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."

It's interesting to see Garden City, Manhattan, Hutch coming to KC but no Kansas schools in the KC area on board. When you think about it it says alot about what are arguably the three best coaches looking for best competition. They don't seem to mind the drive and expense of staying over night. On the flip side what's up with the KC area Kansas programs? Why wouldn't they jump all over this? Surely it's not the Johnson County Classic?

Not sure, but I know Garden City bypasses Newton to go all the way to Basehor Linwood this weekend, so Garden goes all over the place, Goodland goes all the way to Basehor as well.

Some coaches/schools are locked into other tournaments out of errrrrr loyalty. Others simply don't have it in their budget for such travel, other than state.

yeah, that's it. Only Hutch, Manhattan and Garden City are disloyal or rich enough to enter a tough regional tourney. It's called reading comprehension. Let's try again. Now, why aren't more KC area schools from KS who could sleep in their own beds interested in wrestling super tough teams from STL, KC-MO Iowa, Neb, etc?

I don't know why those schools had openings in their schedules or dropped another tournament BUT I suspect the majority of Kansas coaches understand a couple of things you don't gutstench. They understand the meaning of loyalty to tournaments that have extended an invitation for years to their team. Also, that the wrestling experience isn't just about the cream of the crop or the best of the best, but rather the whole team. That kid who is only good enough to score a few points on the backside of your average tournament is JUST as important to the good coaches as the superstars! Just a couple of things I'm sure your reading comprehension missed. Everytime you open your mouth on here it becomes more obvious why you aren't working in the coaching profession.

I'm sorry, I couldn't help it, but I couldn't help but notice the little jab that I bolded. I'm not getting into the argument as to which is best, I don't know, but the gutstentch comment was funny. Sorry it was at your expense gutwrench. I certainly hope it wasn't intentional but I think it probably was.

Perhaps it is a contractual thing.

I'm really excited that Hat Town will be participating in this tournament. It's sad that the 524092-year domination of the Ottawa tournament will come to an end (as will dining at Ottawa's fine Wendy's establishment), but I welcome the tougher competition.

I know Gob Bonzalez likes tougher competition and I think this is a step in the right direction. However, I would plead (I think on behalf of all Hat Town fans) that the trip to Beloit and Newton stay the same.

Long live Hat Town.

Win Newton, Hrett.

just admit it Prant, you like going to beloit because that means you get to drive through the great metropolis of Clay Center and it's ever-shrinking supply of places to eat. well, that and because Beloit is where the famed Fat Pat vs. Skinny Benny battle once had taken place.

sptsfan wrote: "the wrestling experience isn't just about the cream of the crop or the best of the best, but rather the whole team."

Gee, that's really very thoughtful and sweet. Did you read that in a boys coaching manual? Do you take your kids out for ice cream after every dual, win or lose?

And, its good of Sptsfan to call Hutch, Manhattan and Garden City coaches disloyal for dropping tourneys to do something better for their teams. That loyalty you're talking about is also called cronyism. Unless of course as you suggest these coaches just happened to have had 3-4 extra points and the weekend free. That's absurd. But, I've heard this kind of irrational talk before. I can only chalk it up to the howling winds off the KS prairie and too much time in sod homes.

As a coach I take the same view on competition as I had as an athlete. I went from a disappointed state high school placer to NCAA All-American because some coach and teammates helped me believe it was possible. Even though the best beat the snot out of me for a couple of years. I never lost sight of the dream. Every varsity wrestler should want to be a state champ and on a state championship team. Coaches should inspire kids to beleive that they are capable of winning against anyone on any given day and to prepare for those eventual wins. Wrestlers should look forward to wrestling the best competition that their coaches can find. Varsity high school coaches who "protect" 16-18 year old young men from competition or feel they owe it to an old coaching buddy to stay in his weak tournament, should be run out of school on a rail. I hate coaches who intentionally set the bar low so that everyone wins medals and they look good as coaches. Sptsfan, there are coaches who think like you do. I'll give you that. You're exactly what's wrong, dull and uninspiring in high school wrestling. But fortunately there still are coaches who inspire kids to dream and work incredibly hard for a goal. They are the opposite of your "wrestling experience".

Now get back to teaching your 4th graders about sharing.

I don't believe that Manhattan dropped their tournament for that weekend; they just decided to pass their commitment to Ottawa on to the JV team and let those guys get some quality time against some good kids. The JV guys need tough tournaments to get better also.

Gut wrench are you sure you weren't a ncwa all american i bet so stud.

Red-

Even better! I bet one year (a down year for Paola), Hat Town's JV up and wins the thing.

Go Hat.