I was wondering if anyone else was upset by the way Independence awarded the outstanding wrestler trophy. Our son is a 6 and under hwt and pinned his opponets in 14 seconds and 1:24..they said that he had to have wrestled the most matches not the Best. If that was the case they should name it the most wrestled kid. I am just a mom,but I feel my child was discriminated against because he didn't have very many kids to wrestle against. It should be fair for everyone,not just the ones that have to wrestle a lot. thanks for letting me vent...

There are a lot of tournaments that use "the most number of pins in the least amount of time" as a way to select the outstanding wrestler. But there are a lot of tournaments that don't even have this award. If you don't have very many kids to wrestle I can understand how you would feel left out.

who won it and how did they determine it?

I don't know who won it, we were so upset we left, but they told my husband and myself that it was the wrestler that won the most matches. If there was a tie it went to wins by pins then it went to points. one of the tounament people told us that kids in a round robin coudn't win because they didn't wrestle enough. only those in a bracket could.We undersand that if they lost their first match they had a better chance because they had to work their way back up, so they could have only taken second or third at the meet. My son that had two matches and pinned both kids and wrestled an exabition with a much bigger kid and pinned him in 10 seconds was out of luck. He was very upset because he couldn't do any better yet didn't have a chance at it from the beginning.

He won first place, isn't that enough? Many times the best wrestler in a tournament doesn't get the award.

we were still very proud of him and he knows that. The point of the problem is, why do they call it an outstanding wrestler award if it is an unfair award that not every wrestler gets a chance at winning. He wrestled hard at a chance for the trophy only to find out that he had no chance because there were only 2 other kids in his class..how would you explain it to your child??

You tell him that it was the luck of the draw, he wrestled his best, but the wrestler that won it had a few more kids in his bracket. My son had the same thing happen to him 2 yrs ago at Indy, he has 3 pins and the kid that won it had 4, well thats one more pin than my son had, the other kid won it, thats the way it should be.

My daughter Marissa Andres won the 6/U Outstanding wrestler award. She pinned 4 kids in 2:58, which averages 44.5 sec a pin your son's average was 49sec per pin. I feel that the award was given out fairly, and if you feel that she doesn't deserve this award you can post you address here and we will mail you the trophy. Sorry you are so upset and I hope this relieves some of your worry.

Thx
Brian Andres

I didn't say that your daughter didn't deserve the award. We never knew who won it, the problem was that they informed us that because our son only had two matches that he had no chance of getting it. If they went by avarges that is great, they should have and that was my point. we were told by the people running the tournament that because our son had only two matches he was not elgible..if your daughter had only two matches how would you feel?? congratulations to your daugher for winning. She deserves it, but what if someone she beat would have won the trophy because he or she wrestled more matches?? would you feel slighted?

First of all, that is the way it is at all tournaments. You will see the better kids in any bracket get more matches so they have a better chance at OW. Second if you lose and go out the back side you are not eligible for the OW trophy. The trophy only goes to a champion.
Thanks for the congratulations and I hope your son has a good year. If you have any questions on how it all works you can contact me at brimisand7@sbcglobal.net.

Thanks Again
Brian

okay, yes my son got first I am very proud but, the point of my problem is, what is there for the kids that have only two to four kids in their weight class? it seems discriminating to me to say, this set of kids can't win this award because they only wrestled twice, but since this child has a popular weight group, why don't we hand out an award and call it outstanding wrestler because they had two more matches that they could win, it's not just my son it's a lot of kids and I am upset for all of them. maybe there should be two catagories, one for 4 and under matches or something. so far, all I have heard is this is the way it is live with it... that upsets me and makes me wonder of those that have said,who are in my position? how many go to a tournament hoping that your kid will have someone to wrestle, much less being told that he can't win some trophy because he didn't wrestle enough matches?..I am sorry I feel this way,but I do.

everyone knows that life is not fair. She is just trying to justify to her son or anyone else in a small bracket why they cannot reasonably win this award. There was no need to be rude. She got an explanation and agreed with the young ladies father that she did deserve the award.

