As a tournament director myself I will go ahead and vent some of my frustration. I absolutely hate when kids scratch out of a tournament. Now I understand kids get sick or injured and I personally do not want sick or injured kids wrestling and spreading their sickness or getting more injured. With the bulk of our season in the winter time we also have to deal with Kansas weather and travel hazards. And again I personally don't want anyone to risk their lives just to wrestle at a tournament when bad weather strikes. These examples are, in my opinion, okay excuses for scratches at a tournament, however, we are seeing a LOT of scratches the day of the tournament. 75 scratches at Linn Co's tournament is way too many. I am just guessing and for the sake of a round number if Linn Co. had 750 entries and had 75 scratches that is right at 10%. Our tournament had 970 between Open and Novice divisions and that 10% scratch rate would mean that 97 kids would have scratched from our tournament. I cannot tell you the exact number of scratches we did have at our tournament (I don't think it was 97 since we only started about 20 minutes late after making bracket changes) but there were several scratches which messes up the bracketing system that we have in place prior to the tournament starting. This may open a big can of worms that I may not intend to open here, but I have to say it. Parents and Clubs need to be more responsible with their entries into tournaments. i don't know about other people, but if I pay for an entry (and my son isn't sick, injured, or otherwise incapacitated for the tournament) I expect that I will be there with my son (on or below the weight class he is entered) and ready to wrestle. Maybe I am a tightwad but I expect some bang for my 15 bucks. It is with this philosophy that when I do have to make bracket changes and as I am starting to bracket the tournament that I try to get the most matches for the kids whenever possible. I feel really horrible when I have a HWT kid that has noone to wrestle simply because there was noone for him to wrestle his age. I try to work out in those situations the best option for the kid's involved to get them some mat time by either bumping them up an age class (with their coaches/parents permission) or refunding their money and calling them beforehand that they have noone to wrestle and to stay at home and enjoy their weekend off. And this example isn't just for the heavyweight divisions, it happens with the older/lighter kids as well. Kids not making weight for a tournament is not an excuse to scratch. That is irresponsibility not only by the kid, but also for the parents and the club involved. Maybe introducing a re-bracket fee for not making weight is a good idea. Make a little extra money for the tournament and the kid still gets to wrestle. The only thing I don't like about the idea is iif it is used wrong on the kids and parent's side of it. (example we will enter little Johnnie at 10U 70 lbs but if he is unable to cut the weight from 76 and only makes it to 71 then we can pay an extra entry fee and bump him up to 73) This is not a good situation at all, but hopefully that mentality isn't the norm.
That is just my two cents on this issue. sorry for rambling on.
