First off I'd like to thank the Kansas wrestling community for the amazing support that we received last weekend. We had wrestlers from all over the state travel in to compete. I feel each district was very well represented, and it should be a very exciting tournament in Topeka this year!

As we do each year, we evaluate before, during, and after the tournament to see what we can do to better it the following year. The club has already met informally and bounced a few ideas around for the 2020 Battle of the Belt. I'll try and address the issues that we saw this year:

1) # of Participants -- We received a ton of backlash following the conclusion of our registration period in terms of total numbers. Last year we had 1,634 wrestlers attend the event. These were the highest numbers that we had seen to date. This year we were expecting numbers to be somewhere in the same range. As registration got close to closing we were sitting at about 2,000 competitors (yes the flyer listed 1,500 as our max). We may or may not have made a mistake in letting our numbers grow so large this year, but we felt we needed to see where our 1 day max was at (and I'd say we found it). To be completely honest, I was a bit worried/stressed that we had got in a bit over our head. Fortunately, we had a number of individuals step up and make sure things went as smoothly as possible. Steven Foster and company took on a huge roll and helped manage the mat assignments and address any Track issues right away. Bill Little and Justin Crabbs pulled all resources to make sure that we had enough refs to cover 21 mats! We cannot thank the referees enough for their dedication to our sport. It was a very long day and you guys all rocked it! Richard Salyer stepped-up as he does every year and made sure we had the best equipment available (clocks and brand new computers) to minimize any technical issues. The Maize Wrestling Club thanks all of you for your generosity and support!

2) Splitting Sessions -- Keeping the number of participants in mind, we have decided that it's in our best interest to run 3 sessions next year. Right now we're looking at Friday night Session #1, followed by Session #2 and Session #3 on Saturday. Thought is to knock out all novice divisions on Friday and then do the open on Saturday. This is still in the works, but we will go to some sort of 2-day format starting next year.

3) Seating/Floor Congestion -- This year we decided to try pushing in risers to open up the floor a bit more. We had received a number of complaints in the past about the floor being too congested and fans not being able to see the mats from the stands. By pushing in the risers we gained another 14' on each side of the mats, which you could really tell. The downside to this is that we lost a ton of potential seats by losing the risers. We placed barriers on the floor to separate the table area from the floor area. Coaches and wrestlers were asked to stay behind the barrier until they were close to coming up to keep the congestion behind the tables clear. Unfortunately very few individuals showed the respect that we assumed they would. We announced it over the mic time and time again, yet most continued to ignore the requests. Very disappointing to be honest! This only hurt the wrestler's parents and other family members that were trying to watch from the stands. Next year we will go to the format that Tulsa/USJOC use and have security at the gates policing those coming through and security inside of the barriers to get kids and coaches back out. We talked about trying it this year as the tournament was going on, but didn't have the manpower in place to pull it off. With adding an additional session next year, I don't think we'll see as much of an issue with seating. More floor space = less seating unfortunately. Some will say to do away with the floor passes, but we just don't see this being an option.

4) Concessions -- This is an issue every year, and one that we can't really get around. This year we asked for the arena to open all concession stands, as well as have a few water kiosks available. I know the lines were long, as they always are, but we're trying our best to figure out a better solution going forward. The Casino, Hotel, and Arena all operate as separate entities. We plan to meet with each one to see what we can do (they can do for us) to help keep this tournament running at the current venue. We have other options, but would really like to keep it where it's currently at if possible. A coach's hospitality room is something that I'm really trying to push for, but again it comes down to whether or not the Arena and Casino will play ball. A buffet of some sort (where kids can attend) would be great! Again, this will be addressed.

5) Times -- We started the 1st Session promptly at 8:00am, the 2nd Session right at 2:00pm, and had the final whistle blow at 9:45pm. We've had some people complain about kids wrestling late at night, which I just laugh at. 9:45pm isn't really that late for a tournament of this size. When I was growing up we didn't have split tournaments. You got there in the morning, weighed-in, and wrestled all day until you were done. I remember being the last match a number of times and not leaving until 9:30/10:00pm, and that's after wrestling all day long. At least the kids this past weekend were able to wrestle in 2 different sessions. Tulsa runs their 1st full day until 11:00pm. The finals for USJOC and Tulsa usually wrap up around 10:00pm, and that's after 2-2.5 days of wrestling. It's just the reality of it for a tournament of this size. Obviously with adding another session next year we should wrap up a bit earlier, but it'll still be later in the evening.

