Port Washington Invite

[ChargerDad]

The more mats the better!!!  I'm curious to know why you Port didn't utilize all 6 mats laid out?

I'm guessing because the 45 minute wait between matches would have been a problem anyway..  I would run 6 mats and skip the lunch break, giving each mat a break if needed..

Here is what I would do..

Set a 50/50 and/or a lunch target for 11:30 AM.. Announce if we reach that target, there will be no lunch break.  And magically, you will reach that number because nobody in the stands want's a lunch break..   get 1 extra table crew and an extra official if needed and rotate their breaks.

[MatScoutWillie]

That reminds me, the 45 minute wait period is over the top!  30 minutes max.

[ChargerDad]

That reminds me, the 45 minute wait period is over the top!  30 minutes max.

Why can't the wait depend on the length of the previous match??

Match ends in 1st period, 15  minute wait.. match ends in 2nd, 30 minute wait, match goes into 3rd, 45 minute wait, or 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes..  Yes, it makes it more complicated, but it would move tournaments along especially in early rounds where hi vs. low seeds mean there are a lot of quick matches, and it would reduce the recovery time when common sense says the longer recovery time isn't necessary.

[imwi]

That reminds me, the 45 minute wait period is over the top!  30 minutes max.

Why can't the wait depend on the length of the previous match??

Match ends in 1st period, 15  minute wait.. match ends in 2nd, 30 minute wait, match goes into 3rd, 45 minute wait, or 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes..  Yes, it makes it more complicated, but it would move tournaments along especially in early rounds where hi vs. low seeds mean there are a lot of quick matches, and it would reduce the recovery time when common sense says the longer recovery time isn't necessary.

NFHS rules

[bulldog]

Wrestlers would still rather be wrestling at 11:45pm on Friday night vs 9am on Saturday.  Giving the wrestlers and the coaches off for the weekend is a huge positive for the sport

100% spot on. Homestead also hosts a great Friday night tournament at the end of the month. For the sake of the sport, I hope the Friday night movement continues!!!

Meh...I would say enough kids thought it was fine but after a day in school then go wrestle a tournament then a bus ride home and getting in the house after 1:00 in the morning there were enough wrestlers who didn't like that. Wrestling 9:00 in the morning isn't bad...it is when a Saturday tournament that could be done by 2:00 in the afternoon drags out until 7:00 at night because of breaks and the pageantry that doesn't really need to take place at a tournament. If Saturday tournaments we planned to be close enough that the team wouldn't have to leave until 6:30 in the morning. Start wrestling AT 9:00 (not 10:30) and be done by 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon people would be fine with them.

[bigoil]

Wrestlers would still rather be wrestling at 11:45pm on Friday night vs 9am on Saturday.  Giving the wrestlers and the coaches off for the weekend is a huge positive for the sport

100% spot on. Homestead also hosts a great Friday night tournament at the end of the month. For the sake of the sport, I hope the Friday night movement continues!!!

Meh...I would say enough kids thought it was fine but after a day in school then go wrestle a tournament then a bus ride home and getting in the house after 1:00 in the morning there were enough wrestlers who didn't like that. Wrestling 9:00 in the morning isn't bad...it is when a Saturday tournament that could be done by 2:00 in the afternoon drags out until 7:00 at night because of breaks and the pageantry that doesn't really need to take place at a tournament. If Saturday tournaments we planned to be close enough that the team wouldn't have to leave until 6:30 in the morning. Start wrestling AT 9:00 (not 10:30) and be done by 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon people would be fine with them.

Those are a lot of ifs and I can tell you the kids I'm close to including my own would rather wrestle Friday and all of them look forward to sleeping in Saturday.

I believe Doc has said this before but why not get out of school early, or like this Friday I think there are a fair amount of inservice days.

[ChargerDad]

That reminds me, the 45 minute wait period is over the top!  30 minutes max.

Why can't the wait depend on the length of the previous match??

Match ends in 1st period, 15  minute wait.. match ends in 2nd, 30 minute wait, match goes into 3rd, 45 minute wait, or 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes..  Yes, it makes it more complicated, but it would move tournaments along especially in early rounds where hi vs. low seeds mean there are a lot of quick matches, and it would reduce the recovery time when common sense says the longer recovery time isn't necessary.

NFHS rules

I understand that it's the current rule..

[DocWrestling]

Friday nights needs to grow.  Tournaments should start wrestling as soon as school gets out and students are leaving to free up parking spaces.  No reason kids can't leave school on Fridays to have weigh-ins at 2pm.  So many other sports miss a ton of school so why not wrestling.

We are talking about the wrestlers.  1) Most are going to be up until 11pm-Midnight anyway on a Friday night.  In fact they would love to be up later if parents allowed it. 2) Most are never going to be up at 6am on a Saturday unless they are forced to get to school on a bus

Even more important is coaches.  Losing coaches is actually worse than losing wrestlers.  Turnover in the coaching profession is at the highest rate I have seen.  Coaches need their weekends off with their families.

Giving kids more weekends off will be a great thing even if it means fewer matches.  I am surprised that more schools don't choose to go to less events than they actually can.  Is going to 6 tournaments versus 7 going to change the outcomes at end of season?  Is replacing a tournament with a weeknight dual going to change the outcomes at end of the season.

We need to make the schedule more conducive to lives of students AND coaches.  No other sport even comes close to absorbing so much time from family's weekends.

Another option is this Monday!  So many schools have off for Martin Luther King Day or just the end of the semester.  Basketball takes advantage of this.  Schools that have off could take advantage of this.

