In the 12u 92 weight class I saw McCray beat Biddle in the semi's and get his hand raised after the match. How did he not end up in the finals?

I am not sure on you question there, but I did watch some of that bracket, those kids needed a bigger mat. They went out of bounds every other move.


Again I had to remind myself why I haven't went to Derby for three years, now I remember why.


What was the deal with Track Wrestling I thought they were using it, but at the mat we were at they were filling bouts sheets out manually (which was a new concept to a lot of them)and some bracket on the wall were updated some were not. My sons bracket was never touched and no bouts were changed but yet we would go to the table for our match and it wouldn't be us yet, so 5 matches later they call out looking for the two kids. This was all day (evening) long, that cost them at least 3-4 minutes for every match to get started.


I liked the competition, but again they allow that tournament to get to big for the facility and the people they have.

I love going to this tournament for the awesome competition.
But if this is going to be the complaining post then I will be more then happy to start.
What was up with the brackets?
What was up with the seeding?
Why do we even rank a wrestler if all the top ones are on the same side? I thought Track Wrestling was supposed to help you with that? Unless you go in and manually change a bracket, isn't that correct? How do you change bout numbers half way thru the bracket?
I think you might want to consider limiting your # of entrys to a # you can handle.
OR
If you were to split this into a 2 day event then it would be a lot better for everyone.
Go open on Sat & Novice on Sunday. This would let the older bigger kids wrestle on bigger mats.This would also allow Wellington to go Novice on Sat and we would get to have our novice wrestlers the chance to wrestle twice in one weekend. That would be great experience for our future plus give us a lot more room in those over crowded gyms.
Plus it gives D2 clubs a better chance to have more successful tournaments.
When your parking is maxed out & it causes fire hazards and you have to stop the tournament then it might give you an idea that you have too many people!
The view of the mats was really bad due to the lack of seating.

So with all that being said, I hope you will think about making some changes. Also, we will be back next year cause it has some of the best competition in the state!

Also, it was nice to see our D2 reps that are not even from that club flowing from table to table helping out, running bout sheet, etc.. all the while keeping up with their coaching duties. I've never seen that before from D2 reps. Way to go guys!

beeson did a very good job on our mat keeping score. he also explained some things to our coaches that made them see another view. you cant have this all the time but hey that was a bonus for my sons mat. every tournament has good and bad things in everyones views. overall very good tournament for both my boys. my younger son wrestled for the first time and got to wrestle 5 matches. now thats what i am looking for at every tournament. maybe it was a little crowded, maybe the mats were a little small. made the beers go down alot easier when i got home though. so Chanute here we come. happy holidays to everyone.

How come some brackets are not completed on trackwrestling. Not complaining just wondering if they had computer problems or problems with trackwrestling web site or what? Can you tell us what happened so others can aviod same problems?

I watched that match between Biddle and McCray. They were never really able to execute any moves because of the lack of mat space. There was an overabundance of people surrounding the mats which may have caused the referee to stop the match sooner than normal when they were on the edge. Biddle pretty much dominated the match until the very end when he was tossed to his back by McCray for a 4 point move. The final score was 7-6 McCray. After the match McCray's hand was raised and the Winfield coaches talked with the referee. I left at that point thinking it would be McCray in finals. The only thing I can think of is there might have been a scoring error at the table or maybe the call was reversed on the headlock. Either way this was a very poorly run tournament with too little space for the hundreds of people in attendance.

I was mat side for the Biddle McCray match what happend was the toul tapper taped the ref about 6 sec to late. the kid just was not paying close enough attention. The time keeper told the ref there was a mistake and there should be no back points because the time was out therefore Biddle won 6 to 5

I have no doubt that things could have been improved upon but to say that it was a "very poorly run tournament" wouldn't be accurate. Things will be looked at from every angle and changed so these things dont happen again. When changes happen within the last week and a half, sometimes you have to adapt and overcome. The bottom line is that we will improve in all areas to make this tournament even better. Thanks to all for attending and being patient!!!

