This thread will be used for the Tournament Committee to push out useful information and schedule updates during the 2020 USAWKS State Folkestyle State Tournament

Mark Stanley
Tournament Director

We have posted recommendations in light of concerns over COVID-19 (Coronavirus) for anyone planning on attending this year's state tournament. Click here to view the recommendations.

At this time we do not have any plans to cancel this event.

For key information on the tournament, including the updated schedule, go to www.usawks.com/invites/2020StateKeyInfo.pdf.

Thank god there is no plan to cancel. This coronavirus scare is ridiculous.

Totally overblown !!

For sure!!
Dr’s say it’s pretty much similar risk as influenza.

If people are worried about it, stay home, don’t shut down the world and cancel everything.

Thank you USA/KS board for using common sense, and not cancelling.
Craig Amrein

I'm just glad there is enough common sense to not cave in to the "peer pressure" by cancelling.

Like the others have said thank you usawks.

I'm on board with going on, but it makes you wonder what the professionals know that we don't. We are all betting not 1 person there is infected. Not sure what those odds would be.

Drama drama.......Do you consider CNN professional?

It's not about odds, it's about liability. If you get a cluster of infections coming out of any one of these events, somebody is going to get sued.

Not at all Doug. I don't waste my time over there. But NCAA ,NBA, MLB, NHL, and multiple heath care facilities, state post secondary institutions and state departments I would think have good intel.

The board of USAW-Kansas has revisited it's decision on whether to hold the 2020 State Tournament this weekend in Topeka and has decided to go forward with the event. This decision was based on the fact that only a single case of infection has been found in Kansas thus far and balancing that risk against the loss of the premier tournament for this year for over 1900 youth who have worked hard to qualify to wrestle this weekend. The board also noted the Kansas State High School Activities Association, after monitoring recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, has also decided to proceed with the state basketball tournaments as scheduled.

The decision to continue with the tournament does not mean we are complacent over the possible risk of contagion. We will take reasonable measures available to us, including increasing the frequency of mat cleanings. We do have some limitations due to the short time frame and availability of some supplies, but within those limitations we will do what we can do at the organizational level.

We want to encourage every person to consider their own situation to determine whether they should attend the event. This virus seems to be particularly hazardous for certain at-risk groups, particularly the elderly and those with current health issues, and individuals who are in those at-risk groups should seriously consider staying at home at watching the matches on Trackcast, since all of the matches will be streamed and can be viewed at home.

Anyone coming to the event should follow the recommendations previous posted (click here to view recommendations) click here to view recommendations[/url]). If the status of the tournament should change, for any reason, we will post that on this site as soon as possible, but the plan is for the tournament to proceed as scheduled.

If USAWKS is going to have this event you should at least eliminate the parade and announce that wrestlers are not to shake hands with the officials or coaches before or at the conclusion of matches. If one person there has coronavirus it's going home to every community in Kansas. I love this tournament as much as anybody, but you should at least take every measure in your power to lessen the transmission if you're going to have the tournament. I know that's not a popular opinion, and if I was wrestling I'd go anyway...but there is a reason that basically every other sporting event in the nation has been cancelled.

Is this decision based on what is best for kids? I feel the risk out weighs the reward. Only time will tell.

Thank you very much. I agree with everything you said . Your response is very logical. if it gets canceled now it will not get Rescheduled and these kids have worked there behinds off all year for this event. If someone believes they are at risk they have every right to stay at home and watch from there. We venture out to Walmart, School, work, and so on. We were at risk for disease and illness every day of our lives.
Thanks again! Looking forward to this great event!!

The Expocentre is currently undergoing construction. They have worked to minimize the impact on our event, but there are some changes, including the long steps being removed.

Click here to see a map with the changes.

Agree 100%

We have a better chance of hitting the lottery than we do of contracting Coronavirus in KS right now.

1215 confirmed or "presumptive" cases in the US now. .000003715 of the population MAY have it.......... that a decimal point and five zeros in front of the 3715....

The amount of economic damage the media is doing to our country is asinine....... Look back at the other "end of the world" viruses that turned out to be nothing more than a way to get people to tune into our fake news media......

I understand that there is a concern given the severity of this virus, but I think people have to make their own decisions, not have them made for you. As such, I greatly support the idea of continuing with the tourney. And, given that wrestling is a contact sport, I am not really concerned with handshaking. Although I understand others may disagree.

