It seemed like a conspiracy from the start.

The KC area supporters wanted to bid to host it in either Mill Valley or Olathe.

One guy seemed hellbent on having it in Rose Hill again even thought of the tournament director's protests not to host again. In spite of the debacle the tournament was in 2010.

There were pleas from other members to host in a larger facility in a metropolitan area. It seemed to make sense to most.

There was no OFFICIAL deadline for proposal or bid. Yet and still a deadline was arbitrarily imposed.

It was suggested to schedule it the weekend of May 7th but it was discovered that was the same date as Missouri's FS/GR State tournament. A discussion ensued which swayed the votes to the following weekend. "We NEED Missouri officials because we don't have enough in Kansas"...

At this point we have determined to have a two day event the 14th and 15th knowing that there would certainly be graduation conflicts. We would have enough officials, dag nabbit, even if we would have less wrestlers...

Where were we going to have it? The group was split although a majority seemed to be in favor of waiting for the bid to come from the East. District 1, The area where an overwhelming majority of summer wrestlers have come from in the most recent history.

But no, we would have to vote for the proposal that was firm, from Rose Hill. The proposal that was put together without the knowledge of the tournament director? How did that happen? He claims to this day that he was unaware that they were hosting again as it was not approved officially. ???

The vote is a deadlock and the man who pushed for a Rose Hill decision from the start got what he wanted with the raise of his hand in favor of Rose Hill.

So be it, the tournament will be in Rose Hill. Who is the head coach at Rose Hill HS?? Yet to this date there is not an official schedule of when anything is to occur. Who is the head official for FS/GR wrestling in KS? Somehow this decision was made.

How many HS wrestlers who graduate on Saturday will want to wrestle on Sunday?? How many who graduate on Sunday will come anyway? Will they mandate Saturday weigh ins for Sunday's tournament thwarting both Saturday and Sunday graduaters? Stay tuned folks. I am contacting Oliver Stone to see if he wants the movie rights...

By the way, I didn't consider Ryne's graduation during this entire discussion. He has the choice to attend graduation, wrestle at Northern Plains, or go to FS/GR State in Rose Hill. My vote always goes for what I feel is best for Kansas Wrestling as a whole.

Who is making decisions ? sounds like we have the three stooges running things. Maybe Mark Anderson should start recruiting and training refs so we have enough in Kansas to run a tournament. Rose Hill run one of the worst tournaments ever last year, Why not get someone to run it who actually knows what they are doing.I still think Bret and Mike from Junction City ran the best tournament when they had it. Was it Mo or Curly who decided to wrestle all day Sunday this year. Seriously Rose Hill done such a poor job last year, they should of been the last people to get this tournament again. There is still no schedule of events, no one knows what is going on, It would be nice so people could make plans get hotel reservations etc...

What have you really

Sounds like they are trying to put together satellite weigh in locations for Friday night AND Saturday night. Nothing confirmed yet.

Will,

Obviously you and I have slightly different versions of what constitutes "the truth" about this. The following is a copy of an email that I sent out to all of the board members on November 5, 23 days prior to the board meeting:


As I have done in the past, I sent the same information to the prior year's tournament host. This was not an endorsement on my part, simply a continuation of a policy of inviting the former host the opportunity to bid on retaining the event. The notice to Rose Hill was sent the same day as the notice to the board members, and I was told that same day that the bid package was forwarded to other high schools to gauge their interest.

At the November 28 meeting, the only firm bid was from Rose Hill. There was discussion over whether to wait for other schools/clubs to determine whether they could hold the event, and to also find out whether it would be financially feasible at those locations. Based on my experience over the past two years, where we delayed until a very late date to announce the location of the state tournament because we were waiting for schools to make a commitment, I will admit to pushing the board to make a decision. I felt that everyone had a minimum of over three weeks to determine whether they wanted to and could afford to host the tournament, which should have been sufficient time to bring forward their bid. However, we have plenty of strong opinions on our board (including yours), and my opinion was only one of those expressed.

“The truth,” as I see it, is that the majority of the board felt that there had been an open and fair bidding process and, based on the bids presented (including bids containing contingencies), decided that the best course was to establish the location of the state tournament so that people could begin planning for the event. The tournament will be available for bid again next year, and I would encourage you to solicit those locations you believe would make a better location to prepare their bids for presentation to the board at the end of November.

That being said, I did ask you directly if there was an "official deadline" for bidding and you said no. We asked for two weeks to get the numbers from the public schools we were seeking to use. You pushed hard NOT to allow the two weeks and used your influence to convince everyone that we were being unfair to Rose Hill to allow other bidders an opportunity. Everyone knows that there is not much room for error hosting a tournament that will be attended by less than 400 wrestlers so it is important to get accurate cost information. We can haggle or debate it but the bottom line is that we chose the wrong weekend for the wrong reason and now we have serious conflicts. We should never schedule our tournament for Cadets and Juniors against a regional that is easy to drive to. We should try to match our date with Missouri's since many of our wrestlers compete in both state's spring events. We should do our best to stay away from graduations as well. Just some food for thought before we get hasty again next year.

I am not sure what the harm was in waiting like we did the year before for the Rose Hill proposal. It was the attended by far more wrestlers than the 2009 event so ample planning time must have been afforded. It is hard to argue with data.