Worst ever-hays

Hays tournament is horrible. It will be 4 pm before my kid wrestles his 2nd match and their are 4 open mats!!!! Are u kidding me? Move the mats!!!! Wha are you thinking? I will not be back to this terrible ran tournament! I will travel an extra 3 hrs to go somewhere else next year!

There are 5 mats open..still no moving

Been at Chili's in Salina for the last 15 minutes and had three wrestlers. One won it one got 4th. Other didn't place. Great job Hays getting us out of there fast today. Always look forward to this tournament.

Patrick your lucky. I'm still here and it's almost 6 pm 8 open mats for 2 hrs now and we still have 10 more matches. I wouldn't call that getting out early. We will be here 10 full hrs and have 3 matches. So again Patrick. Your lucky your not sitting here

Mom1980,
I am not sure who you are, but I did talk to one person about this situation and I thought I explained the situation. If this was not you I apologize. Please give me a call and we could address this. Any suggestions to make our tournament better is always welcomed.

Lance Geyer
President
Hays Wrestling Club
785-650-1607

It was not me u spoke to

Suggestion...move matches like every other tournament.

Do we have a new tournament director? As a prior tournament director of this tournament, I thought for the most part the tournament went well. Sure, there are some things that we will change to make it better, but when you have almost 1000 entries in several weight brackets, not everything will go as planned. Hats off to Mike Howell and the whole Hays Wrestling Club family for another great tournament!
Brian Schumacher

Great job again today Hays Wrestling Club!!! You had some glitches but you worked through them. The food was awesome in the hospitality room for the coaches.(Best ever!!) The officials did a fine job. I left around 5:30 and before that I seen several matches being moved. Yes, there were some open mats. Yet you were allowing kids to wrestle on full mats which these younger wrestlers don't get to do very often.(Which I think is cool!) Mom1980 wait until you go to subs and districts and they don't don't move matches or when they do move them and the kids are still wrestling on a half mat or quarter mat!!!!(Been there several times!) If you don't come back you want be breaking the bank. If you want to get out early next year go to Chapman or the Kansas-Nebraska throwdown.

Mark Baldwin

He asked for suggestions, Brian, read lances message! Unless u had the day i did, you have no room to talk. I just don't understand why matches could not be moved. The entire section was sitting with was asking the same thing. I've been involved in enough tournaments to know how it's done, and that all tournaments I've went to do it.

I've been to state and subs. and you are wrong mark matches were not moved, they moved mats so they wrestled on bigger areas. Not actual matches

Once again mom1980 I would love for you to let me know your name or kids name so we can check the brackets to adress your issues, and prevent this from happening again. But you continue to bash our tournament with no name, so we can not address this with you. Once again you are welcome to call me.

Lance Geyer
785-650-1607

I would also like to thank all of the teams that have gave us compliments on our tournament this year. We did have a couple of glitches, but we still had 1000 kids out of there at a good time.

I'm sure there were matches moved down to mat 15 and 16 where the high school kids were wrestling that were 6u and 8u.(I even coached some down there) And as I started to leave they announced they were going to be wrestling 1st available mat. And again I think it's great these young men were given the chance to wrestle on a full mat.

Mark Baldwin

Wrestling is tough on wrestlers, parents,and fans. It is brutal to have to wait hours between matches for 6 minutes or less of wrestling. If the kid ends up 1 or 2 it might seem worth it.

Well put!! On another note. Lance could you get me the recipe for the chicken wraps in in the coaches hospitality room? Those were awesome!

Thanks,
Mark Baldwin

Mom1980 if you gripe and run down a tournament that is held for the sport of wrestling to continue in their club at least put your name. Obvious geyer is from hays. You could of pm him.

I thought it was a very well run tournament. Good competition, good refs, good sized mats, out at a very reasonable time for a tournament of this size and caliber, and great hospitality room. Good job Hays Wrestling Club.

Enjoyed the Western KS Classic & thankful for a great venue, kind & courteous hospitality, no gate admission, no search & seize patrol, great seating, completed brackets, very miniscule glitches, all 6 of our 12 u, 14u were finished by 2:45 pm
Ability to see some great matches & definitely have plans on returning next year making the ~~4' drive.!

