I have been a wrestling coach for 20 years in Kansas and the last two years I have taken a few kids to the Iowa Nationals and I though I had seen about everything but sat in Iowa my grandson had to wrestle four matches in less than a hour and one of the matches they had him wrestle was the wrong kid. Ryan lost the first match of the day and so he was on the back side and had a bye in the second round of a 64 man bracket, this is when thing went from bad to worse.
Ryan had to wrestle a boy and he lost so we were getting ready to leave and Ryan was called to the head table and told that they had made a mistake and he would wrestle a boy on mat 14 right away so Ryan did wrestle him and won so we went back to our seats to rest and as soon as we sat down his number came up again so I went and asked the ref if he could have a little time and he was given the time it took to wrestle one match, Ryan then had to wrestle a third match and he also won it.
Again we went back to our seats to rest and again they called his number and I again asked for a brake and the ref and the person who was running the table said no and i went to the head table and was told the ref has the final say so again Ryan had to wrestle and was beaten 2-0 and our day was over.
In Kansas we try and give our kids at lease 20 mins between matches and I understand that Iowa rules are even better than that. Ryan wrestled four matches in lest than 45 mins and that includes one that did not count. I would like to hear from other coaches there way of handleing what Ryan went though and should I have been mad. Thanks

Coach,

Kansas has modified the HS rule on rest between matches. Rule 1-2-3 gives the Kansas kids wrestler 30 minutes rest between matches unless the coaches and wrestlers involved agree to waive it. Kansas kids also have no limit as to the number of matches in one day. I don't think this is a national USAW modification, so the Iowa officials were not bound by that rule. It sounds like the tournament had it's usual bracketing problems and bout number mistakes. They have continued to promise improvement and it was better than the last two years, but as previously posted, Topeka never had any of these problems. It's time the USAW Nationals move the tournament to another state that can efficiently run it.

Eric Johnson