The following is provided by The Examiner Paper:

Several teams from Raytown and Lee's Summit's tournaments have announced they are jumping ship to join the Kansas City Wrestling Association's National High School Wrestling Tournament, which will be held Dec. 15-16, 2006.
Phil Dorman, head wrestling coach at Platte County, is helping to coordinate the mega tournament, which will feature some of the nation's premier teams.

The tournament will be held at The KCI Expo Center near Kansas City International Airport.

Kansas City teams that have signed on already include Oak Grove, Platte County, Park Hill, Park Hill South, Raymore-Peculiar and Liberty. A few out-of-town teams have signed on the dotted line, too, including Manhattan (Kan.), Omaha (Neb.) Skutt Catholic and Fort Zumwalt West of suburban St. Louis.

After years of wrestling at Lee's Summit and Raytown, Blue Springs and Farmington are expected to join the fray. Wildcats coach Mike Hagerty has verbally committed to bring his team, joining several strong out of state wrestling programs, including Colonial Forge (Va.), Collinshill (Ga.), Garden City (Kan.), Hutchinson (Kan.), Council Bluffs (Iowa) Louis Central and Omaha (Neb.) Creighton Prep.

Dorman said the concept of the super tournament cropped up a few years back, but never came together until this year.

"A few years back, (Oak Park wrestling coach) Gary (Mayabb) and I talked about co-sponsoring a tournament," Dorman said. "It just didn't pan out. We had some teams from Oklahoma that committed, but it didn't happen."

After the Cadet National Duals was held at KCI Expo Center, Terry Rolofson, father of Brett Rolofson, a two time state champ from Platte County, wanted to revive the idea.

The list of teams reads like a who's who, with one glaring hole � no Oak Park, who is slated to stay at the Lee's Summit Tournament.

"We'd love to have them in there, but the tournament's going to occur whether they are in it or not," Dorman said.

Dorman has big plans for the tournament, which has early support from the Kansas City Sports Commission. But he emphasized this was in no way a tournament planned to sabotage Lee's Summit or Raytown.

"Lee's Summit's been a good tournament for us," Dorman said. "In no way should this be looked at that Lee's Summit is a bad tournament. We don't want to see that tournament not occur anymore. This is just a different opportunity. This is going to get national press."

Dorman also stressed this was not his school's personal tournament.

"This is not Platte County High School's tournament," he said. "This is the Kansas City Wrestling Association. But there has to be member or host school involved, and we are that host school."

Second-year Lee's Summit coach Don Graham said he feared this tournament was coming, but he and his staff will move on, despite losing several teams.

"Obviously, they're taking some top-ranked teams out of our tournament," Graham said. "It would be nice if it would have been planned on other weekends. But, so be it. We'll find other teams to fill those spots up. As a second-year coach, I didn't want to see all of Ethan (Hauck)'s work fall by the wayside.

"Any coach that has been to our tournament will tell you it's one of the best run tournaments in the state, and it will still be a competitive tournament. But when you lose four of the top five schools, sure, that hurts."

Oak Grove coach Bob Glasgow said he is eager to move his young team to such a competitive atmosphere. He also said tournaments of this caliber speak to the growth of wrestling in Kansas City.

"Where Kansas City and Missouri wrestling have grown, it's a national caliber event now, not just a local sport," Glasgow said. "KC wrestling is known nationally now. Everybody can have a piece of this pie, and no one is going to have a monopoly.

"The only negative I see to this is that now you have four quality tournaments on the same weekend within a 45-mile radius, and officials are at a premium."

But Glasgow is excited that his team will get new opportunities.

"We'd like to see different people," he said. "I believe in two years, we'll be as good as any team we've had in Oak Grove, so we'd like to have that opportunity to see some teams from outside of the Kansas City area."

And with the wealth of wrestling talent, this could be seen by other tournaments as a favorable move.

"It's actually an opportunity for Lee's Summit to go out and get more quality teams from out of state, or in state," Glasgow said. "This is going to be a very special event, an extravaganza. The one thing this tournament will have that no other does is the backing of the Sports Commission. This will truly be a national tournament."

Hagerty is looking for national exposure with this new tournament.

"I think the attraction will be that we're always looking for Midwest and national exposure to our kids," Hagerty said. "This one is a little broader scope than Lee's Summit or Raytown. The other is that if we get in early, this will be a featured event that will continue to grow. This is a unique opportunity to have this centrally located. We don't have to travel at all, which is a plus.

"As much as you can do with a tournament at a high school, this tournament will have a sponsor and be professionally managed, so they can promote it better and do some things you can't do at a high school."

Hagerty said he knows there will continue to be critics of the tournament.

"The bottom line is, there's room for this," Hagerty said. "I remember years ago, there was one tournament in the state that had eight teams, the Rock Bridge Tournament of Champions, and that's back when I was wrestling. And now look at how far we've come."


Yours in wrestling,

The Swayz
swayz.wrestling@gmail.com recruiting help, promoting the sport& more!