Golf, tennis, baseball, etc all take off full days of school for competitions including WIAA tournament events.  Why can't we hold regionals on a Friday afternoon and sectionals the following Friday and give off the weekends?  What about conference tournaments on Fridays?

Heck I think refs would much rather work on Fridays than Saturdays.  Good for all.

[mojo123]

PREACH!!!!! ^^^ 

[Ledger]

Meh...I would say enough kids thought it was fine but after a day in school then go wrestle a tournament then a bus ride home and getting in the house after 1:00 in the morning there were enough wrestlers who didn't like that. Wrestling 9:00 in the morning isn't bad...it is when a Saturday tournament that could be done by 2:00 in the afternoon drags out until 7:00 at night because of breaks and the pageantry that doesn't really need to take place at a tournament. If Saturday tournaments we planned to be close enough that the team wouldn't have to leave until 6:30 in the morning. Start wrestling AT 9:00 (not 10:30) and be done by 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon people would be fine with them.

Well said sir! 

[1Iota]

Friday nights needs to grow.  Tournaments should start wrestling as soon as school gets out and students are leaving to free up parking spaces.  No reason kids can't leave school on Fridays to have weigh-ins at 2pm.  So many other sports miss a ton of school so why not wrestling.

We are talking about the wrestlers.  1) Most are going to be up until 11pm-Midnight anyway on a Friday night.  In fact they would love to be up later if parents allowed it. 2) Most are never going to be up at 6am on a Saturday unless they are forced to get to school on a bus

Even more important is coaches.  Losing coaches is actually worse than losing wrestlers.  Turnover in the coaching profession is at the highest rate I have seen.  Coaches need their weekends off with their families.

Giving kids more weekends off will be a great thing even if it means fewer matches.  I am surprised that more schools don't choose to go to less events than they actually can.  Is going to 6 tournaments versus 7 going to change the outcomes at end of season?  Is replacing a tournament with a weeknight dual going to change the outcomes at end of the season.

We need to make the schedule more conducive to lives of students AND coaches.  No other sport even comes close to absorbing so much time from family's weekends.

Another option is this Monday!  So many schools have off for Martin Luther King Day or just the end of the semester.  Basketball takes advantage of this.  Schools that have off could take advantage of this.

Golf, tennis, baseball, etc all take off full days of school for competitions including WIAA tournament events.  Why can't we hold regionals on a Friday afternoon and sectionals the following Friday and give off the weekends?  What about conference tournaments on Fridays?

Heck I think refs would much rather work on Fridays than Saturdays.  Good for all.

A common theme that I heard from kids that stopped wrestling in HS was that they didn't want to get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and then give up the whole day.  The top kids are often willing to do it because the prize at the end makes it worth it, but the mediocre to good kid that isn't necessarily a State caliber kid starts to wonder if the sacrifice is worth it.   

[bulldog]

Wrestlers would still rather be wrestling at 11:45pm on Friday night vs 9am on Saturday.  Giving the wrestlers and the coaches off for the weekend is a huge positive for the sport

100% spot on. Homestead also hosts a great Friday night tournament at the end of the month. For the sake of the sport, I hope the Friday night movement continues!!!

Meh...I would say enough kids thought it was fine but after a day in school then go wrestle a tournament then a bus ride home and getting in the house after 1:00 in the morning there were enough wrestlers who didn't like that. Wrestling 9:00 in the morning isn't bad...it is when a Saturday tournament that could be done by 2:00 in the afternoon drags out until 7:00 at night because of breaks and the pageantry that doesn't really need to take place at a tournament. If Saturday tournaments we planned to be close enough that the team wouldn't have to leave until 6:30 in the morning. Start wrestling AT 9:00 (not 10:30) and be done by 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon people would be fine with them.

Those are a lot of ifs and I can tell you the kids I'm close to including my own would rather wrestle Friday and all of them look forward to sleeping in Saturday.

I believe Doc has said this before but why not get out of school early, or like this Friday I think there are a fair amount of inservice days.

And I can tell you the kids I'm close to including my own say they hate Friday night tournaments. Maybe because I didn't let them sleep in on Saturdays...but I see a fair amount of comment about "why not get out of school early". Isn't school still about school? I understand the point will be "other sports do it" but shouldn't school still be about school?

So...the question...if Friday night tournaments are so popular and so loved by the athlete why isn't there more?

[bigoil]

Three years ago our school had zero on their schedule and now have two, both of which are new in that time period.

[littledoc83]

Our team leaves before 7 AM on Saturdays three times this year and our kids hate it.  Doesn't matter if they're done by 2:00, they hate the morning departure.  We will be adding more Friday nights as they become available.

The times get worse as you get farther into rural areas as well, those teams are traveling farther and leaving earlier.  In my district I'd say close to if not all of our kids would prefer a late Friday night.

[bolsen]

Antigo here. We attended the Port tournament. We had the longest drive, 3 hours. We left school at 11AM. Our administrators were fine with that. Many other sports do the same thing. The tournament was great. It's definitely a sectional level of competition. The only reason we might not return is the competitive level of our wrestlers next year.

I love the Friday tournaments. We went to Neenah as well. The kids I have love having Saturday to ice fish, ski, or snowmobile. My wife loved being able to make plans for two extra Saturdays. I would make every JV tournament a Friday night affair. Those are the kids you want to keep around and free weekends is part of that. We had a coach bus and everyone was able to sleep on the way home, which meant they were sleeping by 12:30.