I am just wondering how tournaments decide to seed kids. This is my son's 4th tournament this year, and he has been seeded last or close to each time. He is a 5x state qualifier, and 3x state placer. This tournament he goes up against the top seed first. There are kids seeded above him from week to week who have never even been to state. Can anyone explain how tournaments decide.
Thanks:)

Typically your club representative who send in the entries for your club is asked to rank their own wrestlers as "A" "B" "C" or "D" A being a state placer or qualifier, B being a qualifier or 3 year or later, C being a second year but not good enough to be B and D is usually a first year or a not so good wrestler. If it is of major concern to you you can ask your club rep to sign him up as "A" or maybe even "AA" Other than that you can call the tournament director personally and tell him where you think your kid should be this may get you the mileage you are looking for.

if you want them to seed him high then rank him high before the tournement.

Your coach is probably trying to get him in the lower bracket and you are just not getting in them so you are seated lower. Tell your coach to send him in as an A or B wrestler. Plus the record should help. I always tell my wrestlers that you have to beat everyone to get first place so might as well start at the top. It is tough on kids to say the least. Placing is important if you are looking to place. Good Luck

Two comments 1) if your kid is a 5x qualifier and 3x state placer it should not really matter where he is seeded if you are speaking of local tournaments as it seems you are. He should be able to wrestle his way out, and if not he should not be seeded anyway. and 2) If he is not getting seeded with those credentials then your coach is not sending him in as an "A". Talk with your coach.

Unfortunately, it seems that some coaches "understate" their kids rankings trying to get them into "B" brackets. It almost always catches up to them.

SlamBam

since when did the hosts of tournaments start seeding wrestlers? The only seeded tournament of the year starts with sub-disticts. Then you have to wrestle for the top four to get seeded for the next 2 tournaments. Unless they seed for Tulsa, Liberty, or tournaments of that caliber. Which I've haven't attended yet. I thought it was just luck of the draw at the weekend tournaments we attend across the state of Kansas. I've seen several occasions where 3 of the four that place come from the same side of that bracket. I like it when we show up for a tournament and get a 4 or 5 man round robin. Makes for a great day.

my son is a second year kid and he is a B wrestler and he gets put in a A bracket and he is been seeded fourth in every tournement and end up wrestling the same kids the kids that he wrestles are state qualifiers and another is a second place winner at tulsa he is wrestling some tough compotition and we had to ask the coach to move him to a C bracket to help him an give him some confidence but will this hurt him for sub district time

I'd still like to know what tournaments have all these brackets? We started the first year of 8 & Under and will be coming back after high school this year for 16 & Under and, with the exception of some of those little guys that have a bajillion kids in their weight, I've never seen more than two brackets: a championship bracket for A & B wrestlers and a second bracket for C & D wrestlers. Where does this happen and when did they start having A, B, C and D brackets?!?!

Packerholic,

I would guess that at least 90% of the youth tournaments use seeded brackets. The actual seeding is done by the tournament host, based on information provided by the clubs. Almost all tournaments ask that the kids be ranked (A,B,C,D), and some also ask for years of experience.

It's not a perfect system, primarily because it relies on the clubs to be consistent and honest in the way they rank their wrestlers. Because of this, you do occasionally end up with unbalanced brackets; however, in most cases it tends to work pretty well.

KCWrestlersMom,

To find "C" & "D" brackets, you usually need to go to large tournaments that use only 8-man and round-robin brackets. One example would be Hutchinson, where I have even seen "E" brackets in the past.

I think most of the larger tournaments in your area use 16-man brackets, the use of which avoids going beyond "B" brackets for nearly all weights.

how does the seeding process work

The seeding process is about 50% art and 50% science. Using the ranking information provided by the clubs, the first decision is whether to split the entrants into more than one bracket. After they are grouped into brackets, they are generally seeded following NFHS Rule 10-4. The brackets included on this website at http://www.usawks.com/brackets.xls show how the seeds at placed on the brackets.