They should not give OW Awards in Kids Wrestling.
Just my opinion. There are not enough people who could have possbily witnessed everyone's performance to even judge how each individual champion performed. I know as a coach I can not watch all 35 of my kids an everyone of their matches. Let alone watch the performance of another 400 to 800 kids. My OW from my team may be a kid who won his or her first match ever. Let it go it almost sounds greedy.

to mr.salyer and whom ever else...
I believe every child should have a chance at everything...that was my point from the beginging. Yes we are upset because of what the person at the Indy touney told us, since then we have realized that what the person told us was the wrong info. I am not changing my opinion on the subject but have formed my own opinions on lots of others. this is the second year we have been around wrestling and got involved with it because we belived that it was based on individual actions and if you performed to the best of your ability you were rewarded. I Will continue to believe that this is a good sport and my son loves it. but because of things that have been said and not said we now have bad feelings and that is upsetting... I opened this subject and think it should be closed because everyone has differing opinions on it. I wish everyone the best of luck in the future and personally will hope that because of this tounament I hope that I don't have to face another touney like it for my sons and all kids with 2 or 3 kids in their classes sake....
thank you...

I DON'T BELIEVE I SAW EITHER THE RASH OR THE ANDRES KIDS WRESTLE, AND I'M NOT SAYING THEY DID OR DID NOT DESERVE OW AWARD. MY THOUGHT IS ON THE PINNING OF YOU'RE OPPONENT. MY SON WRESTLES 6 UNDER AND IS CURRENTLY 11-3 WITH 6 PINS. LAST YEAR HE WENT 9-6 WITH 7 PINS. HE IS PROBABLY RATED B TO B- AND IS VERY AGGRESIVE BUT DOES'NT KNOW HIS MOVES AS WELL AS MOST B WRESTLERS. IN OUR CASE ALMOST EVERY WIN BY PIN, THE OPPONENT IS IN THE C AND D EXPERIENCE LEVEL.I BELIEVE YOU NEED TO LOOK AT THE QUALITY OF EACH WIN AND EACH PIN WHEN MAKING THESE DECISIONS.

WICHITA EAST WRESTLER DARAN LEE AT 6 UNDER 49 WAS EASILY THE BEST 6 UNDER WRESTLER I SAW AT INDY.THIS KID WAS AWSOME.LIKE SOMEONE SAID EARLIER THOUGH, YOU CAN'T SEE EVERYONE WRESTLE AND I'M SURE I MISSED SEEING ALOT OF OTHER GOOD WRESTLERS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED OW.

I thought Martha Burke was busy going after Augusta National.

Here's something to think about---

Why in the hell does a kids tournament feel the need to select "Outstanding Wrestlers"??? These are KIDS and all it does is stir up bad feelings...

It's hard enough at high school tournaments where a coach is in charge of up to 14 of his own wrestlers...He doesn't have a whole lot of time to watch other matches, until maybe the semifinals...

How can you expect a kids coach, who may have 50 or more kids under his wing, or a tournament director and/or staff who may have to keep track of upwards of 500 matches (if not more) to select an "Outstanding Wrestler"...

If you feel like an award should be given out, don't call it "Outstanding Wrestler", call it "Most pins in the least amount of time" or something to the effect...That way it is subjective and there shouldn't be any question as to who wins it....Though this could open up a can of worms...You can add stipulations of the wrestler has to compete in at least 3 matches, has to be a champion and has to have won all matches by pin...

Just an opinion of a former wrestler and coach...

Regardless of the turn out for "OUTSTANDING WRESTLER", I think Independence hosted a great tournament. Thank you Independece Wrestling!

Stacy Seybold
Pittsburg Kids Wrestling

If you don't like the Outstanding Wrestler award then don't participate in tournaments that offer it. I do think that a fastest pin award in a fair way to offer something special. Something that can be quantitated.
As far as "what do I tell my kid". My son didn't even know there was an OW award. If I would have made a big deal about it(I'm not saying anyone did) then he might have wanted it.
I would agree that D.Lee was a great little wrestler. My son, E. VanAnne, lost to him in the finals. It was a great match and he is looking forward to meeting up with him again in the future.
Annette VanAnne
S.E.K. WC