OK so let's squash this right now. The Linn County Twisters do a great job of supporting Prairie View. Many of the coaches have now, have had, or will have sons wrestling for me. We share a room and work together. Several pieces of equipment have been bought by the kids club that we currently use. They make a donation to the high school program every year that I use to by food for the weekends. When I set up for the high school tournament at 11pm at night, my kids clubs parents are there to help without even being asked. Trust me, I consider myself extremely lucky to have the community and parent support that I have. I would imagine this topic stems from the fact that our tournament was held on a certain date for several years. That date was then occupied by 1 or 2 more new tournaments that created conflicts and reduced the tournaments numbers. Our people then moved the tournament date and was once again successful. Then that date was occupied by another tournament. Now they are having to move the date again. I am sure this is very frustrating. We live in a low socio(sp.) economic area. All of our community supported activity costs are kept extremely low so that children have the opportunity to participate. Because of this we operate very close to the red. The tournament is the biggest way that we raise funds to support our program, without it we would probably fold. I can tell you that it is not uncommon to have kids that want to participate and can't afford the minimal entry fee for the tournaments. Numerous times parents and community members have stepped up and paid for entry fees, taken kids with them, made sure they had food a place to sleep and whatever else they needed so they could participate. Once again I can tell you without question that WE (the Prairie View Wrestling Family) support each other completely. Proud to be a Buffalo and Linn County resident!

Sincerely,

Coach Walter Vandeventer