Hey, we all know what we get into when we go to Derby. We go there for the competition. Its a big one and we should all know we will be there late. The only thing I think they should do is get rid of the novice part - let Wellington have it every year. We have been coming to this tourny for 6yrs years and will always come.

I disagree with getting rid of the novice part. It was nice to have our open and novice kids at the same venue. I do like the idea of Wellington having theirs on Sunday, for the "2 days of wrstling" for novice kids option.

Last year with the 14u on Friday, it was much less congested. It is not the Derby club's fault that the friday option was taken away from it. They did the best they could under the circumstances.

Bishop Carrol HS tourney wasn't over until 11:00, and it was only a 224 kid tourney. I'm not complaining about that either. Good competition is always worth some small inconveniences.

I was mat side also - I just didn't know why the decision was overruled, that's why I posted - something reads fishy. I'm glad Derby puts the tournament on - the competition was great for a Kansas tournament. As a parent that goes to a fair amount of tournaments, I think its fairly well ran, considering the venue.
Congrats Derby! in a sense, you've become the youth Kansas Kick-Off, it just seems that you have out-grown your location.
Thanks for hosting the tournament.

I am taking a day off to rest and relax from the stress week that was last week...Work, School, Mid-terms, Tournament not being able to run on Friday night, Late night setting up after basketball games, no sleep from Friday morning until Saturday after clean-up, etc. I had to make some decisions on how to try to get this thing running as smoothly as possible and some of these decisions included filling in bout sheets at the table instead of letting trackwrestling print up the bout sheets and having table pause waiting for those bout sheets. These filled in bout sheets I will have to enter into the system myself and I will get to that as soon as humanly possible (after my day off) So look for the results to be completed in the next few days (hopefully before Tuesday).

Craig Gash
Derby Wrestling Club
Tournament Director

WOW! We endured another annual Derby Tournament!

I'll provide some points from my point of view.

First off, I know most of those working the tournament did a decent job. Craig, it had to be exhausting work having to wait so late to set up and get everything together in time. Just want you to know that, even though some of my comments may be on the harsh side, I appreciate your hard work for the kids.

Every year, I hate to admit it, but I/we always say this is the last year we're doing Derby! Buuuutttt, we always end up forgetting the pain, etc.. and remembering that it is a good tournament (in terms of the competition...for sure) for most weights/brackets and cave in and return. It doesn't take long to remember why I/we said (the year before) we weren't returning the next year.

Agreed "elid2", we do know what we're getting when we go to Derby. Some good, lots bad. Fortunately, most of the good was a direct benefit to the kids who have been working so hard preparing in practices, etc. Unfortunately, the bad was experienced by the rest of the unwashed (myself/family included).

I was wondering about those who may have traveled from distances that required an overnight stay at a hotel. I can't imagine going to that trouble for this tournament.

A large number of brackets were NEVER updated during the tournament. NEVER. This was/is extremely annoying. This is the first tournament ever, in many years anywhere, that I've ever seen this.
My kid, myself, our coaches (probably in that order) would like to have an idea of who they would be wrestling in the various matches, also to see how the other kids were doing in the bracket, including the rest of those in our club. However, that was impossible on Saturday.

The crowd was overwhelming, as usual. They REALLY need to look at limiting the entries, or spreading it out to 2+ days. 14u's on Friday (maybe), and please separate Novice out to Sunday. The Novice crowd, especially at this stage in the season, is large and inexperienced. That may sound insensitive, and in the era of "Hoax and Change", I probably should be more sensitive. But many people, who have little "home training" and either don't realize there are other people in the same general space besides themselves. Maybe its a personal problem/pet peeve.

Also, the restroom (the mens anyway) was horrible all day long. It wasn't clear at all if it was being attended to at any point during the day/night. It may have been, but it wasn't clear it was or not.

Also btw, I bet the Derby Tournament folks really appreciated the "help" they got from a certain group of kids going around selling candy.

One final complaint. It is now 11:45pm on Sunday night and many of the brackets are STILL not completed.

