Nationally titled tournaments draw the best competition. With good competition comes the expectation of " fancy" hardware. If you want to wrestle the best you must go to these tournaments. If you have never been I highly suggest you go. You will see some of the best wrestling you can imagine from young competitors. The high prices of entries and coaches bands come with the promotion of a tournament this caliber.
In Dodge this past weekend the Event Center Alone cost $7500.00
that does not include the money spent to feed the table workers in which we had to buy the food and drinks from the event center at a very inflated rate.BuT the price was worth it. All padded seats in the stands ,dasher boards to keep screaming grandmas off the mat ,every coach had to show a USA card to get a band. Plus every 5 wrestlers got the team a coaches band.
Supplies to run the tournament , printing, 14 officials , belts ect..... It was a very very expensive tournament to put together.
WHY should you attend?The 2 best teams from CO.plus nationally ranked Neb teams Attended and, many of the toughest kids in KS. Ask anyone that was at the tournament it was stacked full of great wrestlers. Putting on a tournament of this caliber can only help KS wrestling.
Now with that said, kids that have just started wrestling don't need to attend a tournament like this. There should be smaller home town tourneys that these kids can go to that are less expensive. If your child isn't " ready " for a grind tournament keep taking them to the smaller tournaments. If your kid is winning everything you take them to its time to step up and chase some competition. If you don't you are doing them an injustice. When they get to the state tournament they will not be ready to compete at that level.In Dodge the reason Scott decided to put this together was to bring great wrestling to SW KS so that in years to come we might be able to compete with surrounding states for high level wrestling. Co and Ned already said that they would be back next year. And they are planning on bringing FRIENDS. Next year with the support of more clubs from Iowa and KS this will be double what it was this year.
Thanks to all that supported this year we hope you all had a great time in DC.
Coach Weil