No team food allowed!?

[Wvufan08]

Why are they not allowing teams to take their own food into the arena? The kids should have access to food that was brought for them inside the arena. Teams have always been allowed to do this. As a parent, I will not purchase anything inside that building now in concessions.

[admin]

This is per the arena’s request.

The tournament has spent quite a bit of money to provide free food for the wrestlers and coaches.

[Stonewall]

So now the wrestlers are going outside to tailgate to eat. Ridiculous
They don’t want the food from here they want what they’ve eaten all season long
I’ve also noticed as has everyone else that certain special teams get to sit in the bleachers while the rest are in crappy chairs on the floor....
All teams should be treated equally....

[matcoach90]

Is this accurate??? If so, are you saying that the arena or WVSSAC is providing free food for all wrestlers and coaches? AA trying to make sure before we head that way tomorrow evening.

[JMfan]

I think it is time to move the state tournament out of that arena.

[admin]

Is this accurate??? If so, are you saying that the arena or WVSSAC is providing free food for all wrestlers and coaches? AA trying to make sure before we head that way tomorrow evening.

Yes, the tournament will be providing food for the AA/A wrestlers as well.

[Thetruth101]

As an athlete, when watching your weight for the entire year, you learn a few things. The biggest, is that food is fuel for your body. So the SSAC, decides to pay someone a lot of money to make chicken tenders, french fries and hotdogs, to feed high level athletes who are trying to compete for a state title. Grilled or baked chicken rice and vegetables are not expensive. This was a huge miss. I like the concept of them feeding the athletes but fried food is not what these young men need to compete at a high level.
I also can't find a cup of coffee anywhere on the premises. The WVSSAC the venue and whoever else made the decisions on this topic didn't have the beat interest in the participants coaches and families involved with this tournament. Either give these athletes quality food to fuel their bodies or let them bring their own food.

[matcoach90]

As an athlete, when watching your weight for the entire year, you learn a few things. The biggest, is that food is fuel for your body. So the SSAC, decides to pay someone a lot of money to make chicken tenders, french fries and hotdogs, to feed high level athletes who are trying to compete for a state title. Grilled or baked chicken rice and vegetables are not expensive. This was a huge miss. I like the concept of them feeding the athletes but fried food is not what these young men need to compete at a high level.
I also can't find a cup of coffee anywhere on the premises. The WVSSAC the venue and whoever else made the decisions on this topic didn't have the beat interest in the participants coaches and families involved with this tournament. Either give these athletes quality food to fuel their bodies or let them bring their own food.

AMEN!!!! It's all about the money... and at the very least, why not allow the wrestlers to have their own food as in years past? There is no excuse for this. Our wrestlers will be going outside the arena to eat the food our boosters have brought for them, so they can have healthy food. Then they will come back in. How ridiculous that a team has to do this just to get good food into their bodies for competition? My son is a senior, but I hope someone takes a hard look at moving states somewhere else in the future for those who will come after. I get it... gouge the parents and other spectators, forcing us to buy and consume concert foods... but there is no good excuse for not allowing the wrestlers to have their own food. Do better WVSSAC and those who run the arena.

[Riverdawg64]

I agree it would be nice to see a change in venue. Morgantown, Charleston, or Wheeling. Wheeling has the OVAC tournament for 3 days and still doesn't charge $45 to get in. Price gouging by the hotels also is disheartening. I vote to move it.

[Doyablameme?]

From a fans perspective I think that all things considered, the WVSSAC and the arena did pretty well the last two days. Under these circumstances it’s almost unfair to criticize the organizers of this event. I am simply glad the tournament and season came to fruition.

[admin]

From a fans perspective I think that all things considered, the WVSSAC and the arena did pretty well the last two days. Under these circumstances it’s almost unfair to criticize the organizers of this event. I am simply glad the tournament and season came to fruition.

Thank you, Doyablameme. Even though I am just a lowly website admin and personally had nothing to do with the organization of the event, I agree with you that the WVSSAC and the tournament committee should be commended, considering the limitations presented them by the government and the arena. I heard of some of the headaches behind the scenes when it comes to scheduling and rescheduling (more than once!) an entire state tournament. We as fans honestly don't have full insight to all of the headaches that go along with planning such an event.

I know folks aren't happy about the food situation, but again, the "no food allowed" rule was beyond the control of the WVSSAC and the tournament committee. The case is the same for the seating. The arena staff blocked off the sections based on number of qualifiers per team (which of course correlates to number of expected spectators per team). Seating was not assigned by the WVSSAC nor by the tournament staff.

And as for the price of the food, I think we would be gouged regardless of venue. I've spent a lot of money this week already on popcorn and water. Yuck.

But like Doyablameme, I'm just extremely thankful we even got to have a state tournament. We've been (and will be on Thursday) fortunate enough to crown TRUE team and individual champions in our sport for both 2020 and 2021. Not all high school sports in our state have been so fortunate.

[wv16refgk]

Amen Jenny!!!!GK

[admin]

Statement from Bill Archer:

This is the 38th WV state tournament that I have directed and 53rd that I have been a part of. Maybe it’s just that everyone is mad and fed up with COVID, but there seems to be some dissatisfaction with this year's state tournament. I don’t think it can be due to this much lack of knowledge, so let me try and see if it makes any difference to try and explain things.

Ticket prices are set by the WVSSAC to be placed in line with all other sports. This school year has been a terrible time for the WVSSAC, as it has for your schools as far as money goes. $40 for the normal 5 session ticket I think at worst is in the middle of other prices. Ohio state tournament prices are increased to $10 and $12 in the final rounds of the tournament.

Communication with other states has been difficult. As far has I can tell, you can’t hardly get other states to call you back with info about their state. Many don’t even list a phone number.

The Schottenstein Center told the Ohio Activities Commission there was no way would they use their center and that track was out, too.

About half of the states have no reimbursement to schools at all. In West Virginia, the school's reimbursement is usually around $19-20 thousand. That would mean out of the the normal gross of the tournament of a $40 ticket, 25% would be given back to schools, which would amount to $10.

The Civic Center was only enforcing what they were told as far as not letting people bring food in. Why have they always let us do it before? So we said we would feed the coaches and wrestlers. After we paid the 50% off food bill that came to over $16,000, that meant we were over 40% of a $40 ticket to reimburse schools or to feed kids.

The WVSSAC tried to have a football playoff; it wasn’t totally successful. The WVSSAC was determined to have the state wrestling tournament.

I was told that people were saying it was the WVSSAC and I who limited the seating. Right, I am famous for running small tournaments! The WSAZ may be the largest tournament of its kind in the nation: 2200 matches, 12 mats, middle school, high school, second teams, reserves in both and over 100 teams in a little over a day and a half. If it wasn’t for the computer genius of Robert St. Clair, we could not run it the old way. We have the computers hooked up to a program that enters every score from the tables into a program that sets everything up. Did you ever notice there are no longer students running score sheets to the head table?

With the kids not being let out of school at HHS we had no workers. Some of you bought a program from my wife, who sold programs with updated brackets at the front entrance during the AA tournament because there was nobody else available to do it.

We changed the dates for the state tournament 5 times. How do you think that worked out on the Civic Center's calendar with this kind of change?

Enough said for now. Will see how it works for now.

Maybe more later,
Bill Archer

P.S. Special thanks to East Fairmont, North Marion and Point Pleasant girls for working the AA-A tournament.