I would like to say that after attending this tournament I am not sure I could find another tournament that was ran as poorly as this one was. First, how ever the decision is made on where to host the District Tournament, I believe alot more thought needs to go into it than what was given this year. Looking at the District, North and South qualifer page I came up with the following numbers.
8 & under had 135 wrestlers
10 & under had 134 wrestlers
12 & under had 150 wrestlers
14 & under had 162 wrestlers
16 & under had 123 wrestlers
Thats 704 total wrestlers
Looking at these numbers and then taking into consideration that on the average each wrestler will have supporting them; Mom, Dad, 1 Sibling, 1 set of Grandparents, which means on the average 5 people supporting them you will have 4,224 individuals attending this tournament. Not to mention the coaches, referees, table workers, concession workers, and then the host school people. I am sure this would then put the number well in excess of 4,500 individuals. Granted with the ridiculous idea of starting the 14 and 16 under ages later you were trying to lower this number but I think you were wrong. As most of these kids and those who are supporting them were showing up within 1 to 1 1/2 hours after the start of the younger age groups. It's hard for me to think that there is not a facility in this District that would not have been bigger and more suitted for this many people. Lets not forget more save.

Secondly, Whoever came up with the idea of starting the 14 and 16 age groups after the younger ages needs to come to Topeka and check themselves into Mennigers as I believe there is a bad mental problem there. It all started with the Sub-District at Holton where the 14 and 16 ages did not get finish until around 6:45pm. Then it got even worse at Ottawa today. We did not get started until around 2:00 pm for the 14 and under with the 16 and under starting after 2:30 pm. Which lead to the completion of the 16 and under around 9:00 pm. For those of you who had to drive a distance I felt bad for you.

Third, the idea of having the 14 and under only on a half mat was extremely insane. I believe that at this age level most of the individuals are either in the 8th grade or 9th. Therefore, for this whole year they have been on a full mat until this District tournament. Guess what, there was a tremendous amount of out of bounds called today for the 14 and under. Way to go guys you really are helping promote High School wrestling!

Last, let me comment on the officiating at this tournament. I thought that at the State tournament in Wichita I had seen more inconsistency from one ref to another, but I was wrong. The inconsistency at this tournament was the worse I have seen all year long. I guess this is because there is a lack of officials, therefore it has become that, Hey if you can pass a test then you know all there is to being an official. Also if you know the coach of an individual, good, then if that coach hollers something he must be right no matter if you seen it or not. Case in point is a match that I watched where the coach hollers that wrestler A hit wrestler B with his forearm in the face, then 3-5 seconds later the ref blows his whistle and awards wrestler B, 1 point. Or better yet, if that coach whom you know pretty good hollers clasp hands, it doesn't matter that yes it's clasp hands but standing and holding in a bear hug I didn't think clasp hands was against the rule. But I know you past a test therefore you are the expert or your buddy would not lie now would he? No I don't blame the coach for hollering, but if it's going to be that the officials can not block out the Coaches and yes the fans to what is being said, then I strongly urge those officials to hang it up. As you are going to be the downfall of such a great sport.

I know some of you who have read this, and hopefully those officials who are the guilty ones that read this are going to say that I am just complaining due to the fact that my son took second, and that I need to blame it on someone else and not the fact that maybe my son is not the best. Well I say that's ok. That just tells me that you, in your everyday life at home and at work cannot and will not accept constructive criticism. I only hope that enough people that agree with me will read this, and echo my thoughts so a better thought process can take place in the future years. This way in the future years we all can get home before 10 pm, 11 pm, or even worse midnight.