Preferred Ed Software - The Wrestling Tourney

What is the deal?


Preferred Educational Software
221 Rivers Edge Drive
Cherry Valley, IL 61016

The Wrestling Tourney
Phone: (888) 959-2016
Fax: (815) 332-1639
EMail: Send e-

Yup, they should be fired. Epic fail.....

I called them, their excuse was its a free program and they were over whelmed by all the tournaments this weekend. They said they would have it fixed tomorrow! I said what, are you insane, the tournaments are over today and that is Very unsat! On a good note I want to congratulate Garden City on a Great job on keeping theirs updated all day! On the poor side would be any school that chose the cheap skate way and chose the Preferred Educational Software. This is a system that KSSHAA would have chosen. I would have thought that you all would have learned that they have NO sense when it comes to anything that has to do with wrestling.


Mel

Mel,

The Preferred Tourney software IS the software required to be used in regional tournaments by the KSHSAA. It is not free; licenses are purchased and for regional tournaments this is done by the KSHSAA.

Communication with Mr. Lentz of the KSHSAA indicates that he will look at Track Wrestling very hard for adoption next year; however, licenses for the Preferred Software were already purchased for this year when he was hired for the KSHSAA position.

According to Mr. Lentz he is familiar with Track as it was used by Paola High School where he was A.D. prior to being hired at the KSHSAA.

Wow, well that is good news. Due to the awesomeness of my non-coaching job, this is the first time I have not been to a regional tournament in a long, long time. Trying to follow all of these tournaments using media was absolutely maddening. We have had lots of tournies use Preferred software at the same time before and it wasn't this jacked up, so I am blaming the company. However, where will I need to go fo state results and should I be nervous?

The live feed from Lakin was amazing. I saw my athletes wrestle, but I have friends and families all over the state in all kinds of classifications, who did not have live feeds and I couldn't even get results without constantly getting errors.

If Preferred Software is looking for feedback on their tourney program, please pass along to them that I think it sucked and whatever we paid was too much.

I would imagine the problem was not them, it was technically us. From what I saw yesterday, this appeared to be a classic case of traffic overload. The server can only handle so many requests at once, and any requests over that limit result in the "This page is temporarily unavailable." notice. Now, it may be they don't have enough server space, or their service provider was having problems, that is something they would have to answer.

From what I have gleamed from the respective sites of Track Wrestling and Preferred Educational Software, they offer the same service with a different approach. Track Wrestling appears to be a web-based program that charges by the tournament, while PES is a PC-based software that charges by the license. I could be wrong, but this would mean that the PES software would be the much more financially valid long term solution. The costs look to be about the same for the first year of use, but while the PES program would drop to near zero the consecutive years the Track Wrestling option would stay the same (~$2500) every year.

I for one, was not satisfied with the service offered. If I was in charge I would discuss my concerns with PES before changing providers. I would also like to remind everyone that this is entirely for our convenience. 30 years ago we had to wait until someone got to phone (no cells, remember those days?) to hear the results, or see them in the paper. Now we want to see a few words on a screen RIGHT NOW, and if it doesn't work it ruins our day.

Hawk is exactly right. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the software to run the tournament and we have owned and used the software for many years. For less than the cost of track wrestling for one tournament we run all the tournaments we want with the benefit of online entry, etc.

PES offered their website as a place to upload results and we, along with most other schools said great. If PES or any of the schools had any idea what would happen yesterday, I'm sure different decisions would have been made.

Many people get unhappy when they can't get online results as they happen. We run 2 tournaments every year and occasionally a regional like yesterday. Sorry wrestling fans on the web...our LAST consideration while a tournament is going on is to make sure people who don't attend our tournament get results. It's nice if we can do it but honestly it has nothing to do with running a good tournament.

The Wrestling Tourney works and it's much cheaper than Track. Taxpayers: your welcome

“ I would imagine the problem was not them, it was technically us.”
Wow! I don’t know where to start with that gem of a statement. I guess I will just start drafting my apology letter to KSHSAA, and Preferred Educational Software for causing all the disruption to their system by actually trying to USE IT.???

