the premier tournament in the state! While both are fantastic tournaments, I think it edges the TOC because of the split format! Thank you and your club for another awesome tournament with some great competition!

I completely get where you are coming from. We too have a parent or two that we'd like to keep in the stands. As a club we have addressed said individual(s) in a roundabout way, and for the most part the problem has ceased to exist. After speaking with some of the other club members I feel that we may have figured out a better solution to the problem. In past years we have had different colored band for floor passes and for coaches' bands. Going forward I feel that we can still sell the floor passes, but stress the fact that you must have a coach's pass to be matside. We may even look into a lanyard type of pass (like Tulsa/JOC/Kickoff/etc) and go that route for the coaches. This will take some policing on our end, but may help resolve the issue you presented.

Thank you for feedback and good luck to your wrestlers on the rest of the season!

Derek

Coach, thank you for your kind words and feedback. It's much appreciated.

To address your concern/idea:

We have discussed moving the barricades all of the way back to where the stands meet the floor. The first row of chairs in the stands are folding chairs, and the first step going into the stands is movable. We would have 2 entrances onto the floor coming down from the stands on each side of the arena. This would cut down on the security and ensure that those that belong on the floor are allowed to be there. By pushing the barricades back we'd open up the floor considerably and I'd think that would allow us plenty of room to get some chairs on the floor for coaches/participants.

I like the idea. I will present it to the club at our post-tournament meeting next week.

Again, thanks for the feedback, but more importantly thank you for supporting our tournament!

Derek

Derek,

I just want to say, I think you have stepped up and have done an excellent job at Maize Wrestling Club. I have been impressed with what you have done for years. However, I love how you are taking feedback from others to improve what is already a great tournament to make it better.

Keep up the great work,


Jason Storm

Jason,

Thank you sir. That means a lot to me. It's been a crazy transition period, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it lol.

Good luck to your guys on upcoming weekends/tournaments as they finish up their high school season!

Derek

First off I'd just like to say that this is a well ran tournament and my son's favorite to go to. The one thing that was a little disappointing this year was the belts. We were told that you guys ran out of belts and my son was given a belt from last year that had a part removed from the front because it said '2016 Champion.' I also saw one kid received a damaged belt just so he could have one. Other than that everything was good.

Next year we plan on having the belts arrive much more ahead of time so that we have a chance to inspect them all in case there are defects/mis-manufactures. During set-up we were able to go through them all and found 1 box of 10 (open belts) that were all mis-manufactured. They had the "Novice" label on them. We thought we'd still have enough to cover everyone with the new belts (open), but after the brackets were compiled we knew immediately that this would not be the case. We tried to give the Maize kids the old belts first, but I know there were a few other wrestlers that received them as well. As for the damaged belts, we offered to send them back into the manufacturer for repairs free of cost. I'm not sure if any of the wrestlers took us up on this or not. I don't think there were that many that were damaged, but through shipping and handling anything is possible.

We promise to do a much better job with this next year. Anyone that earns a belt should get one without any defects!

Glad you son enjoys the tournament and hope to see you guys again next year!

Derek