I agree with John and others that everyone has to make the decision that is right for their family but I support continuing with the tourney. We're already into our spring soccer season and others will be into track and baseball soon. The kids are in their best mindset for the tourney this weekend than potentially shift between sports if delayed or canceled.

I have an update for everyone on the status of the tournament. First, your Board of Directors remains committed to holding this event, with the precautions and concerns previously stated. However, we were contacted by the state health department with concerns over our moving forward.

After receiving additional information on our event, they did not tell us to cancel, but they are carefully monitoring and reviewing it and may change their call at any time. After an emergency phone call our board felt that it was prudent to move forward based on the initial decision by the health department to not close us down. We wanted to be as transparent on this process as possible so everyone has as much information as we do, to help you all make the decision that is in your own best interest.

I don't have any further information at this point, but if anything new comes in I will post an update in this forum.

You are putting the whole state of Kansas at risk by holding this event. What information could you have told the health dept. that would make them change the original recommendation for you to cancel the tournament?

There was no original recommendation to cancel the tournament. They contacted the venue to determine all of the information they could get on the event, then they made their decision.

I guess the NCAA, NBA, MLB and NHL must have gotten some bad information?!

Those are not Kansas events, they need to consider all areas of the country. The KSHSAA activities, on the other hand, are all based in Kansas. The state basketball tournaments are all still going forward, while KSHSAA is closely monitoring the situation.

I respectfully disagree Cole. Doing nearly anything but sitting inside your house gives a chance to spread this disease going to the store going to work kids going to school everyday like I said anything but in your house is going to cause this to spread. Either we shut down everyone's lives or we keep going and be as careful as we can in our lives. Without the government forcing a total lockdown this will continue to spread just like the swine flu and the bird flu until medical professionals get a better grasp on how to control it. If you only count confirmed cases the death rate is around 2% which is 10 times higher then the influenza but if you read what several medical professionals around the world are saying they believe only 10% of the cases are being confirmed because the rest of the people do not have symptoms or have very mild symptoms. If you take that into account that would mean that the death rate is around to .2% which is very close to regular influenza. We do not stop going to ball games for large events because of influenza or otherwise change our lives which is why I do not believe we should stop the state tournament.

For what it's worth I don't know you very well but what I know about you you're a good guy. So me disagreeing with you does not mean that I think you're a jerk or an idiot or anything else just means we have a different opinion.

We are very lucky to have someone like Mike Juby lead us. It is good to see there are still people in the world with common sense. Thank you for all that you do, Mike.

One point I failed to include in my post - the board considered the potential for rescheduling this event. After considering the options available it was determined that it was unlikely that it could be rescheduled. I know this is something many of you have asked and wanted to let everyone know that, while not entirely out of the realm of possibility, you should probably not look for a rescheduled date.

Thank you to Mike, Mark, our district rep and the entire USAWKS board for your leadership. It is very nice to be represented by level headed individuals!

Jesse Pfortmiller

Let's wrestle!!!

I’m with Dylan, Thank you Mike and the rest of the board for allowing everyone to make their own decision on whether to attend, rather than a dictator making the decision for them by canceling. To all those not in favor or upset about it going forward, simply make your own decision and stay home. Nobody has ever said you HAVE to attend. Mike and the board simply made the right call by allowing every parent, coach, wrestler, family members and officials to make the decision themselves, the way it should be! Honestly their is absolutely no reason to comment negatively, this is America lol make your own decisions!

Was it just canceled??

IMPORTANT: Under orders from the health department, the tournament has been canceled. I will provide additional information as I get it, but I wanted to get this news out as soon as possible.

Mike Juby, Thank you for all you’re doing to keep us informed. I am a Nurse in SWKS and am not worried about what all the media is insinuating. I have not heard of any possible cases in our area. As stated by other members, we are exposed to many diseases every single day. Influenza, West Nile, RSV, Pneumonia and so on. The information I have read also states Coronavirus is similar to influenza. My cousin is a nurse and has cared for pts WITH CORONAVIRUS YEARS back. This is not new. It may be a new strand just like we see each year with influenza. Read the back of Lysol cans, Coronavirus is listed!!!! It’s been around for years!!! People need to calm down or stay home. Our wrestlers were exposed to this last weekend and everyday at school. We are all exposed when we leave the house. Let these kids wrestle!!!!! With that being said, safe travels to all and God Bless!

For the love of God🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I’m confused now. The post by Juby says the tourney is canceled and then I get an email at 6:29 from Mike Juby saying it’s not canceled and they are moving forward. So are we a go or we canceling.

