Are we doing the best we can for our sport in WV?

[aacoach70]

Consider the following an opinion piece:

Our current system of rules regarding how we count weigh-ins in this state has caused many problems:

1) Reluctance to schedule duals and tris.
2) Increased travel with fewer home events for each of us.
3) Increased tournament size, which requires 2 days and more officials to pay.
4) Increased entry fee costs.

Some of the above things have additional effects that aren't positive. I will elaborate on each.
1) Under current rules, any meet with less than 5 teams counts as 1 weigh-in. When coaches can get their wrestlers 4 matches in a quad instead of 1 match (and possibly a forfeit at that) in a dual and it costs the same number of weigh-ins, many won't do duals. This makes it hard to hold single school-night events that can be enjoyed by the student body and local community. Teams are going to tournaments, which leads to number 2.
2) We all want to go where the competition is. Some of our best tournaments span 2 days. To compete, we must travel significant distances and get hotel rooms. Hotels for a season are very expensive. It requires much fundraising and can at times be against a school's policy or could be prohibitive for other reasons for some teams. Weather policies are increasingly affecting teams. Many cannot go to 2-day events if their school is cancelled or dismissed early on a Friday. A Saturday-only event avoids some of this, but it is extremely tough to hold a tournament on a weekend when more-established tournaments are being held. It's difficult to get a piece of the pie and attract quality teams away from the larger events. Normally, at these large events, they ask for a commitment to return next year. This brings us to..
3) The "super tournaments" have grown to include 20-30 or more teams all in one venue. This seems great for a fan to catch all the action in one weekend (if fan is local, otherwise, hotel for them too). The problem is that in most instances, a team does not face most of the teams there. In fact, they often end up wrestling some teams they have already faced. There is no choice of opponent. It's usually a product of pool results or random selection, but nobody likes travelling 100 miles to wrestle your next door neighbor. Furthermore, the top kids often don't get a chance to square off. What if that tournament were broken up? There could be multiple tournaments held around the state, increasing choice, reducing travel, and growing the sport in local communities. Wouldn't it benefit us more to host 2 or 3 smaller tournaments, or 2 smaller ones in addition to the one big one? Competition for dollars in small communities can be challenging. All sports must fund-raise, and there is a limited number of wealthy sponsors in most communities, repeatedly called upon to sponsor a team that does very little of its wrestling locally. So how did things get this way?
4) Entry fees have grown to ridiculous costs. Let's be honest. But why? Our officials work and deserve to be paid. The additional mats needed and additional teams entered require additional officials. Fees increase to cover it all. If you can get sponsors, teams will usually use that 1 major tournament as their 1 big fundraiser for the year (to pay for attending the big tournaments and the hotel stays), so it's a cycle. I can't fault teams for hosting large events (it takes initiative, volunteers, time, space, money up front, many headaches, etc), but what can be done to change the cycle and reverse what may be causing us to price ourselves right out of existence. I wonder if the good in what we're doing outweighs the bad? I'm sure some schools have faced the prospect of dropping their program or never starting one up in the first place due to costs. It is terribly expensive for a sport that spends 80% of it's time on the road.

So how do we provide incentive for duals, tris and smaller tournaments without harming the ability for a team to continue doing what we currently do, if that's what one chooses? I would propose a change to the rules that define how we count weigh-ins. I would suggest:

A. 3 or fewer teams = .5 weigh-ins. (Can't count a quad as .5 or we'd be back to same problem)
B. 4 teams or more at ANY 1-day meet = 1 weigh-in. (This means regardless of number of teams, if it's 1 day, it counts as 1 weigh-in)
C. A 2-day event = 2 weigh-ins. (Doesn't change anything here)

I may be showing my ignorance here, but, if our current system is dictated entirely by National Federation rules, I wish someone would consider changing it. If it's up to individual states to determine how we count weigh-ins, then I'd suggest we take a look at improving what we have now.

Discuss.

[Panther_coach]

Even simpler - each five matches ( including forfeits and defaults) counts one weigh in. We can wrestle up to five times in one day. Each day of competition (5 matches) counts one weigh in and you can wrestle five times so five matches is the max for a single weigh in . Using this criteria a tri (2 matches) and three duals (3 matches) equals the same amount of competition as wrestling 5 times in one day but it takes place over multiple days. When I coached, I avoided duals and tris like the plague! We could go to a two day duals event like say the Clash in Parkersburg and get 10 matches in 2 days which counted 2 weigh ins. or .... I could have scheduled two duals and gotten 2 matches for my 2 weigh ins. 10 as opposed to 2 was an easy decision, especially with kids who need experience and mat time before the important stuff at the end of the year rolls around. Since I coached middle school and many of my kids were new to the sport my goal was to get them as many matches as possible against as many different teams and styles as possible. Many of my kids got over 50 matches a season this way.

[Bearhugger]

In regard to the topics title question. HELL NO

[cspranger]

Ditto Bearhugger
And in many more ways than described in original post

[aacoach70]

I can see Panther_coach's point that it should make sense to count a 6-way round robin or less as only 1 weigh-in, based on the fact that we can only wrestle 5 times in one day anyway, however, by suggesting a dual or tri count as .5 weigh-ins, I was trying to provide additional incentive to schedule duals and tris. Besides, some might say a quad requires 1 more mat, 1 more official, and runs about 1 hour too long for a school night match.

[matcoach90]

As far as attendance by the local community is concerned, unfortunately many student bodies don’t attend wrestling matches with any regularity as they do the other major sports. Same goes for the public and wrestling. We normally get those who were already interested in the sport or family members of the wrestlers. It’s not like football where you can draw in someone who might not normally come to a game until the team is ranked, going to the playoffs or even the Super Six. I hate the lack of interest in wrestling when it comes to WV, but it’s what we have to deal with. It definitely doesn’t make things any easier for our sport.

[forthekids]

In my humble opinion, Duals should count as 1/2 pt for weighs in and required to wrestle "X" amount of duals. You could do for duals for what you do two now. Also think just like college their should be a quick intermission in all duals. One should be in front of student body also. Tris and quads the same and duals tournaments should count more. I know in Pa they did something cause the Wheeling Park duals lost a lot of Pa teams because of it. It made them get away from the big duals tournaments. I myself love duals, the average fan can enjoy it and not have to spend endless hours in the gym. I have always said, go to a PHS vs south dual, Wheeling Park and John Marshall and countless others and you can feel the excitement. Again just my opinion.

[aacoach32]

Sadly, it's just a monster that has developed over time, and it will not change anytime soon. It sucks, because schools like mine have no money allocated to individual team budgets. Financially, we only have what we earn in fundraisers and home match gates. Any checks the school makes out in the form of tournament entry fees, hotel bills, etc. are expected to be repaid by our program via fundraising. We are bare bones this year as far as scheduling. No overnight trips until regionals and states.