I am so glad someone brought this up....I was so disappointed in the awards were given out. For a family of 4 to just get in the door was $107. And they give away a plastic plaque with a picture pasted on the inside???? Come on...I know that it is a National Tournament and we are there to wrestle the best, but they did not even try with the awards this year. A $7 hike to the entry fee and a demotion in the quality of awards given out. I would like to know the reasoning. I am not going back next year. Not due to the awards or how it was run, but the cost...A family of four from Wichita could spend close to $700 just in the weekend. Let's give the kids something to take home.

Any other thoughts????

For those at the church service on Sunday morning you know I made mention of the cost of the tournament, and the love from someone to pay for everything. $47 entry fee, $20 coaching fee or admission fee, (for entire tournament), concessions, parking fee $7 a pop each time, and I could go on. That all said, Liberty was worth it to us.

Bill Gossett runs a first class tournament; the competition and the time involved make it worth it to me. There are certain expenses, and certain tournaments that cost more, the older your kid gets, the more you know this. We pick and choose as a family and truths is, wish we had been in Salina this weekend, but we weren’t; we never hesitated to be at Liberty because we learned over the years it is one of the top tournaments in the nation for competition and has become so for organization.

I know this is going to sound terrible, but we used to wrestle for awards, I know many still do. For those where this is the most important thing, get in contact with me privately because we have boxes of awards that we have in the garage that we will make available to you at a reasonable cost for the right kid, heck for some kids we may even give you some of those. As to the Liberty award, it will be one of those displayed, not because of the quality of the award, but what it stands for.

Beeson, Coach Craig, you know you are two of my favorite people, hands down, no doubt about it. I disagree on this one. Maybe over a beverage or round of golf we can talk about it and have fun. But as my son has gotten older, I have learned, it really is about wrestling the best and for us Liberty provided a wonderful opportunity and I am grateful. We made a mini vacation out of it, stayed at the River Walk district. Heck the only thing I was disappointed in over the weekend was Gates BBQ, by and far the worst BBQ I have ever had, the meal cost me $47, we ate virtually none of it, and gave the rest to a homeless guy on Friday night. Now Gates BBQ was something to complain about, the tournament and the Cheesecake Factory, that was worth every penny to us.

Liberty is trying to be comparable to Tulsa...lets compare

Entry Fee Tulsa $40 Liberty $47
Gate Admission Tulsa Two Day Pass Adult $15 Liberty $20
Gate Admission Tulsa Two Day Pass Child $5 Liberty $7
Parking Tulsa $4 per day Liberty $7 per day
Concessions on average 25% higher at Liberty
Coaches Pass per 3 wrestlers entered Tulsa Free Liberty $20
Awards Tulsa First Class...Liberty ARE YOU KIDDING ME
Competition far superior at Tulsa

I agree the competition is what we are looking for but my 8 year old said he would have rather gotten a medal than a plastic picture frame.

Mike,

I do not have a problem at all with the comments you made. I would love for tournaments not to offer medals. I had that conversation with Jess Keith that day. Every tournament I am preparing my athletes to compete for themselves and for their team and not for the medal and this tournament offeres some great comp. The only issue I have is the bang for the buck. We have to look at it now. Gas is $3+ per gallon. $300 to stay for one room for two nights. Top that with the $100 plus dollars to just get through the door....I guess I should just make a vacation out of it to justify the cost.

On to another point.....How bout a tournament with no medals and no coaches mat side???? Just the athletes on the mat and an official??? Throw a trainer at every mat for safty....following me??? Now there is compition at its most pure....that is what we are looking for. Who is with me???? New topic? Am I crazy?

I know its not about the awards and my older son gary knows its not about it but iam kinda glad my youngest didnt win first because he seen those big 13lb trophys on the liberty site and really wanted one and came very close 2nd i think he would have been pretty upset if he was standing on the podium waiting for them to hand out that trophy and they handed him a picture instead! But the experience was worth it for all the kids if they placed or didnt a good confidence builder before subs and state.