#1 The Preferred software is, for the most part, fine for running a tournament. However, it does have issues if brackets of varying sizes need to be used in the same tournament. While this is generally not a problem in regional tournaments, it can be in the 321A if more than 16 are entered in a weight class.

#2 The cost of using Track vs. Preferred IS greater. However, the cost difference is based on a per tournament, stand alone, basis. If adopted by the KSHSAA I would think a discounted "package deal" would be negotiated with Track for use in the KSHSAA post-season.

#3 Track does offer options to re-coup some of the cost of using their software with advertising options and text service.

#4 Track is more user friendly in all aspects of a tournament: both for the tournament management and, obviously, for the tournament "spectator."

#5 The reality of the time we live in is that this is NOT 30 years ago and people today DO expect to have the ability to be quickly informed. . . and when there is the where-with-all to do so it only becomes more frustrating when it is not made available. . . or does not work when it is made available.

To sum up and IMO:

PREFERRED
Cost of usage = Good/Excellent (compared to indiv tournaments using Track).
Tournament management = Good
"Spectators" = Poor

TRACK
Cost of usage = Poor (compared to individual tournaments using Preferred)
Tournament Mangement = Excellent
"Spectators" = Excellent/Outstanding

Greg,

When I called them yesterday they told me that it was free to our state and for that all he could do is say he was sorry and it would all be fixed today!


Mel

I am curious if the state would look at track wrestling and put it up as a pay by season for spectators? I know that because of my work schedule that I cannot make it to every tournament and if they had a few different pay tiers I would be interested in it. Does anyone know for sure what they paid for the software, and what the cost would be for track wrestling? I think its worth putting it on the table.

The Preferred web"service" was free. . . so on one hand we should not complaining about the lack of service; we got what was paid for. On the other hand, it was a major PR, and business fail for Preferred Systems to not be able to provide what they offered.

There is a license fee for the use of the tournament software which is paid by the KSHSAA in order for all regional hosts to have it available for use.

The cost of ownership for Preferred is less than Track; but Preferred is being left in the dust in regards to spectator usage, and in my opinion, tournament management. What one gets for the extra cost of using Track MORE than makes up for the increased cost.

Thank you for hosting a Regional Tournament. That speaks volumes for your commitment to helping out wrestling in the state. I am one that loves to see online results, even if they are a day or two behind the event. It is more important to a fan of wrestling (me) to attend an event like Regionals and have a good experience.

Lee,

You are correct!

Thanks to ALL who hosted the regional tournaments! There are large and time consumuing endeavors, many hours are consumed in organizing, oversight, and follow-up and they are not inexpensive activities.

I understand that there has been a lot of chatter regarding The Wrestling Tourney and Preferred Educational Software because of the issues this past weekend for Kansas regional wrestling tournaments. I would like to address the Kansas wrestling community.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused tournament managers and their fans. We experienced an unexpected and extremely large volume of traffic on Friday and Saturday which our server could not handle. The number of sessions per day went from an average of 2500 per day throughout the season to over 25,000 on each day. (Friday and Saturday).

There was not enough time to make any technical changes. However, we are replacing our current server with a much more capable server this week. This was our first venture in this type of service for fans and are taking immediate action to correct the problem. This will do a much better job handling the large volume of traffic.

Our software is a PC based system and not web-based. We take a different approach than TrackWrestling. They have a great product. Our cost is a one time purchase and not an annual recurring fee. Upgrades are free of charge from our website. There are many capable programs out there for running wrestling tournaments. We have been providing wrestling software for schools for over 25 years and have over 7000 users.

Our server www.TheWrestlingTourney.com was initially developed as a means for coaches to enter their rosters and save hours of entry time for tournament managers. Prior to this year, managers had the option to generate an entire website at the click of their mouse with our desktop software. They then sent these files to their own web server. Many regional sites did just this and is an excellent (free) alternative. This year we provided another free option for managers to post to our web server if they did not have the means or resources to do this locally. This service (online entry and posting results) comes at no charge. Many states do this method also, linking all their regional sites on one web page on their state server.

