I would like to thank all the School Officials, Mat Officials, Pairers, Table Workers, Concession Workers and everyone else that helped us put on this tournament. Except for the length of the tournament I feel things went well. The pauses in wrestling on a few mats at the end of the day was due to us calling wrestlers up and we had to wait a specific time to scratch them. When we would have 3 or 4 in a row then we would get open mats.

I myself have been in wrestling for over 20 years but this was the first time I had ever been to a Freestyle/Greco Tournament. None of my table workers had been to one either, we have ran tournaments before but always folkstyle. The only helpers with our tournament that had seen this style before is the Mat Officials, Pairers and Gonzo. (I was proud of how my workers did being inexperienced)

Rose Hill is a 4A school and we have 5 mats, I do not know too many schools that have more mats than that. I would like to thank Derby for lending us a mat in the last second when another school had promised us one and then backed out. Yes we have two gyms and could have had 3 more mats in there but we were going on estimates from experienced people including the state board members telling us how many kids would be there. I was told that last year 5 mats were used and they would recommend us using 6 this year.

Many of you have said that the numbers were up and we should have used the other gym. How was I supposed to know the numbers would be up that much when registrations don’t end until Friday night at 3:00 pm.? It would be hard to add mats, officials, and table workers over night. The information on the tournament was on the web for a month, yet Monday morning I had 12 people signed up. As of Wednesday evening I had 130 people registered. We were sweating wondering if it was even worth putting this tournament on, much less expanding?

The way things are set up now I don’t see you doing anything else but guessing on how many are going to show up and that makes it hard to prepare a venue to run the tournament perfectly.

Thanks to everyone, the helpers, the wrestlers and parents. I had a good time but I was ready to collapse at the end. LOL

Coach John Terrell

JT,
I don't think anyone is faulting you, the tournament, or the facilities. Like you said, with the late due date for entries it is impossible to know just exactly what you will need in the way of mats or help. Trackwrestling has made all of us tardy on entries and it is a problem even for invitationals. I think one way to possibly cure this is tiered entry fees based on how late you enter your wrestlers. For instance, if someone wants to wait till the last minute to enter their wrestler or team then make them pay an additional five bucks per entry.

I want to say thank you to Rose Hill and everyone that helped. Besides having to drive home that night for 3 hours my son and I had a really good time. I'm all for keeping this a one day event and just adding more mats. I don't agree that Track Wrestling is a problem, after all people set the time that you can register. Just make the cut off for registration two days earlier or even a week earlier.

So for those that are incharge and that will vote on this next year. I am for a one day event. At least Nine Mats, no matter the numbers( Three for Bantum, Intermediate, Novice, Six for Schoolboy and above). Keep the USA wrestling weight classes, and Pay those that host more! (I know you can't do the last one but it's a good idea.)

JT - I think the tournament itself did run very well. I want to thank you and all our help for a great job. Here are some of the things I saw that were very good.

1. The facilities were great. Plenty of seating and viewing areas.

2. The table workers were all professional and did a very good job given the hours they worked. One would have had to watch very closely to notice they had never worked a GR/FS tournament before.

3. The concession stand was open until almost the very end and well stocked all day. The prices weren't terrible bad either.

4. Exect for a few minutes here and there per mat most mat were being used continuously without a lot of down time.

Overall the tournament itself ran very well. Once again thank you and all your help.

Andrew Steele

I also want to thank the tournament director & workers.

Here is my reason for wanting block wrestling
these numbers are freestyle only (greco numbers are less)

68 weight groups total
15 three man brackets
13 two man brackets
10 1 man brackets-- 10 state champions that did not wrestle a match!
38 brackets out of 68 total 3 man or less

ok lets say a three man bracket is worth driving across ks & spending 13+ hours in a wrestling tournament & a few hundred dollars. I think very few will say a 1 or 2 man bracket is worth the time or effort.

23 brackets are 1 or 2 man thats 33% of the people coming not getting a match or just wrestling the same kid 4 times.

There have been several suggestions that we move to a facility that can hold additional mats or use an auxiliary gym. This would be an ideal time to discuss one of the great needs we have in our state - recruiting new officials.

At this year's tournament we had every active freestyle/Greco official in our state at the tournament. In addition, we had a very fine official from Oklahoma who agreed to come up and help us with our state tournament. There were barely enough officials to handle the six mats that were used - it would not have been possible to open up other mats, even if they had been available.

This has been an item of discussion at our board meetings for the past several years. We've tried several things to increase the numbers of officials, including a long-term plan which provides incentives for Juniors and Cadets who perform some officiating at tournaments in which they are competing (this particular programs gives the athletes a way to help pay for their trip to Fargo while also exposing them to officiating). Fees paid to officials, which used to be next to nothing, has increased to a respectable level (although still less than a typical folkstyle event). However, we still don't seem to be able to grow our pool of officials.

If anyone out there has a love for the sport and would be interested in becoming a freestyle/Greco official, please contact our State Officials' Director Mark Anderson (matman033@yahoo.com or 913-645-8438).

We would attend this tournament if it weren't for the fact we would have to drive 250 miles to get maybe one match in. Looking at the entries, my son would not even of wrestled unless he wrestled up 15 pounds.

Yes we live in western Kansas. Yes we are used to driving to do anything. But...you might get a few more kids to participate if everything was not held in the eastern half of the state. I am not asking for things to be held in western Kansas. I am suggesting that things be held in the center of the state. I thought it was great that MS State was held in Lindsborg.

Just my 2 cents...

Just wanted to say what a great set of facilities Rose Hill has! Also wanted to thank everybody for their hard work to provide this opportunity for our kids. We drove 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours to get there and I would do it twice if they would make it a two day tournament. This was only our third state tournament and it was the best one yet. I do think we should combine some brackets. You could look at several things to combine them, skill level, age and weight. This would take some time and you might have to use paper and pencil, but it is doable.