Could you hold the tournament for just the athletes and their immediate family. I know my sons as well as many others have worked the entire season toward this goal. They could be giving up a state title. This is absurd! I am so sad about this!
How can they determine to cancel it but not demand schools and workplaces not to shut down. I am so disheartened.

This may have some serious financial consequences on clubs and families, if hotels do not refund money and the money paid by each kid to attend state.

Folks I am sad to share this news, but the Shawnee County and State Health department is shutting our event down. I know this is a tremendous letdown for your athletes and I am sorry. We will share more detailed info when we have it but I wanted to get this posted for those of you traveling tonight.

Too late. This why the tournament should be held in the middle of the state. District 4 travels the furthest. I hope schools are shut down tomorrow in Topeka!!!!!! This should be per discretion of the people who PAID AND WORKED to get here!!!!! I am OUTRAGED! My senior just lost a chance at his 5th state title because of ignorance!

I agree I am very angry.We live in a world where we should have our own choice to go and take the risk of getting the flu or a cold or whatever the hell it is.Kansas Department of health and environment want to choose what events we go to they better damn well be closing everyone’s work places and schools too !

What about limiting fans? Just allow the athlete and their immediate family? I believe the nba is doing it that way. I think it’s dumb to have to do that or anything at all but I’m just trying to think of ways to allow our athletes to still compete but yet satisfy KDHE.

Anyone in Topeka have a huge building? Someone needs to fight for these wrestlers!!!!! People are already in Topeka. Hotels were to be cancelled by 4. Shirts have been bought by blue chip and the list goes on. Someone think!!!! The KDHE needs to shut the hell up and stay out of this!!! They have no clue the chaos THEY JUST CAUSED

1,336 cases of COVID in the US total
16,000 influenza related DEATHS in the 2019-2020 season in the US alone.(per cdc)

This does hurt. I was excited for our kids that made it, and to coach them. Nothing can be done, and I understand the KDHE decision. Do I like it? No, but I understand. Every weekend, all wrestlers, parents, and fans are subjected to any possible illness that any single person may have. I don't agree with the mass hysteria created by our up to the minute world we live in. I do commend Mike Juby for planning to still hold the tournament, and giving everyone knowledge that it was understandable if you didn't want to attend because of the situation. That being said, there is nothing that can be done about the decision, as it was the state, not USAWKS. It's above that. The financial issue for parents families, wrestlers, is also big. But that again is beyond USAWKS. Plainly said, the situation sucks, and there is nothing "we", the wrestling community, can do about it. Stay safe folks, and for some reason I guess we are supposed to stock up on toilet paper if it can be found.

That’s only the confirmed cases of Covid-19. They don’t have fast accurate testing for all suspected cases.
The flu kills 1 in 1,000 cases and has a vaccine available to help prevent and/or lessen the severity of it. Covid-19 is killing over 1 in 100 with most stats showing almost 3 in 100. There were 38 deaths out of the 1600 cases in the US

KS and all surrounding states have multiple confirmed cases.

Well said Bassman

I don't appreciate Mr Chapman's comments at all. Pointing fingers at us uninformed idiots trying to end the world by having a wrestling tourney in a state that has 1 or 2 presumptive cases of a virus that is proving to be no more deadly than the flu. Unelected bureaucrats at the health dept make decisions based on worse case scenarios, and always throw the old "if it saves one life, it was worth it BS" at us. I can't wait for all of them to apologize (yeah right) when this turns out to be no worse than the flu.

Have ya missed the part about only 10% or less of the cases are even reported because of the mild to no symptoms? Which puts it right back at the same mortality rate as the flu.

And i don't like the word "presumptive" ..... if i want to create havoc for the owner of a business i don't like, i can be presumed to have the corona virus, after i tell my doctor (and after researching the symptoms) that i have Corona symptoms, and that i sneezed 34 times in that business an hour before.......

Had someone been CONFIRMED to have had it at a district tourney or something like that, then maybe we take a step back. But to screw businesses, hard working wrestlers, their families, and the USAWKS folks that have worked their asses off to get this thing ready to roll, 18 hours prior to liftoff, is complete BS.

Excellent question.

The whole State at risk? 4 cases, all in JOCO, and you think the whole state is at risk? People like you fuel the fire for the media blaze. Plain. and simple, KDHE and Shawnee county over stepped. We need to be concerned when government dictates when we can peacefully assemble.

There’s no way to tell how many cases aren’t reported, unless everyone is constantly taking a test and get positives with no symptoms!!

