having to pay just for weigh in is probably one of the dumbest things i have ever heard. next time just tell them you have to drop your kid off and keep driving. thats bull----.

I mentioned what I disliked and in all fairness I should also talk about the positive things as well, great competiton and sportsmanship, the staff was very friendly the parade of all americans was great! Medals and certificates were also very cool I may have been a little harsh in my 1st post all in all the tourney was not that bad

I liked how they tried very hard to fix issues as they came up. When you went to the head table they put someone right on it.
I also liked how during the parade they planned on doing it one way and then when the crowd wanted more light in the room they did that. It wasn't part of their program but they fixed it. A lot of big events just stick with the plan.

BTW...
During weigh ins, park at a meter.
Saves you $5 bucks!

The costs of Brute are pretty much right on par with other national caliber tournaments.

I do agree though paying for parking just for weigh-in is silly.

My only real complaint is that they don't switch up the medals, they are the same every year, change it up a little bit. Other than that my boys love this tourny.

As always someone has to complain. Seating was not bad sit in the middle and you can see very well. As for seeding the tournament, they do separate the paste Brute Champions, but with that many entries there is always a chance that some may wrestle on the same side. Look at it this way they have to get the job done on the mat anyway. Another thing to look at, Did they seed the Senior National tournament? I doubt it, look at the 160 bracket and you will see that it was not. At the other national tournament in the past they never seeded them either. I am a coach, a state director in this event, and I also volunteered to help at tables when I was not coaching. You can volunteer and help us make this tournament better or you could not its your choice. Now another topic all three tournamets are set for the same week. Brute is the first to set their dates, followed by the other two, this makes it hard for parents and coaches to choose where to go. Now lets all jump in and start helping and volunteer for the tournament and it will continue to get better each year.

Mel

i think they should at least have the year of that tourney and the place you got on the medals.

I thought it was a well ran tournament overall. Only complaints - some of the refs thought a pin was .01 of a second. Not a good way to see a championship match end. Also, if you are going to charge $60 to be on the floor - don't send your security out to chase us off. In fact, you might make a little more profit if you had less staff out bothering the hard working coaches!!! In other words, nice tourny - needs to be cheaper and better competition - at least for the 8th grade down.

They DID NOT seperate past Brute Champions or if they did they overlooked several. Yes they DO seed Senior Nationals. The editor of WIN Magazine gets that job. At the very least you could ask for HS State placings so you wouldn't end up with two state champions on one side and two state qualifiers on the other. The only seperation criteria used was state residency.

The tournament will never get better with the high prices and early deadlines. They could have used more surfaces and finished earlier. Heck, the kids could have been finished on Friday! Four days in the same building is WAY too much for me. I have been to Reno, Cedar Falls, but not to Virginia Beach. I am going back to Cedar Falls where I will never be harassed to leave the floor, where I get a FREE coach pass, where I can walk up and enter so I don't have to worry about weight changes and a penalty, where the age groups are not diluted (1394 wrestlers resulting in 900 All Americans) by having one for each year of school, where if you win a round robin bracket you don't have to wrestle the second place kid again to be champion, where we don't ask high school kids to show up at 7:30am for a parade and video only to have them wait until 11:30am to wrestle. The awards are great, I love Municipal Auditorium, the volunteers were awesome, Trackwrestling worked perfectly, but it is too expensive and stretched out WAY too long. Oh an I forgot to mention the parking issue due to the 4500 girls playing volleyball next door. I am sure the wrestlers, those who visited, loved that benefit.

We are a USA wrestling organization and we should support USA Wrestling. I tried it and all weekend I was wishing I was in Cedar Falls.

Cokely,
I don't know about the 9-12 which is probably what you were referring to, but on the 1-8, the RR winners DID have to wrestle again for their place (1 vs. 2 for 1st, 3 vs. 4 for 3rd, etc.). I do agree that they could have easily finished the 1-8 kids up on Friday since we were out of there by about 2:30. Instead, we have to have a total of 3 nights hotel, added food and entertainment, losses at the Casino, etc. instead of heading home on Friday evening. I am curious to try out Iowa and compare the two for myself. The brackets are definitely larger on the younger kids side.

yeah they need to talk to those casino's and tell them to let the wrestling parties win something to cover the costs of the tournament lol. when you are losing you should try something different. at least ask a host for something due to your losses. They always offer you something free if you lose enough lol.

Im disappointed cause I didnt get to go. Maybe I should stay away all the time since my son won it.

I would echo the concern over having three great national events all held the same weekend. However, I would dispute the statement that Brute established it's schedule prior to the other two.

USA Wrestling has held it's national tournament the first weekend in April since 1998, when it was first held at the Topeka Expocentre. USAW has looked at holding this event earlier in the year, but ultimately elected to remain on the same weekend, in large part out of respect to Kansas and the other states, where our athletes would have to choose between our state tournament series and the national tournament.

I loved this tournament, even though my son was two and out on Friday. I considered it a vacation. It is not often that we go to Kansas City and stay in hotels. I loved watching the wrestling. One of our teammates received first place and that was AWESOME!!!!! I am sooo proud of him, Jacob. I have not been to any other national tournament, so this was pretty cool to me. I LOVED the seating! I could watch whatever match I wanted to without any problems. As for paying for parking, well, we budgetted for that. We did not pay on Thursday, though, for weigh-in's. We parked on the street and had to walk. Whoever payed for parking for weigh-ins, was well, crazy. It was a choice. As for nothing to do Saturday, well your in Kansas City. There is alot to do there that does not cost much. I loved it and I am sure we will be back next year.

