Now that the Folkstyle season is over I would like to voice my displeasure with the D4 and State directors. Two issues occurred in the qualifying events and neither were handled properly. It all started at D4 south in Dodge City. In the 16 n under 125 division the bracket started with 5 wrestlers had one of those not make weight. The bracket was not changed to a round-robin as the rules state it is suppose to happen. So I am told. This allowed the 3 seed a bye to the finals! The 4 seed wrestled 3 times finishing 3rd. Thus posssibly effecting the seeding at districts. The 4 seed could have finished 2nd and received a 1st round bye at districts. Understand we are not looking for a free ride to state. Just a fair shot to try and get there. On to the district problem. We go 0-3 finishing 6th. Who knows what happens if sub-districts had been handled right! On Sunday we are invited to state as the 3rd and 5th place wrestlers apparently said they were not going to go to state. Of course we accepted. Monday we are told that 5th place changed his mind. Calls were made to the state committee. Two different opinions were formed by committee before all sides were heard. Then it was passed back down to the D4 director to decide. This should have been done to start with before forming their own opinion and voicing those opinions. In the end one coach/referee's word was taken over several others involved. The coach/referee changed his story several times thus contradicting the words of others involved. All could have been avoided if the rules had been followed at SD4. We also need to put in place a policy to have each individual wrestler check in at the table and sign up and pay their own fees instead of allowing the clubs to pay and not enter the right wrestlers. If you do not show up at the table you instantly forfeit your right to go on to the next week. That decision should be final! Sorry for the novel but see how your wrestler feels being told you are in then you are not!

Even though I understand your frustration and your wrestler's disappointment, I would like to clarify a couple of things. The wrestler in question, Erick, 16U 125, did go to the table and told the head table that he was the 5th place finisher and wanted to go to state because the finisher ahead of him indicated he was not going to go to state. Erick was told at that time the wrestler in front of him had not indicated that to them as of that time. Erick indicated to them his intention to go in his place as soon as the other wrestler who could not go let the head table know. My son, Derek, 16U 135, indicated to the head table at that time his intention not to go to state and never changed his mind, nor would he even think of doing this as he put alot of thought into his decision before he ever made it and he knows once that decision is made it is made. Our coach, who paid for our kids going to state was told he could not pay for Erick until the finisher ahead of Erick made his decision. Our coach never changed his recount of the events of that day. All 3 of the people involved, Erick, Derek, and our Head Coach each recounted the events the same. I do understand your frustration and your wrestler's disappointment though and I wish it hadn't happened that way. I think the people in charge were trying the best they could during a hectic time. As for the bracket in Dodge, hopefully that rule will be clarified some during the next state body meeting.

Thea

Although on a side note I should say Derek very much regretted his decision after the major snow storm/blizzard and prom was cancelled but not state wrestling! He wished he would have been there, but kept up with all the brackets all weekend........Great job everyone at Topeka!

The ladies at the head table do not recall it happening that way. Anyhow it is history. I just want it known that the issue was not handled properly by those on the committee. There are steps that could be implemented into the process of accepting or not accepting bids to move on in the qualifying tournaments. The Dodge City issue is in the rules already. See the comments in the previous "5 man bracket " post.

Whether the ladies at the head table became confused because of the sound a like Erick / Derek names and the closeness of their age/weight brackets I do not know. But, one wrestler, Erick, was always going to go on to state if he qualified, the other, Derek, was not going to go on because of a prom commitment. No one changed their minds later and bumped a wrestler out of going to state. My head coach would not even have let that happen. He would have told him that he could not change his mind after the fact. I agree there probably should be a different way of handling the qualifier's right to accept or deny going on to avoid this situation in the future, it is hard for the other wrestler who, unfortunately because of a mistake, was understandably excited about competing at state, and that is always hard to see their disappointment. I also agree 5 man brackets should be wrestled as round robins and I do not see a reason now that they are not. Derek was hoping his 5 man bracket at District would be a round robin. It a no brainer, more mat time and matches for the kids and a truer seeding method for the next tournament. I only hope there is some discussion and clarification of this rule at the state meeting so that 5 man round robins can and do happen at next year's qualifying tournaments. Thanks for listening and I am sorry that this happened this year I wish it hadn't.

Hopefully the rules can be clarified so that it does not happen to anyone else. Dylan has wrestled for ten years now and yet to make to state. He has been in some very tough weight classes. He worked hard just to get to districts and finally made it about 4 years ago. He has been so close the last 3 years to making it to state. The last 2 years missing out by 1 or 2 points in his last matches. This is the last time we can say "well there is always next year" So you can imagine how he felt when he was denied a chance because the rules were not followed knowing next year is his last!