I think the only people complaining were people who had kids in 10U and below. Was it long, oh yeah it was. We didn't leave tell after 6. I think some peoe in the stands were complaining because they didn't see why they would go to full mats for 6U. Was it cool for them to be on full mats sure. But if you asked most of the parents would they rather have their child wrestle on full mats versus getting done earlier. I bet most would pick the later.

Another complaint was why were they rolling up the mats when some mats had 10-15 matches left. I bet they had their reason and it was probably a good one.

I enjoyed my day at hays and we will be back next year. The quality of competition FAR outweighs the little hiccups they had.

Steve Schroeder

Lance,
fantastic job yesterday. Great tournament all the way around. Dodge City always looks forward to this tournament and we were not disappointed again this year. We will be back next year. The problem with clocks and Internet can only be corrected if you are hard wired in. Completely understand and have been in that position. Great job guys.

We will be there next year. In the end of the day they had pcs go down for some time. We left around 6.But for 1000 kids ,no door charge,FOOD for coaches,Good quality kids, I beleave it to be one of the best tournaments in the state.Hays people running the tournament all ways are nice and happy people.I drive 3+ hours to get there.

Thank you hays for a good day spent with kids :}

Thanks CWB! We do have a great bunch of good people in our club. Also,I like your quote " a good day spent with kids", that's what its all about!

There was nothing wrong with how this tournament was ran, they started moving matches as soon as they could and kept an even flow through out the day we will gladly drive 5 hours to your tournament again next year. Great competition, and it was nice to wrestle kids from the opposite side of the state especially the week before subs

I guess I would have to agree with the thread title. It was the worst of the Hays tournaments I have been to at Gross Memorial. This was not the latest I have ever left Hays tourney. But it was very frustrating to see so many tables and clocks not going. My best guess is they could have had the last refs, wrestlers, and parents out of there 2 hours earlier. Honestly we have left Hays later in the past, but all mats were still going at that time(there were less wrestlers entered this year). My advice release brackets early or sell them again on Friday night and keep you table workers there and all mats going. I have never heard anyone say, "That tournament got over too quick."

I guess I would have to agree with the thread title. It was the worst of the Hays tournaments I have been to at Gross Memorial. This was not the latest I have ever left Hays tourney. But it was very frustrating to see so many tables and clocks not going. My best guess is they could have had the last refs, wrestlers, and parents out of there 2 hours earlier. Honestly we have left Hays later in the past, but all mats were still going at that time(there were less wrestlers entered this year). My advice release brackets early or sell them again on Friday night and keep you table workers there and all mats going. I have never heard anyone say, "That tournament got over too quick."

I am going to address a few things that have been brought up on this thread.

1. Move more matches to other mats at the end.
If we would have started moving certain mats we would have had some wrestlers with only about 10-15 minute break between matches.

2. We got out of their late.
We had close to 1000 entries, I have not been to very many tournaments that got out between 5:00 and 6:00 with that many entries.

3. We had to wait until the end to finish wrestling.
If you are wrestling at the end, that is usually a good thing. If you go home by noon that means you went 2 and Q. I am sorry if you want to be out of a gym by 2:00 PM and go 2-0 to win the tournament I would recommend not going to big tournaments like ours, Park City, Salina, Hutchinson, etc.....

4. Release the brackets and sale brackets on Friday night.
We have sold brackets on Friday nights in the past, and then comes Saturday morning, and there are scratches for some reason, and people are mad because their bracket are not correct, and they already paid for it. As far as releasing brackets on Track Wrestling on Friday night, we as a club will discuss this for next year, and weigh the pros and cons of it.

5. The computer issue.
Believe me this frustrated us as much as it did anyone in the gym. We were assured by others that the Wi-Fi would not be a problem. We had never ran track wrestling live scoring before so we did not know if it would work or not. We now know some changes we will need to make in the future.

After reading this thread, it does appear that more people are happy with how things turned out at this tournament than there are upset. For those of you that are upset on how this tournament was ran, I apologize. But with around 1000 entries, and only a handful of upset parents, I think most tournament directors, and/or clubs will take that.

