Tourney Options

[HMsDad]

We are meeting Tuesday to discuss switching our tournament to Track. Just wondering what others think or look for when looking for weekend tournaments. Pros and cons welcome.

[Ghetto]

every tournament should be on track in my opinion. The cost is well worth it. Makes life so much easier.

[aarons23]

I love track....but understand the cost and operating issues involved with it so at the youth level i dont really care which way they go.

[bkraus]

track is definitely the way to go.  You can set a registration deadline and thus prebracket with only minimal changes day of. It also eliminates the hassle of having to deal with little Jimmy's parents trying to come into the room and influence where their kids will land.

[sunrangereagle]

We've only gone to Track events the past 2 seasons. It's the only way to go. Our home tournament is Track ran and it's slick and smooth. Worth every penny.

Other recommendations for your tourney: assigned mats and honor system for weights.

[bulldog]

IMO go with track...especially if you are running a good sized tournament and if you do not have the staff/manpower. I can understand the track does cost some $$ that take away from the overall bottom line but it makes online registration easier and makes bracketing easier. My advice...and this comes from going from a 200 kid tournament to a 525 kid tournament and instituting track the same year...get it load up early and whoever is going to be running the brackets make sure they play with it before the tournament. Track is good but it is only as smart as the person running it. The program cannot think for you. No matter what, you will need to rebracket something or you will have to fix a score. You need someone designated to know what they are doing. Or you can pay a little extra and I think the folks at track will come out and run your tournament for you.

I like track because it does what the name says..."track wrestling". You can follow kids from other clubs and see how they are doing throughout the year. Not to "stalk" kids but to see how friends are doing.

Also...I like track because it made setting up brackets much easier. You can set your parameters and let the program do the work but it will ultimately put an A level wrestler with a C level wrestler...so at some point a human should go in and check the brackets just to be sure everything looks okay. Also...if you go with track be sure to get the information accurate and update by the end of the tournament. I had folks asking me 3 years later if I could fix a bracket that was wrong on track. It was our mistake...error in entry.

On the flip side...If you got the manpower you can save some $$. The folks running youth tournaments know what they are doing and usually know the kids that are coming and do a good job bracketing. Heck...Wausau West, Wittenberg, Marshfield all run great tournaments without track.

[HMsDad]

Thanks for all the opinions and thoughts. It seems overwhelming that everybody is in favor of Track these days. Marshfield does use bracketwrestling.com at their tourney. It seems every year just gets harder and harder to find people to help run the tournament so I do believe track is the way to go. Thanks again

[49Farmall]

How can I find the tournaments that try to consider wrestler skill level along with age/weight? Most all of the tournaments have a place on the registration form where you state the wrestlers experience/skill. However, when it comes to bracketing, this doesn't seem to come into play. I have a "C" level wrestler that I would like to have more competitive matches. It does not benefit either wrestler to match a "C" with and "A" that are the same weight. Do some tournaments add more focus to matching skill levels? Should I concentrate on larger or smaller tourneys? Thanks

[HMsDad]

It's all on who runs the tourney if they match skill level. You have a better chance of getting same level wrestlers at larger tournaments  just because laws of average. More kids better chance.

We try in Chippewa to match skills. We average around 450 kids.

[madeyson]

Helped run a tournament the last three years and used Track - well worth the cost. Very easy to bracket according to skill level and makes running the tournament (in particular starting the tournament) go much easier. We start at 9:00 and have been done around 1:00 - about 400 wrestlers. A couple of pointers, assuming it is round robin tournament:

- Print all bout sheets - have runners deliver them to 2 to 3 computer operators who are entering results
- Make sure you have someone who knows something about Track - our first year was my first year and there were some hiccups
- Have a plan for awards, this is where some have challenges. Of the local tournaments we have been to Steven Points Top Cat does the best - have all results entered - you go in the auditorium with bout sheet - they have computer to print finished bracket sheet and to awards you go....very smooth
- If you are open to it have an honor system weigh-in, allows you to bracket night before and ready to roll right away in the morning - happy parents = great tournament...and starting ON TIME and finishing efficiently always helps

Hope that helps!