On the upside though. I/we did snag an awesome parking spot upon arrival at the high school on Saturday!

I hope that you, Craig, and any other Derby folks, will take these comments in a helpful way. I know it is exhaustive work putting on a tournament of this size, so I appreciate all the work even in spite of some of the harsh things I've said. It may be that you simply need more people working in various spots. If you can't get them, you really need to consider downsizing it or rightsizing it I guess.

It really is a great tournament in terms of the competition.

Thanks Doug, for a positive post from someone who has a lot of tournament experience! Things will be taken to consideration to make it a better Tournament, and hopefully Derby won't have bombshells thrown in their lap in the last second anymore. I myself would like to tell the people that helped out, coached, and spent so much time running the tournament THANK YOU!!
Brian Wells

I have been attending Kansas and Oklahoma youth wrestling tournaments for over fifteen (15) years and have never been to a perfect tournament. I have run several tournaments and I can assure you they were not perfect. I was in attendance at the Derby Tournament as was that fellow Murphy, you know, the guy who authored Murphy's Law (If anything can go wrong, it will.)

I always believe there is room for improvement.

I always believe it is best if providing feedback for a tournament, both positive and especially negative, to leave a name. Negative criticism, while perhaps warranted, does not carry as much weight when given from an anonymous pseudonym.

Do I have complaints, YES; and I will keep them to myself unless asked.

I thank the entire Derby crew for providing another opportunity for the kids to wrestle.

Here is my question. It seems all the Derby folk are blaming the school for the loss of Friday night. From their scheudule it appears those games were scheduled since oooooooh last year. How is the school responsible?

I do not believe we are putting blame on anyone, what happened was unfortunate but to answer your question here is our process in securing the gym. We submit our request to facilities each year (months ago this year). They in turn submit it to the appropriate schools (high school & middle school) to determine if any conflicts exist. (We did not have the basketball schedule at the time of our request!) The school approved our request which was then approved by facilities and then forwarded to us. It wasn’t until I ran into the head of our high school booster club in the grocery store a couple of weeks ago did I learn of the conflict. From that point forward the club evaluated the best options and arrived at moving the 14 under to sat afternoon. Again it was unfortunate and we apologize for the mix up and more importantly will do everything we can next year to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

I perceive your post as being critical and would appreciate if you would sign your name!

Here try this.....
http://www.highschoolsports.net/defaultcal.cfm?ct=m&schoolid=KS6703712226&curntdate=%7Bts+%272010-12-21+12%3A08%3A47%27%7D&spt=-1&lvl=-1&division=-1&CalMonth=12&Calyear=2009
You will find this schedule is updated for 2010 season by next summer if not earlier.


Perceive whatever you want. I have nothing to be critical about. I stopped going to the Derby tournament years ago for the same problems that existed this year and all in between. I just think it is disingenuous for Derby or it's supporters to blame the school or the administration. These games are scheduled for the most part years in advance and cannot be changed with or without a facility use request. That is why many clubs choose to consult the schedule I gave you, or at the very least contact their AD in order to prevent conflicts.

Didn't want to jump in here but everyone needs to remember that if it wasn't for these hardworking people that put on these tournaments, our kids wouldn't have ANYWHERE to wrestle. I challenge anyone on here who complains to go out and do it themselves. If you still don't like it, then use polite constructive criticism to try to help, not just complain. I have never been to the Derby Tournament nor will probably ever will as we are a few hours away. I also have never put on a tournament, nor do I even want to try, just because of this. From a fan of the "KIDS" to the Derby Tournament Committee........Thank you for your continuing to allow kids in your part of Kansas the opportunity to keep doing what the love to do....wrestle.

If you think our intent was to change the game by requesting through facilities you are mistaken. This is the required procedure of USD 260. We rely on them to determine the availablity of their gym.

You always have something to be critical about! It is however a shame you can't stand behind it with your name.

All "constructive criticism" is welcomed! and posting your name is a good start!