I want to say thank you to all the clubs that attended our tournament, and we hope to see everyone back next year, for hopefully a better, bigger, and tougher Western Kansas Classic.

When you take everything into consideration the Hays tournament continues to be a very good one. The problems mentioned can easily be addressed by next years tournament. It looks as though Lance is very open/receptive to feedback. This is not always the case with some of the larger more popular wrestling venues. We enjoy coming to Hays and appreciate the Hays Wrestling clubs efforts! Mark would like more chicken wraps though. Thanks!

Mark,
I would love to give you the recipe, but i think those may have came from the world famous Taco Shop. I dont think they will give me their secrets.

At the end of the day when we had 30 matches to go, they were rolling up mats, I spoke with a Hays coach, and very promptly they started another mat, and we went first available. Yes these are LONG days for both parents and wrestlers. I for one wouldn't want to be out of there by 2. That means my kid isn't in the medals. I'm there to support our wrestlers. The tournament was great, as always, lots of great matches and we had a blast as always. Well worth the 2-1/2 hour drive. We'll be back next year. Thanks Lance and Crew!!

Thanks Love My Wrestler,
I just want to put out there that many of us coaches and a few of us board members were out on the mats trying to answer questions or handle things to the best of our ability. But the main person that made this tournament work was Mike Howell our tournament director. Mike and his tournament staff dont get enough credit for what he does behind the scenes to make this thing work. Thanks Mr Howell for your hard work.

Thanks,
Lance Geyer
President
Hays Wrestling Club

Thanks to Mr Howell and crew as well then!

We always look forward to your tournament.

I have been at the Hays tournament for years and always enjoy the competition. My son was one of the last to wrestle and yes its a long day but all tournaments worth attending are going to be long. Trackwrestling has been frustrating at a lot of tournaments this year and I'm sure all the issues will be resolved by next year. Keep up the good work and don't be critical until you've had to run a tournament like this.

Rachelle Standley

Hays wrestling club good job and thanks. My son was one of the last matches of the day. We did not leave until 1800. I thought that was pretty good for a big tournament. We have wrestled smaller tournaments and been at them later than 1800. When we go to wrestle that is our business at hand. We have nothing else planned for the day. If you don't want to be at a tournament all day then find a sport that is easier for you. Tough wrestlers have tough parents who understand long days in the stands. Good practice for the wrestlers waiting for matches. What are you going to do in two weeks on Sunday and your wrestler is on the back side. It starts getting late for what ever reason. Are you going to leave the state tournament?Are you going to post you will never go to state again because the tournament is running behind?
Thanks again Hays. We will be back next year.

Josh Parker

It has been brought to my attention from our trophy maker that there were a handful of trophies that accidently were completed with the wrong dates on them. Please look over your trophy from the Western Kansas Classic and make sure the date on it says March 8, 2014. If the date is not correct, please send me a private message, and we will get you the correct plate for the trophy.

Mom 1980 since you state "you know how it's done".....please post your name and club and be tournament director to ALL divisions next year.
Why don't you just settle it, since you seem to be nameless! The 6 u's wrestling an entire mat is priceless. I can remember back in the day the Wichita Classic being in Century 2 and then the good old horsebarns.....6 pm would come & go, no one cared we'd get out at 8:30 or so! Same as Salina starts wrestling @ 7:30 gets done with pictures perhaps around 8:30 or later.
You should review the comments preceding this post ---if by chance you make it to State you're in for many, many hours of watching wrestling!
Best of luck! But please let us all in on your 1000+ perfect wrestling tournament in which plan to be tournament director because "you know how to do it!"
Appears that the MAJORITY will be returning to the Western KS Classic!

Mom1980,
I feel your pain. This brings to mind the memory of a tourney several years ago in KC. My son was in the LAST match of the tournament. It was a round robin bracket, and the match didn't mean anything for placing. The crew had rolled up all the other mats, and the only people in the stands were myself and the other wrestler's mom. My son lost the match and we drove home two hours in the snow.

That was a pretty good day. Wish I could do it again.