Say it is only as deadly as the flu, there’s no vaccine for it.

So instead of being proactive, you just want to be reactive and potentially have the virus spread to all corners of the state and beyond. When Grandma and Grandpa die from the virus that you brought back because nothing had been “confirmed”yet, oh well that 8u bracket was worth it?

Circle of life. What do 70 and 80 year old do? They die, it's ok, it's natural. Hell when I'm 70 or 80 I'll expect something to get me. But you can be damn sure I wont be hiding from life or encouraging my kids to hide because of a virus that 4 people in the state have. How do you live your life scared? I just cant do that.

It is cancelled

State basketball has been cancelled

Correct!

I’m not scared of it. If I get it, I get it. There are steps to take to avoid getting it, but everyone should be doing all of that during flu season anyways.

It sucks that everything is being cancelled, but I understand that it’s to try to prevent outbreaks.

We were all set to make the trip to Topeka, so we weren’t too worried about it. I think that if they were going to shut it down, it should have been done earlier in the week to allow plans to be canceled

I’m not going to live life looking over my shoulder. The flu would have been something to worry about for the elderly at our tournament. Elderly are killed by the flu, and ill guarantee you the flu bug would have been present. I prefer to listen to the nurses, PAs, and doctors I know. They are way less concerned than the talking heads on cnn and abc.....

I agree with you!

They all say to just take the normal precautions like the typical flu season. It isn’t the typical flu, but spreads the same way.

I’m just saying that I understand why they cancelled it. I don’t agree with the decision, but they did what they thought was necessary to help keep the public safe.

This is very disappointing, I'm left with a empty feeling right now. I'm sure tomorrow I'll be mad but now I can't get my brain to wrap around to the other side to make a complete lap. This is like a unsuspected death in the family.im heart broken for the kids. We've spent months pushing kids past their limits just so they know that it's possible to get to that point and grow from it. Hopefully everyone is teaching weight management and nutrition to lead these kids to the next level and prepare them for these hurdles and on to adult life. They should all be healthy enough to see this through. I would hope everybody that was coming to the state tournament was prepared for some sort of adversity and able to push through it in this situation. I'm assuming that this is out of a lot of our hands, but if there's any way to help please let me know, don't let this be a crutch to the kids use. Make this a good learning experience about life at a young age. You can feel sorry about it and set at the same level or we can move on and grow from the experience. It's very disappointing that the hard work of a lot of kids and coaches is shut down because of the small group that fear dying so much that they don't live life.

Thank you to all the leaders in the situation that tried to push it through to get us to be able to compete.

Here is something to think about. The NBA was the first to announce on media Wednesday night. If the NBA announced their decision ONE DAY later....We would be wrestling today. News and Social Media made this more of a pandemic in 24 hours than could be imagined. Before cell phones this wouldn't have blown up like it did.

I left Tuesday night practice not a single thought in my mind about state being cancelled. Then two Utah Jazz player get the Virus...NBA suspends season. NCAA cancels season. It was a snowball effect that got larger by the minute. And in the mean time not startling data to back it all up.

For those of you that have been backing these cancellations on this forum. Stay home....you better not step foot outside...you might get the sniffles.

I will try and do what I coach my athletes to do. "When something bad happens know that it could be worse" One of the worst outcomes of this pandemic is what happened to Brandon Ball. He is at DII Nationals. The tournament is expected to start this morning. And they find out last night that it is cancelled. This was his last opportunity to be a national champion. OR you could throw in Spencer Lee and his chance of being a 4 time champion.

I know this is way off the subject, but does anyone know who was making the State Championship shirts? All three of my boys qualified together for the first time, and we are devastated like everyone else by the cancellation. I’m assuming someone pre-made all those shirts (the ones with the names on the back) and I would like to reach out to them for an order. We believe as a family this should have not have been canceled, and at the same time we realize there is absolutely nothing we can do. We appreciate all the people that fought so hard for us to wrestle. If anyone has any info for who produced the shirts (if they did) that would be awesome. 15 years from now, hopefully we can pull these old shirts out of a closet and remember how bummed we were this weekend, but laugh about how our lives went on. Thanks.

Click here to read the letter from Mike Bell, Vice President of Visit Topeka. The letter includes information on room cancellations.

Frank Zenisek, has asked me to make sure this gets posted on the forums. Please share with your clubs. Blue Chip created an online store of all the USAW KS State merchandise.
https://www.bluechipwrestling.com/collections/2020-kansas-usa-wrestling-state-championship