Grand State substitute...

One question. Using the 120 weight class as an example. The wrestlers have to make 122 at the State Tournament. Do they get five pounds and have to make 127 or 125? My suggestion would be 125.

Great idea.
1. Offer a cut rate for seniors - Admission covers security & rent. Entry fees to cover awards & officials. I will keep it as inexpensive as possible.

2. Recognize state placers in a parade of champions before

3. If a 2 day tournament could you do a clinic for kids with a fee and free admission - Nice idea!

4. Can highschool coaches be involved with kids? If so offer cut rate for bring more kids from your team. They can if you can get your ad's and coaches to back coach contact after state. Otherwise KSHSAA restrictions will not allow coaching unless you are a senior. I would suggest coachers team up and cross coach athletes.

5. Can you some how involve college coachs for recruiting. Meaning get commitments from coachs that will attend. You know I will push this as much as possible.

USA Wrestling Sanctioned? USA Wrestling Cards? How does the Insurance work?

4. We will discourage anyone from taking our high school wrestlers out of state to a real or perceived "national" tournament.

Like RMN there could always be a new tournament pop up on the weekend in question, claiming to be a "national" tournament, and some fool willing to take our best kids out of state for his/her own personal gratification.

Like RMN there could always be a new tournament pop up on the weekend in question, claiming to be a "national" tournament, and some fool willing to take our best kids out of state for his/her own personal gratification.

Will:

You are asking for feedback and although I no longer have anyone actively wrestling I guess I am still interested enough to be actively supporting the Kansas College Wrestling Fund and to still occasionally be getting on to this forum so I am going to give you some feedback.

First in general I really like the idea of this type of Grand State tournament. If accepted by the Kansas wrestling community I think it could be as close as we could expect to the Grand State concept. I think it is innovative and good you are trying to plan such a tournament. Here are a couple of questions I have though.

I am not sure why you are setting up an extra $10 registration entry difference for those who do not wrestle at their KSHSAA weight. It seems like you have set weights with a reasonable five pound weight allowances set up so why the extra $10? To give incentive for a wrestler to compete at the weight they competed in during the high school state tournament. There is NO WAY I can mandate this or want to but I would like to give a financial incentive to keep the state qualifiers in their respective weight classes.

I am not sure if high school coaches are allowed by the Kansas State High School State Association to coach underclassmen in a post season event like this. I really do not know but I thought maybe they might be restricted from doing so. Do you know for sure if they are allowed to? They are NOT allowed to coach their underclassmen and I don't see any way to get this changed in less than 12 months. Coaches will have to swap corners and coach other kids. At this point in time the man in the corner isn't really going to make a difference.

You state on the donation part that it will go to Fort Hays State University Bob Smith Wrestling Endowment or the Kansas College Wrestling Fund. Does this mean that the wrestler on his registration will get to choose where he wants his donation to go between the two funds? I haven't really committed this in any way but I was considering a 50/50 split. If so why just Fort Hays State as a specific school option? Mainly because this is what I want to do. FHSU is the ONLY four year, public school offering wrestling. It is the ONLY school in Kansas that has a wrestling specific endowment set up. If pressed I will give 100% to FHSU to help them accelerate their fund to a point where they can offer 9.9 scholarships as allowed by the NCAA. Currently they are just over 7 and that is creatively speaking. They are not fully funded. I am on the fence about supporting, financially, schools that are motivated by profit to offer wrestling not because they support the sport. I have continued to support both but in this manner. Or does this mean the wrestler will be able to choose another college if he prefers to have it designated specifically to say Newman, Baker, Benedictine, Ottawa, or other universtiy. Since this is a statewide tournament perhaps it would be best just to designate the donation to the Kansas College Wrestling Fund or as an alternative give the wrestler the option to be able to designate his donation to the Kansas college wrestling program of his choice. That way senior wrestlers who have already committed to another Kansas college could designate their donation to their future school or perhaps one where another family member is currently wrestling. I think it would be a mistake to limit a specific school donation to only FHSU. I am not going to create an entry form with a multiple choice questionnaire as to where they want their $1 contribution to go to. If the KCWF wants to fund this tournament I would be happy to let every $1 contribution go to that fund. I would then expect to see every board member there from the start of registration until the last mat is rolled up.

