Disclaimer ** I�m speaking as a club director and just somebody that helps out at some tournaments. I do not have a voice on the board and do not speak for them.

I agree there is way too many people on the floor at times and as one of �those people� that walk up and down the center of the mats I can recognize that. It�s really hard as a club director to enforce who from my team gets down there or attempt to limit it. I know we have parents that have taken the bronze and get a coach�s card for the sole purpose of coaching their kid only, taking pictures or just hang out on the floor. Yes, we ask them to help the process out and stay out of the way but if they meet the criteria to get on the floor it�s hard to tell them to get out.

We are fortunate to have such a large number of participants and with that will come some issues. Some can probable be addressed others may just be part of the process.

Another issue that adds to the congestion is the number of wrestlers or younger spectators hanging out on the floor. Do the kids really need to be down there when they are not wrestling or up for 30 matches? I would love our kids to be able to be mat side and cheer their teammates on but with the number of mats we require there just isn�t room for it. There are also a handful of teams that constantly have kids running down the middle of the mats. Coach�s pay attention for the most part but kids will not look were the wrestling is and end up jumping over an official or kids heading out of bounds. They know where their mat is and when they are up, there is no reason for kids to be running through mats. This is the part that I feel coaches and club directors could impact.

Not sure how I feel about mats in Ex hall. Vendor�s, parade, pictures and the open room that it provides is a nice added feature I think. As mentioned if there were mats out there for warmup who would supervise them? Would you? Would you do it in a fair, honest and consistent method? That would have to be a club/district responsible for that and not sure how that call for volunteers would go. Weigh in, mat cleaning, table workers and other duties are already divided by district. Having matches out there could be a bit messy for coaches, trying to get from mat to mat in the Expo can be a challenge getting through the tunnel could be also. That would virtually eliminate any area in the building for teams and families to spread out and get away from the bleachers.

As a club director I wouldn�t be opposed to providing the state tournament committee a list of my coaches that meet the coaching requirements AND we approve to be on the floor. This could help get more parents motivated to help the team with other wrestlers versus just their kid and it would keep the congestion down as we wouldn�t list everyone with a bronze. Some might get hurt feelings but it is what it is. We prepare the kids for the next level, maybe we should prepare the parents for the next level.

Again, just my personal thoughts. I would recommend to anyone who has possible solutions to the issues to submit them to Mark, Matt or Mike. I haven�t always agreed with their decisions but I can say they have always openly listened to what is said.

Daniel