Again thanks to everybody who put in their time to provide my kids with this opportunity!

We need to walk before we run. I would suggest more mats and wrestling Greco until 10 pm on Friday. We could use Cadets and Juniors to officiate the kids mats and use the experienced officials for the kids.

Modified blcok wrestling for the youth levels is a must! These kids need mat time not a state championship. The age groups below schoolboy should be a "festival" and we should permit out of state kids to participate too. The state championships and triple crown awards should be reserved for schoolboy and above. We need the torunament resluts to matter towards the dual team rosters as well.

Will, Great idea. I would have had no issue with the hotel room if we started wrestling Friday night. This would also keep families from having to spend the money on a second night in a hotel, like a two day tournament. Weather we combine weight classes or make it a "festival" for the younger age groups we do need to get them more time wrestling different kids.

It was nice to see the numbers up so high. As long as we can keep them coming back. I heard numerous comments from 1st families that they were not coming back due to the weigh-in and the length of the tournament. Weigh-in and start wrestling Friday night would make the Hotel worth it and shorten Saturday. That might keep some of those wrestlers coming back.

I agree with Will, the results need to matter for the duals.

I think wrestling two rounds of Greco on Friday night should be considered. It would shorten Saturday's ending time and no additional mats or refs would be required.

the state tournament doesnt mean anything for the dual teams if it did then more of the kids that WILL be on the team would have bothered to show up

Actually our dual team is considered by looking at the results from the state tournament and putting the best possible lineup together from those results. There are however some wrestlers due to scheduling conflicts that were not able to make it to the tournament this weekend. This will always be a problem. That is why we have implemented the regional training centers. Before a wrestler is handed a spot on the dual teams they must have been attending the centers. We can use head to head match ups from the state tournament as well as the upcoming Southern Plains tournament to separate or rank wrestlers for the teams.

Russ Hermreck
Kansas Cadet & Junior Director

Coach Hermreck,
That is not the same answer you gave me at state on saturday, you did mention head to head but when I asked if the results mattered you said, "No, not really". I understand why you gave me that answer.I feel that if the roster spots were on the line, like they are in other states, we would have a better turn out and the wrestlers would probably put more effort into being at the weight they would want to wrestle for the duals.

It does matter for those that will be participating in the same weight class. Usually what happens is the wrestlers will be entered in a different weight classes for duals and Fargo. For example, Wrestler A wins the state tournament at 130 pounds in Freestyle. This means that he has a National Dual roster spot for 130 pounds locked up for him. Typically this wrestler chooses to move down to 125 for the duals though. So now we have to take in consideration that he is moving down and now he is trying to take the spot of the state freestyle champion from 125 pounds. Our goal is to put the best team on the mat, period. We use the state tournament results to find the best man at each weight class, however some of our wrestlers were not able to attend this tournament thus we have to create room for them as well. With all the shifting of weights for duals, you can see this is a difficult thing to get done.

I agree that it would be difficult to make room for those that could not attend.

Using your example of the 130 pound wrestler, if he wanted to go 125 for the duals then he should have gone 125 at state, then there wouldn't be the delima of what to do with them. I just feel that if the weight changes were not allowed our state tournament would be more important and would grow.

Because of baseball, track, prom, golf, ACT's, etc it is nearly impossible to make the state tournament THE qualifier for the summer dual teams. We need to have the BEST wrestlers possible at each weight and at the Junior level we need to have wrestlers NOT going both ways unless they are an alternate. The schedule and weigh in requirements make it too brutal to wrestle all 15-20 matches in four days.

Can we move the tournament to June? Heck no! We have tried that and the data clearly shows that May is the way to go. The past four years we have had two in May (300 plus wrestlers) and two in June (80 to 100 less wrestlers).

Should you wrestle the weight at state that you want to wrestle the duals in? Absolultely!

Could we use Southern Plains as a qualifier? For sure but you have to wrestle the weight you want to be on the team at.

What if you are a past Fargo All American? Automatically considered for dual team participation.

Regional training center attendees? If we have six and you make three then you get considered.

So now we have a handful of guys. Winner of state, winner of SP or highest KS placer, regional trainees who didn't compete at state, returning All Americans. If we have multiple guys who want to be on the teams we have wrestle offs at one of the last regional training center events. If you were injured and didn't meet any of the above criteria then you petition the Corp Board who conduct an electronic vote. We get the best guys in the starting line ups, we have the best alternates strategically placed and we use as many guys as possible so that we don't have guys doubling up.

It really shouldn't be that difficult. Heck we have a hard time filling the starting line up! Last year there were next to no alternates so a few wrestlers had to go out every dual.

I do want to grow the state tournament as much or more than anyone but it can't be the end all selection for the dual teams.

its not that hard oklahoma and other states make it work every year.. thay have qualifing events and the winners of them events then wrestle off for the spots. if you dont attend you dont participate.

Some kids, mine included, are growing like weeds right now. He plans on going 140 or 145 for the duals and SP, but didn't feel like cutting for state, then a month later, doing it again for SP and duals. He'll cut for SP, and maintain so it is easier for Duals. Whether that makes any sense or not, that is his plan. He wrestled ALL 16 matches at Schoolboy duals last year, so after that, he is looking forward to having some alternates to depend on for a break now and then. Or if he is not the first team guy, he can spell the first team guy. These duals are brutal, so we need to take at least 30 guys. Keep in mind, we could have 3 guys make weight at 140 and have them be our 140 and 145 lbs guys, rotating each dual. Same with any weight. I believe you can move up one weight class once the roster is turned in.