LETS TAKE AWAY THE GOLD , BRONZE AND SILVER MEDALS AWAY FROM THE OLYMPICS, ALL THE BELTS IN BOXING. why were at it no brackets and team trophies. oh lets not stop with the no coaches, take away the mats and gym and wrestle in coliseums on dirt floors, now were realy at it's purest. NOT--- JUST MY THOUGHTS.

last year they had about a 20 pound 1rst place award at liberty..... And does any won no the results of 14 and under 95????

I noted that also. The 1st place plaque looked to be same size and style of one my son got for 2nd place a couple years ago.

Coach Craig,

I actually like your idea, no trophies, no coches, just see how the kids do on their own. I think it would be a hard sell for 10U and down.

My other problem with the awards for liberty is, on the flyer they said 2nd and 3rd would get plaques, those were not plaques.

anyone know about the 12 and under 84 and 88.......
congtrats to all wrestlers

All the Kansas kids I saw wrestled very hard and did a great job representing Kansas!

12-U 70lb placers were KeyShawn Hayes MISSOURI champion, Cameron Kelly OHIO second, Tristan Manderfield MINNESOTA third, Zak Hensley KANSAS fourth, Blake Dixon MISSOURI fifth, and sixth was a kid from New Jersey forgot his name sorry.

10-U 65lb Ky Rea MISSOURI was champion, Mike Hummer MISSOURI second, Prieto from Kansas greater gold got either third or fourth, and Tyler Hensley from Kansas got sixth. Sorry I'm not sure of the other placers names in this weight.

Great tournament, great competition, and lots of room to wrestle.

is the brute tournament in april any better than this. anyone been to that tournament before and if so how was it. how many young kids.

Our family just had this discussion last night . . Is Brute ran by the same group as Liberty?

I took gary to brute last year which was the first time they had the little kids wrestling there. I did not like it not even close to the competition as liberty or tulsa and it was very confusing they had what they called pits two of them on each side of the auditorium and you had to stand around by the tables all day so you could hear your kids name called out so they could escort your kid and whoever they was wrestling to one of the 32 mats and you never knew what mat you was gonna be on. The first day we stood around for 3 plus hours before we finally found out gary wasnt going to wrestle the first day. But they did have some nice medals first placers received medal,trophy and a watch plus the two finalists received a very cool singlet and the coaches of the two finalists recieved a nice coaches shirt FAR BETTER THAN LIBERTYS AWARDS THIS YEAR!! We are not gonna take our chances on this tournament this year we are going to hit the iowa nationals i have heard far better competition and really thats what my oldest is looking for plus to get to wrestle at the UNI dome will be cool. Good luck to all the kansas kids were ever they wrestle.

TO ever one that said it was the worst tournament ever your right. the awards the cost and everthing else just horriable we drove 10 hours from texas not just for the awards but for competition mostly. we get better awards at local tournaments.these kids bust there butt to be the best to be called the champ and or even place in a tournament. And to get a cheap plaque and a 99.cent medal wow we will never go again and will let ever one else family and friends from all over not just from texas not to go. someone needs to send these messages to the tournament directior to let him know worst tournament ever prices, awards, medals and the way it was runned!!!!!!!!!!

Maize

Zach Wessley 2nd
Drew Otero 2nd
Kas Arehart 2nd
Brett Moon 4th
Cole Moses 4th
Zach Grantham 6th

I agree the awards were terrible... The competition made up for it! That is one of the toughest tournaments in the US. Those brackets were loaded. Not as tough as Tulsa Nationals, but Drew wrestled boys from Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, and Missouri. We wrestle in Texas too, and the competition in TX isn't even close to what we found at Liberty.

Isn't this topic from about 3 years ago? But I will say it is still WAY TOO EXPENSIVE!!!!!

Yes, The competition is good and not far from home for us. The cost of everything is not fare. If we did not make up for everything by living close we would not attend. My biggest complaint is no brackets and no information to the outside world. Here you charge and arm and leg to attend and you cannot even put it on track wrestling. Crazy! I also have the same complaint with world of wrestling, it's like a big secret on who won and no brackets to look at. IMO

Cougar Kids Results
Jared Simma 8u 65, 4th
Cody Schmidt, 10u 85, 4th
Jack Troutman, 14u 165,4th