The registration fee of $31 or $41 might be a little rich for some Kansas wrestling families especially when they need to also plan for other traveling expenses. This might keep some quality wrestlers from participating and thus lessen a little the Grand State competition. Obviously you have not operated a tournament of this size. Rent, security, AWARDS, clean up, mats, internet, computers, clocks, printers, officials, table workers, etc. We recently conducted a tournament at the Salina Bicentennial center with nearly 700 competitors. It was a one day event and a moderate admission was charged. The net result was a plus $20 and change. Next year they want to increase the facility rent. The security alone for that event was $1850. I would LOVE to make it free. Are you offering a sizeable contribution to this effort?

The danger of giving feedback is that it can be seen as all negative. I really do not want you to think I am all negative on this. I like the overwhelming majority of your idea for this tournament.


Feedback... It FEEDS improvement and it FEEDS creativity! I don't claim to have all of the answers. All feedback, negative or positive can be constructive. I can dish it out so I am certainly willing to take it. I don't want to beat the streets asking for hand outs but IF anyone is volunteering then I am not going to turn them

I've been to multiple meetings in Salina and there is ALWAYS, money set aside for, the duals, freestyle/Greco. Would they be willing to get on board with, "A GRAND STATE" is all I'm asking. Ask the treasurer how much is in the account, and what it's there for.

I've been to multiple meetings in Salina and there is ALWAYS, money set aside for, the duals, freestyle/Greco. Would they be willing to get on board with, "A GRAND STATE" is all I'm asking. Ask the treasurer how much is in the account, and what it's there for.

Pick a weekend that doesn't coincide with NAIA National Championships. I believe the 2015 NAIA tournament will be held in KS.

Why? You won't support moving the Kids series to an earlier date so we can go to the NCAA tournament...

The Kids series and NCAA tournament are existing events that conflict. The Sonic Sunflower Throw Down (aka Grand state) is being created. Can it be created/scheduled so it does not conflict with NAIA championship? You asked for feedback...

So a highschool coach who doesn't have his bronze card will be required to go sit thru and pay for the scam of getting his bronze card then have to pay for his background check and pay for his usa coaches card? Like Jerry Dale says it is all about money. Highschool coaches have enough to deal with they shouldn't have to jump thru hoops to coach their athletes.

I completely agree with Beeson. If we want our athletes to be the best, we need them to witness what the best looks like. The NCAA Division 1 tournament is the pinacle of our folkstyle sport, and our kids need to be able to see what that entails. We all know also that watching it on tv doesn't remotely cover all that the tournament consits of. Athletes at the kids and high school levels are awestruck when they enter thier respective state arenas. Even attending the NCAA tournament (or Fargo for that matter) will bring that level of awe to a level of context. The tournament is a manageable car ride 3 of the next 5 or so years in STL, and we need to give our athletes the option of attending. Football doesnt schedule games on superbowl weekend that I'm aware of, why are we? I could be hijacking this post, but it's something to look at, SOON. I would also be VERY supportive of just going back to back weekends for districts and state to get all of the kids done before the majority of spring breaks, and allow those dedicated to all styles either a break, or more training before the Frestyle/Greco season begins.

One question. Would you be breaking any KSHSSA rules if you only had a handful of kids that wanted to participate so you had them go practice in one central location with other HS kids in the area. Say OZ, Paola, Prairie View, Louisburg etc all met at Paola and practiced? I would hope not.

Will, it is Molloy not Malloy and no I do not belong to the KWCA I don't have any reason to pay to be a member.You are correct a person is never to old or experienced to learn something new. I have taken the bronze class and it is absolutely 100% only about money. you are the only person that I have ever heard say it is not so you are in the minority. If you really think that I was saying athletes are the property of their coaches well you can read into it what you want that is not what I meant and I think you know that and I do agree with your statement it is a privilage to have a wrestler want you to coach them. We both agree on the KSHSAA restrictions but if a senior wrestler wants his HS coach to coach them that coach may have to jump through alot of hoops and dish out MONEY and time to take a class so that they can coach. Good luck with getting this tourny going I do hope it is a success.