Just got back from nationals and wanted to list a few observations. Great facility at the UNI Dome. All kids had full mats and plenty of room in a huge facility. ONE CONCESSION STAND.....It was near impossible to get your kids fed, let alone coaches. Also, the brackets were the weakest that I've seen. The bout numbers jumped from 1 through 16, then to 120 through 128, with a few 400 # bouts in between. There was no way to know when your kids would be wrestling. You just had to wait till they announced your weight class to show up near your mat. The mat clock on mat 13 always started at 2:00, so your period was over when the clock hit :30. The competition was very stiff, with some great wrestlers from I believe 48 states, including Alaska. We were done early, so I didn't see the finish of some of the Kansas wrestlers. I know, Alan Callahan, Napier, Hermrick and Cokeley won their first matches, while Patterson, Brown, Deal, Johnson, Bach, Curtis and Bird lost their first match. Looking forward to seeing the results posted.
*** The Kansas shirts looked great and the Kansas desk did a great job helping the kids.

We just returned from Iowa also and I have to agree with KC Sooner, the facility was great but everything else surrounding the tournament was horrible. We ended up there 14 hours yesterday. You couldn't really leave because you never knew when they would call your bracket. My son's bracket wrestled on 4 different mats yesterday. And this was only a 8 man bracket, I can not even imagine what the kids in the 32 or 64 man brackets had to go through. Sharky Slyter didn't even wrestle until 5:00 yesterday afternoon!!
This is one place we will not go back to!!

Oh yeah, they didn't even get plaques this year, they got medals. Don't get me wrong, they are nice...about the size of a index card, but never the less they should have received something a little nicer for Nationals.

THEY'RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE... NATIONALS ANYWAY

I agree the tournament was very unorganized and appears to not have been planned very well for a tournament of this magnitude. Our club was there 14 hours on Saturday and wrestling was still going at 10 pm. About the only thing good about the tournament was the wrestling. On Saturday morning brackets were all placed up in one location which lead to a small riot then they had to be rebracketed because of computer errors. The tournament didn't go according to match numbers which meant that you couldn't the UNI-dome because you never knew when u would be called to wrestle. Then when u did show up on your number you found out that your number had changed. I had a kid in a 32 man bracket that didn't wrestle his second match till 12:30 on SUNDAY I know it will be a long day. I talked to a lot of people from all over and the consensus was that they all wanted it back in Topeka.

The consensus I have is...LET'S GO TO RENO NEXT YEAR!!!!

We just got home also. I have to say, it was the worst we have ever been to. It seems like everytime we attend a tournament with computer generated brackets its been a total failure. My ears are still ringing from the non-stop announcer calling out match's. Man he was loud. As far as the result posting goes. I dont think I would hold my breath.

They actually have most of the results posted. Look at the National link on the forum...someone has a link to the results.

We had a kid that was in a 32 man bracket and he didn't wrestle his first match until 5:30. And that was the only match he wrestled Saturday.

I agree. Very nice place. But they should have taken some notes from when it was at topeka. That least we didn't get frisked at Iowa. That was one thing I didn't care for at State.

Nationals- great facility, but I think we can all agree, it was horribly run! The list of what was wrong is too long for this fourm. Enough said. Perhaps those of us who feel the same should voice our opinions on the IOWA wrestling message board at http://www.iowawrestling.org I checked and didn't see too many complaints coming from the Iowa folks. I don't think they realize how bad it really was! To make this event better, they need to know what they did wrong. I hope that some of the top people in Kansas Wrestling will offer some advice to those Iowa folks. They could sure use the help for next year!

I would suggest placing your thoughts on the tournament on themat.com which is the web site for USA wrestling. The tournament really was poorly run. On the bright side - you wouldn't beleive the number of people from across the U.S. who were saying "why can't they run it like Kansas did". It really makes you appreciate the work the Kansas group did in the years past. Also, I thought the Kansas contingent in Iowa was great. Everyone made an effort to sit together. We had a lot of Kansas coaches helping out Kansas kids who weren't from their club. And the shirts Ned Price ordered for us were by far the best looking shirts at the event.

I was there to and it "SUCKED" as for the way it was ran IN A BEUTIFUL FACILITY "they should have sub it out to some that knows wrestling". We had a kid that didn't wrestle all day until 8:00 pm and we were not the only one's. Another wrestle at 9:30 am and didn;t wrestle till 8:30 unbelievable between matches. "DOES ANYONE WANT TO TAKE LEGAL ACTION FOR ENTRY FEE'S." WE SHOULD FOR PAIN AND SUFFERING ON THE PARENTS AND KIDS.WE DID NOT RECEIVE THE SATISFACTION NOR QUALITY TOURNAMENT GURANTEED BY THE IDIOTS RUNNING IT THIS HAD TO TAKE AN EFFECT ON SOME WRESTLERS.

Will it be in Cedar Falls next year too? Or will it go out for bid again?

Mr. Disney I believe this is the correct way to go about voicing our opinions is to go to themat.com also and emailing Mr Mark Scott (mascott@usawrestling.org) from USA Wrestling for this can not be run this unorganized next year. Also Kansas did have the largest group of Veterans this should be a feather in your caps.

Kansas,

I have to say it was one of the worst run tournaments I've ever been to. But on a brighter note we should really be thankful for the hard work that is put into these tournaments because by far Kansas is the best run. We also have some of the best officials, and if anyone can apprecite it this was the first time in history I about got kicked out of a tournament. Anyone that knows me, knows, it is not my nature but, when an official is going to disqualify your wrestler for tilting a wrestler, that is a bit much, not to mention he said it was a potentially dangerous move. But the reality of it all was that everyone around the mat agreed with me even the coach of the opposing wrestler. I have never experienced anything like it. They also had the table workers dictate whether a move was legal or not. I could go on for days but the bottom line is, if they are hosting it next year they better let Kansas people run it or there won't be very many Kansas,Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, and several other state wrestlers there. I think we are spoiled here in Kansas with good tournament chair people and officials. I know some of you think I'm crazy but if you have been through what we went through, you would understand. HATS OFF TO KANSAS WRESTLING!!!!!!

Link for "themat.com" forum.

http://www.thematforums.com/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=8

As an Iowan, let me appologize for a tournament that obviously did not go so well. I was not there since I was out at senior nationals, so I can not say that whatever went wrong is fixable. However, let me point out that the tournament was hosted by and run by UNI, not the Iowa Wrestling Federation. Perhaps the people in charge at UNI did not have the experience to tackle an undertaking so big. Perhaps the people at the IWF should have stepped forward and provided more guidance in the planning. I certainly hope most people will give the organizers a chance to learn from their mistakes. Remember this was their first time and lessons will be learned.

Sounds like this tournament ran like another famous one in Oklahoma, The Del City Classic. Everything must have been on computer!

If you take the positives of a great facility, great competition, and the ability to bring in any and all food you want, and have them fix the administration side of running a tournament of this magnitude it should be a great tournament. In a wierd way I think it being this bad will make them look at drastic changes that will make it better quickly.

Remember in Topeka it's ran like a top but you have the small kids on small mats, search and seizure (sp) of all bags, etc. Those issues do not apprear to be fixable.

It should be drastically better next year. If not I will be on the bandwagon to not go back as well, but simply saying we will go to Reno is not an option for many as it would involve far more travel or plane fare. You are talking a extra 1300 miles from Kansas City each way.

Twister