First off, I would like to apologize to all the wrestling clubs, wrestlers, parents, families and friends, for such a long day of wrestling!

We ended up with 150 kids more that what we were originally planning on.
I hope that the long day won't make anyone change their minds about coming back next year.

It was a learning experience for all of us and in spite of the very long day, everything ran smoothly and everyone was very cordial and friendly and the wrestling competition was GREAT! There are alot of excellent wrestlers out there and we saw some very good competition during the day!

Second: A BIG, BIG THANK YOU, to all that helped out with the tournament. For those of you who are not part of the Atchison club, it was above and beyond the call of duty for all that you did to help us out! It is very much appreciated!

For those of you in the Atchison Club, again, a BIG, BIG THANK YOU for a job well done. As stated before, it was a learning experience and a very long day, twice as long for us as it was for those who came to wrestle, since we had two tournaments to run, Saturday and Sunday!

Tournament results will be posted in the next day or two. As for the team trophy,
1st: Lansing Slammers
2nd: Savannah
3rd: Atchison

Congratulations Slammers on a job well done!

Thanks again to all who came, and we hope to see you back next year!

Tracey Elias, Atchison River Rats

We were also discourated with the length of the day and had some new parents there as well. However, I agree that there was a lot of good wrestling and the Atchison club was very hospitable and ran things the best they could under the circumstances. When I wanted to grumble, I reminded myself of the kids that would have been turned away otherwise, and waited it out. If there is any way to add more mats next year it would be perfect.

I also agree with the fact that it was a very long day and I can see the point about not
turning wrestlers away. That being said I feel that you have to take into account the size
of the Gym when planning an event. This event seemed to be very overbooked. Parents had trouble seeing matches due to the number of people standing, as I am sure everyone was aware of by the announcement every 30 minutes to sit down if you were matside. The problem I saw was there was no place in the bleachers to sit. Some of the mats had over 175 matches scheduled on them. My son has wrestled for 3 years and I have never seen that number of matches scheduled per mat. For parents or coaches who have been involved in the sport for years what is the number of matches per mat normally? For some of the younger kids 8 and under being in a gym from 9-5 seems a little long to me.
The coaches in our club play a major role in what tournaments we go to and
after not getting out of this tournament until 7:00 PM they informed the parents that
they would not support our club going to this tournament again.

I think it is time for Kansas to consider a different way of running tournaments. Many surrounding states utilize age group breakdowns for specific times,,,,
example,,,,12 and under---8am to 10am, all mats would be 12 and under wrestlers. weigh ins could be just prior to that time or the night before

I have seen many 500 plus entries run smoothly and quickly this way. Kids also stay focused, many kids were there from 6 to 6, nothing against Atchison,,they were more than cordial and their efforts were appreciated.

I have seen and coached wrestling in several states,,,Kansas has the best wrestlers and fans,,but the tournament organization is very archaic in nature...lets do a change,,,keep the kids fresh and fans of wrestling

I agree that the day was entirely too long, too many wrestlers, not enough mats! It was just too much for the kids to be there for breakfast, lunch and dinner too. (Not that anything healthy was being served...but that's another complaint for another time) Otherwise it was run smoothly. Parents being comfortable or being able to actually see around and through the rude people at matside who were standing is not really what matters. It's that way at every tournament isnt' it? What IS important is expecting kids to be there for 12 hours. Our coaches are suggesting that we skip this one next year too unless something is done to prevent this extremely long day for the kids. Either break the day into age groups OR get more mats & space. Either way, when the Atchison folks get ready for next year, you better be ready to adress the complaints if you want to get as many wrestlers back again! I think if you have some solutions, our club might come back.

I JUST WANT TO TAKE THIS TIME TO INFORM ALL OF YOU OUR CLUB IS DEDICATED TO MAKING OUR TOURNAMENT THE BEST IT CAN BE AND YOU CAN REST ASSURED THAT WE WILL COME UP WITH A SOULATION TO THE PROBLEM OF THE LONG DAY SATURDAY WE ARE LOOKING AT SEVERAL OPTIONS FOR NEXT YEAR (USING THE COLLEGE IN TOWN WHICH HAS TWO BIG GYMS,MAKING IT A TWO DAY TOURNAMENT OR SPILTING THE FORMAT UP TO MAKE IT QUICKER) I WILL ASSURE YOU IT WILL BE SOLVED ONE WAY OR ANOTHER THANKS JOE NORRIS PRESIDENT ATCHISON RIVER RATS.

I was lucky enough to get out of there at 4:00, but my son did not wrestle until 2:00. His bracket only had 3 wrestlers in it and we were there until 4:00! I think that when a bracket is that small, they should get their matches over earlier in the day so they can go home. I know everyone has told me that waiting around is part of wrestling and that is fine, but not wrestling util 5 hours after wrestling starts????
Does anyone else support this?

This is why I am a proponent of running split-session tournaments. They are a little more difficult to organize, but it lets most parents and wrestlers cut their time in the gym by 50%, while still getting the same number of matches. Furthermore, it cuts down on crowd size, since only half of the parents are there at any one time.

I realize that club directors and coaches aren't quite an enamored with this style of tournament, since they have to stay there for both sessions, anyway. And, no matter how well structured the tournament is, there is still some time lost during the switch from the first session to the second, so the day is a little longer for those who have to stay for both sessions. Therefore, although this format benefits 80% of those attending the tournament, it's the 20% who are running the clubs who are choosing which tournaments to attend. For this reason, split tournaments have been a little slow to catch on.

I tend to agree with OlatheWrestlingMom.
However, I am not sure what can be done. My son has had late starts all year. It was almost 3pm at a tournament earlier this year before we wrestled our first match. This was due to a first round scratch. My advice to tournament directors is to be more sensitive to this issue. Try to give all kids an early match number below number 30 and account for this in rebracketing if necessary. I know this does not always work out and I understand the importance to getting started on time. However, it appears that little to know attention is paid to this issue at present.

No one was overly happy...I know my son wrestled at 12 noon, 3:30pm and 7:30pm. But I know it was run as smoothly as possible with that many kids. I attended this tournament last year without our team and it was great, I am the one that wanted to go back this year with the team. I too hope that the over crowded mats is addressed. But thank you to the Atchison Club. And thanks to Bill for coaching Ethan in this last match so our coaches could go home to come back the next day, for the Novice Kids.

We were there, boy were we ever there. I heard comments Atchison had a large wrestlinig room and why didn't they use it? Mats 5 & 6 were twice as long as they were wide. Seven or eight mats could have been made in that gym. Add a full mat in the wrestling room for the big twelve and fourteen and under (much safer for them, more enjoyable for the parents and coaches) and you have the match numbers down to a hundred on each mat. Move matches when space becomes available and you can run that tournament and be out by 3-4:oo. It could be a great tournament.