I understand that this is late notice. That is something that I am completely responsible for and yes I understand completely. Before we started taking the vans, several years ago this is exactly how the process was set up. Will Cokeley had a connection that made renting vans a pretty easy process and very convenient. Last year it cost us close to $9000 to rent vans and pull trailers with wrestlers bags from camp up to Fargo. Last Friday, we were able to find a charter service that was cheaper than renting vans. The process of having staff members driving vans up and back from Fargo was also a situation that also contributed to this final decision. Coaches also supported the idea of getting a charter so they did not have to make that drive back to KS in the middle of the tournament when groups were beat out. Scheduling vans to be leaving on different days was pretty hard to organize, simply because some were still coaching athletes in the tournament and asking them to leave their coaching duties to help transport kids home was not ideal. I also have always struggled with the idea of my staff being responsible for driving the 12 hour track from camp up to Fargo. My goal was always to have two adults in each van so they could trade the driving duties. We would leave first thing in the morning so a majority of the driving was during the daylight time. When coming home, that was always much more difficult. Many times they would be driving athletes until early morning hours and most times only one adult was in those vans because the others remained up in Fargo until the conclusion of the tournament. We were very fortunate that the only problems that we have had on those trips up were several blown out tires and a couple of empty gas tanks.



Your question to how are the coaches getting home? When we did this several years ago, many of the coaches decided to often drive up themselves in their own vehicles. I am not sure if that is going to be the case this year, I do know for certain one of them will be. My duties will require me to be there a full day ahead of the team so I will also be driving myself up in a van. My plan is to offer coaches that stay until the conclusion of the tournament rides home if they need it.

I hope this clarifies things. I do understand the timing is not ideal and for that I apologize. I had Cadet Duals, three weeks ago, World Teams Trials two weeks ago, and over the last week my wife and I have been moving into a new home so my world has been completely a mess with remodeling, painting, stripping, updates, and the many extras that go along with that process. My goal is to provide a list of athletes that I have signed up for at the present moment so parents can help coordinate but to be honest I still have a stack of unopened mail sitting at my old home that I haven't got to yet. Hopefully tomorrow evening I will have some free time.