6) Mat Size -- With the increase in numbers this year we were forced to split some mats that we haven't in the past. Not ideal, but only way we could get all of the wrestling done in a timely manner. Next year with the addition of the 3rd session we'll be able to have full mats across the board (6s-14s), probably 16 total full surfaces. I've even thrown around the idea of 1.5 min periods for the 10u age group to match that of national tournaments (we'll see if I get my way on that one).

7) Satellites -- In 2018 we had 34 satellite locations, this year we cut it down to 15. I posted our tournament information on the forum on December 13th and asked that anyone interested in hosting a satellite contact me. Some teams were granted one, some were not. We were trying to do more of a regional approach this year, placing satellites on major highways and in more densely populated areas. We also wanted to cut down on the total number for various reasons. The weekend before our tournament we finalized all satellites for 2019 and submitted the list to our tournament director. Unfortunately, a few of the teams didn't submit their request prior to the finalization and were not given a location. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, but we were past that planning stage. In a ideal world, we'd go to all on-site weigh-ins. We just weren't to that point this year. Next year we'll make sure to announce a deadline on satellite requests so there is no confusion.

8) Novice Division -- Same story each year. Have kids chasing belts/awards instead of pushing themselves to improve in the sport. This is a very tough one for us to police considering all of the numbers. Tulsa releases the entries prior to the tournament (however no weight changes are allowed as we do). During the weigh-in period, and during a window following, participants/coaches may challenge a wrestler's novice eligibility by bringing it to the tournaments attention. The challenge costs $20 and if said wrestler is found to be ineligible then he/she will forfeit their entry into the tournament. The $20 is returned if the challenge is correct. The tournament pockets the money if the challenge is bogus. We've discussed, and will continue to discuss options going forward.

Again, thank you to everyone that came out and supported the 2019 Battle of the Belt; wrestlers, coaches, families, tournament workers, volunteers, etc! Our goal remains to grow this tournament from year to year! Only a small fraction of Kansas wrestlers have the chance to get out of the state and face national level competition. We pride ourselves on giving Kansas wrestlers the opportunity to step up-to-the-line against some stellar out-of-state competition that they wouldn't normally see, right in their own backyard. This isn't just our tournament, this is Kansas's tournament as well! We should all be proud that we are getting the national level competition coming in that we are! It looks great for our state and will only help our youth as they continue to build on their careers.

We appreciate any feedback, both positive and negative. Reply here, PM me, or email me. Like I said, we are trying to continue to grow this baby each year and make it the best that it can be! You're input will only help us going forward. Thanks in advance.

Just a few numbers to end on:

1,968 Wrestlers
192 Teams
9 States
4,832 Matches

Good luck to everyone on the remainder of their seasons. Keep grinding!!

Derek Patterson
Maize Wrestling Club
maizewrestlingks@gmail.com

Dereck and the Maize Wrestling Club,
Thank you for a great tournament. Your personal inside on how to improve in the future is spot on. I personally feel the biggest issue was seating as you mentioned. I like to believe I followed the announcers request to stay away from mat side until my wrestlers were up. With that said as I was standing outssthe barrier I thought how nice it would be to have some chairs lined out for the coaches to sit on while waiting for our wrestlers to compete. Overall greatly ran tournament for the numbers was extremely worried we would get out much later than we actually did.

Chris Stivers
Wamego Wrestling Club

Chris,

Lining the outside area with chairs has been discussed as well. I'd anticipate that being a reality next year. Probably back by the risers since we are wanting to keep the traffic within the barriers to a minimum. We'll also be adding chairs matside for coaches. Wanted to add matside chairs this year, but didn't have the chair pads to do so.

Thanks for your response and support!

Derek

Many big tournaments get backlash for running late in the evening. I have heard it our Western Kansas Classic before. I've heard it at Tournament Of Champions, same for Park City, and now hearing Battle Of The Belt. My answer was and will continue to be. If your wrestling late your probably doing well in a tough tournament. If your leaving early that means your probably not taking any hardware home.