Ok team, I went to a “mixer”, Thursday and watched 4 teams wrestle. No team score is kept in a mixer. Say it ain’t so!! Did KSHSAa pull a fast one, or was it National Federation? Wrestling is now a sport in Kansas where occasionally no team score is kept.
Am I The only one that thinks this is nuts? Taking the team aspect out of the sport cannot be a good idea! Right?
Raise your hand if you think basketball or football would have more participation and a larger fan base if they eliminated the scoreboard during games.

The "mixer" should be designed to maximize mat time for JV wrestling. I think there is a maximum of 3 matches allowed but it only costs you 2 competition points. I can't think of a reason that you would do that for a varsity competition. Others may have a different opinion. Change my mind.

This was a varsity competition?

Personally, I don't think there's any reason to keep team scores at mixers. In our neck of the woods, mixers are typically designed for lower levels (JV/C Team or Freshmen only). I view them as an opportunity to get green kids as much mat time as possible, against equal competition, in a short amount of time. We hope our kids get 2-3 matches and get everyone home at a decent time - as all our mixers are weekday events.

Team scores are a huge aspect of building culture & the wrestling fan base at subvarsity tournaments and all varsity competitions. I just don't see the value at "match-ups" or "mixers". Just my two cents.

Alright Horgan, I will bite...In some parts of the state, there are too many duels where the teams aren't full and the wrestlers they do have don't match up in weights, so a duel is held, team points are exchanged, a duel winner is determined and hardly anyone wrestled. So, the mixer or as my good friend Derick Budke calls it, a Jamboree, is a good opportunity to get 5-6 teams together and make sure everyone gets 2-3 varsity matches without burning up competition points. Not real relevant to larger schools with full teams, but very relevant to smaller schools who struggle to fill out a lineup and to find matches outside of weekend tourneys. Chase County is holding a Jamboree on Thursday night and I think 6 teams are on the schedule. It'll be their 3rd year and their biggest one yet and I think it is a very positive way to grow the sport in schools and communities where maybe wrestling tradition and participation are marginal or challenged. Get Harry and come down to Cottonwood Falls on Thursday, I will buy your tickets!

Jamie summed it up pretty well. I will give you the back story and how it's run. Four years ago I attended a meeting at the KWCA wrestling clinic where we discussed why the sport of wrestling was declining in numbers across the nation. One of the discussion points was about issues with the dual model. Too many open weights, coaches avoiding tough match-ups, and too much moving their line-ups to ensure dual wins. These points are somewhat foreign to me, with the exception of open weights. I have attended far too many duals and dual tournaments where kids get too few matches for the points they were giving up. One of the models we discussed was the "scramble", Jamboree, whatever you choose to call it. We have 8 teams at our Jamboree; Douglass, Clearwater, Heston, Council Grove, Eureka, Herington, and Emporia. We will match kids up by weight + or - 5% and ability. Each kid will get 2 minimum and 3 maximum matches vs kids of similar experience. We run approximately 120 matches in just over 3 hrs. Our band plays, our dance team dances, and we treat it like a ball game. At the end of the night we wrestle 3 feature matches and introduce those kids much like you would the finals for a tournament. We run a twitter poll and vote for the best match. The gym is packed, there is no downtime, we wrestle quality opponents, and our kids love it. Part of the rule change, which we petitioned for 3 years ago, is that no team points can be kept and no awards can be given. I understand it may be foreign to some, but we don't tear down for finals, clear the gym, and charge a second admission anymore either. Things change, this has a good one for us.

I see the value with JV. But not varsity. Cottonnwood falls is much too small for Timmy and I to be there at the same time!, the offer is appreciated though

The team score was not a huge deal to me but I would have liked to have seen team scores done in some way. However, what I was not a fan of was that it was a varsity/JV competition that was not separated and all wrestlers were thrown into the some bracket to get more matches. At times I had a first year wrestler out there with very good wrestler and it hurt some of the excitement about wrestling for some of those wrestlers. At times we were on the flip side and we put a very good wrestler on the mat with a beginner and I fear that may hurt their excitement for the sport. A wrestlers first ever match should not necessarily be with a kid that has wrestled at the state tournament in February IMO.

I do like the idea of getting matches with a mixer however, IMO I believe they should be separated JV/V but by doing this you might as well just wrestle the dual and match up your JV wrestlers the best you can. Just my thoughts not sure if they are right or wrong.

Brett Delich
Atchison County Community High School

Harry, you need to live a little! You could watch wrestling and get a great Flint Hills steak dinner at Grand Central. Plus, you could yell at me a little, too! And I know how much you enjoyed that.

Now you're speaking my language Sauder! Wrestling, steak, and Sauder getting his a$$ chewed! I like all of those things!

Oh Lordy, mostly I was yelling at me for not coaching properly. You were one of the best!
AND
Your tears mean nothing to me.
AND
Suck it up buttercup!

Tim and I are headed south, assuming score will be kept during lunch.

We run ours using Madison block bracketing. The key to a mixers success is having the right number of kids. We have 136 kids entered and will run approximately 130 matches on 3 mats. The number of kids is important to ensure the you have the right kind of match-ups. My rule of thumb is 45 kids per mat, this keeps the time for each round to approximately the same as a full team, quality dual. For the model to work you need at least 3 mats, 120 plus kids, and coaches who are willing to rank their kids appropriately. This model was developed to avoid matching a highly skilled kid with a first or second year wrestler. If those things are happening, you are not inviting enough schools, or coaches are not ranking kids appropriately.

The key benefits I see
1. We get 3 matches for 2 points vs appropriate skill level competition.
2. We avoid Saturdays
3. We treat it like a ball game.

Coach, 136 kids, 8 teams or so? That makes more sense, the mixer I saw had about 40 kids total, maybe 7 good matchups all night. Man, I still think a scoreboard has to be involved.

Speaking for the small schools that may never have a full line-up, these events are vital if there is not a change in the competition points structure. We go to double duals, it costs 2 points and most of the boys only wrestle 1 time and some none at all. We are worried about the participation number going down, but do nothing to help the small schools/new programs. Best thing for a wrestler to gain mat time is max. matches at the lowest competition points possible.