As for the tournament software itself, we think we provide a great solution. I received very few calls regarding the performance and operation of the software. I know that your state association will make a decision that would be economical and effective for Kansas wrestling.

I appreciate PES "stepping up" with their explanation of the situation and the steps they are taking to remedy it. It does not change my opinion based on having used both, that Track Wrestling is the superior product.

I thought Trackwrestling costs were about $.25 or $.50 per wrestler. That would be $3.50 or $7.00 per team if the rosters were full with 14 guys. Come on - 8 teams would cost $56. 16 teams $112 for a REGIONAL TOURNAMENT. If it is a $1 per wrestler - get the exclusive vendor to help pay for it.

We can get the results from a kids tournament with 82 teams and 120 brackets and 750 wrestlers - but not a high school state qualifying tournament?

For predefined team tournaments Track charges are based on the number of teams. A 5A & 6A regional would cost $90 each, 4A regionals would cost $140 each and 321A regionals would cost between $140 & $200 each. The total cost for regionals would be around $1800 and state tournaments another $560; so around $2400 for post season.

The website for Track Pricing: http://www.twnode4.com/PricesTournaments.jsp?TIM=1329705832545&twSessionId=pjcwomzqttkugma

I worked with the software from PES at the GE tournament.
entering the information was fine.

Printing labels was a nightmare. Tournament director called the company. "not many use this function because it doesnt work well"

Wish we would have known this before. But wrestling is a sport of over coming adversity! My daughters battled through and the school will cover the expense of extra sheets of labels.

"For was predefined tournaments Track charges are based on the event; number of teams and number of wrestlers. For our invitational with 12 schools this year it was $103."

So about $8.58 per team is the cost to have a quality wrestling statistical program - or about 1 triple Baconator meal at a fastfood joint - large size drink, fries/onion ring and a cookie.

If it is a $1 per wrestler - get the exclusive vendor to help pay for it.

Charge an extra $.25 or .$50 at the gate to cover the cost.
Get the exclusive vendor to pay for it on each T-shirt.


For predefined team tournaments Track charges are based on the number of teams. A 5A & 6A regional would cost $90 each, 4A regionals would cost $140 each and 321A regionals would cost between $140 & $200 each. The total cost for regionals would be around $1800 and state tournaments another $560; so around $2400 for post season.

Just think if there was only one state tournament - what a cost savings!



Charge an extra $.25 or .$50 at the gate to cover the cost.
Get the exclusive vendor to pay for it on each T-shirt.

I am unclear. . .who is this "exclusive vendor" of whom you refer? Are you referring to the official t-shirt vendor? What is in it for them to pay for the use of Track?

The KSHSAA could impose a $10 fee per school that wrestles or an additional $1 fee per regional entrant could be charged.

It is possible.

Track wrestling is great. It appears to be the wave of the future. I would bet you could negotiate a deal with them and it would be well worth the cost.

Are you referring to the official t-shirt vendor? What is in it for them to pay for the use of Track?

Yes exactly - the official T-shirt vendor is to whom I am referring to. The wrestlers are their customers. Are they not selling shirts to wrestling families and wrestlers?

The KSHSAA could impose a $10 fee per school that wrestles or an additional $1 fee per regional entrant could be charged. - That is another possibility. I would bet KSHSAA could find some corporate sponsors acrossed the state that really like wrestling
and put their names in the State Book Program - XYZ Company Official Sponsors of ----------

The Louisiana and Nebraska state tournaments used Track Wrestling. For the media, Track Wrestling is so easy to use, since we can get text reports and print out results as needed, both for brackets and team-by-team. Preferred does a fine job at the tournaemnt site, but for those of us who can't be there and want to keep up, the information has to be faster, and Preferred did not come through at the regionals.