Well, didn't pay for parking at weigh-ins either night. Walked and got some exercise. Also, volunteered to help work weigh ins both nights, and worked at entering trackwrestling most of the day on Saturday for the HS kids. Saturday ran smoother than Friday..but they are already aware of a couple of issues and have already corrected them to make next year better.

I like the tourney...as it is only 1.5hrs from my house. Drove home after weigh ins on Thurs. night ... and stayed in a $55 Super Eight for Friday and Saturday nights...pd $7 parking each day and brought in food and drinks all 3 days as they did not search your bag or purse! Saved a ton of money by eating out of the cooler by my seat! My youngest son won 1 and lost 2 the first day...kind of sad as he has won the tournament the past 2 years running...they do not seperate out past winners...as his 3rd match of the day was against the kid who he beat in the finals last year in overtime 4-3 (Congrats to Taylor Watkins on taking 1st). But you win some you loose some...he seemed ok after a few hrs of cooling off! But also...our club brought 19 wrestlers and he got to watch his best friend place 3rd..his first time at a National tournament! Way to go Mason Baum! And watched, cheered and coached a little as Spencer Baum took 2nd, Tyler Price 1st, Hunter Price 2nd, Kyler Tannahill 1st, Konnor Tannahill 4th, Alex Cavanaugh 4th, Hunter Howerton 3rd,Taygen Fletcher 3rd, Drake Lovvorn 8th in HS(his brother) , Kane Lovvorn 4th HS, Garrett Mathews 8th HS, Kyle White 6th HS...sorry if I missed anyone!

If you don't like how it is ran or if your table was unorganized..they would have appreciated the extra help! So volunteer..the money goes back to the kids anyway!!

See ya a Brute next year!
Kim Lovvorn

The ONLY complaints I have about this tournament, is that I could not get a good picture of them during the parade. But, once the lights came back on, I got a decent one. That is the ONLY complaint. We stayed at a Super Eight for 34$ a night, in Lenexa, which was only 15 minutes to the stadium. Great places to eat at night. I really enjoyed myself, and so did my hubby and kids. Kids love hotels, the only time they get to jump on beds! LOL!

I wondered because we finished so early on Friday-why not weight in Friday am. I don't know about Saturday because I did not attend. Parking was crazy but..it's a big place. This was our first year and my boys had so much fun and came away with a medal. They also met with boys and friends that will last in their memories. They practiced with others they never met and had a great time. Motels were expensive for 3 nights, but I figured it would be. Entry fee was reasonable. Cost for adults to get in was a little pricey. I thought it listed on the internet $10 per day. I really thought there might be more vendors. I mistakenly ended up at the volleyball tourney Thursday night and they had an awesome setup for vendors. Overall, we will be back. I liked the age brackets by grades. It made more winners and the kids were beaming. Isn't that what this is all about? I would gladly pay the price again to see my son's face light up after he wrestled so hard and did so well. He tried for that singlet and came up empty handed but, the medal and experience he won't forget. Now he is ready for other national events. It was all priceless to me! We'll be back.

We like Brute as an end of the year just fun weekend. State is over and it is a nice tourney to wind down with. The prices are no more than any other national tourney! We go to several national tourneys a year and no the competition for kids is not that of Tulsa by any means but it is just as good as liberty and with much better awards!!!! I like the way they split it up. Makes for a lot less stress the week after state. The matches were not drawn out where kids were waiting for hours in between matches. As for seeding, I think kids seeding at any national tourney is kind of the pits. It is hard to seed kids from all over, the only thing they have is the record and people aren't always truthful if you know what I mean!!

I don't think there were and 9-12 round robins as most of those brackets had decent numbers. My 7th grader had a five man round robin. He wrestled all four opponents on Friday and beat them. Traditionally this bracket would be DONE. They cooked up medal matches for 1st and 3rd. NEVER seen a tournament make you beat the same guy twice for first place.

I think admission was actually $20 per day. Coaches passes were $60 and entry $45 or $65 depending on when you entered. The competition was spotty as compared to USA Folkstyle Nationals. It would be best to split the tournaments up. Hopefully USA and Virginia Beach will be on different dates next year. If you were a FR or SO you could have hit both this year but you would have had to miss four days of school. :0 NO Kansas FR, SO, or JRs wrestled in Virginia Beach this year. I don't think any 18U Kansas kids wrestled at Reno either. I just quickly glanced through the entries.

If you took four wrestlers and two coaches to USA Nationals you would save $40 on entry and $120 for coaches cards. That pays for your hotel and some of your gas. JMO

Brute is a "Feel Good" tournament for the kids (NOT even close to Liberty Nationals) and USA Nationals is a "See how good you are tournament". Not opinion, fact.

i went to brutes last year and was very disappointed in it. so bad that i didnt come back this year. i feel that it should be converted back to only high school. it went smoother at omaha and lincoln and the one in lincoln was probably the best