Correct me if I'm wrong, You would think that the #1 seed in a bracket of ten would get the bye, instead of everyone else in the bracket getting a bye (with the exception of one other kid). I understand that you seed the first four kids in the bracket to seperate them accordingly and then the rest are drawn in. Now unless i'm mistaken a 16 man bracket has 16 slots.
#1 wrestles #16
#2 wrestles #15
#3 wrestles #14
#4 wrestles #13
and so on. So the way I see it in a 10 man bracket you should seed the first 4 slots and you draw in slots 5 - 10 and then slots 11 - 16 should be byes. To me that seems to be the only logical way of doing it. I don't understand why our kids wrestle hard all year long and practice hard all year long to earn the #1 seed and then be the only one out of 8 matches in the first round to not get a bye, just don't seem right to me. I know any other weekend besides the qualifying weekends I wouldn't mind thats just more mat time, but I would like my kid as fresh as possible going in to the finals granted he makes it there. Now if it were a full 16 man bracket then thats fine. I just think when you draw kids in, you do it in the next available slots after the seeds and then the byes are drawn in after that. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Well, I believe every kid should be seeded and only drawn if clubs can't settle a dispute between seeds. I would rather see my kids wrestle first round than sit around and wait 40 matches before their up. Wrestle to win to show them who's the best!

There is no #13,#14,#15,#16 seed.

Only the top 4 are seeded, the rest are drawn in!

Traditionally, you seed the kids that are seedable. Whether that is 10% or 85% if a kid deserves a seed he should get it.

Years ago, the #1 seed got the first bye, the #2 got the second bye and so on. Several years ago this was changed. After you place your seeded wrestlers on the bracket, you draw the numbers of byes necessary, and then draw in the remaining wrestlers.

I guess I didn't realize it until this year. Why did they change it?

Basically for the same reason packerholic outlined. From the coaches viewpoint you would rather see your kid get a first round bout versus sitting around.

Of course ... opinions vary!

In D-3 everybody gets along and the brackets are
seeded from top to bottom. No arguements here, and yes in this case the top six kids would get a first round bye.

During the year, you normally don't want the bye as a #1 seed to get more mat time. That is not the case when the qualifying tournaments begin. District 2 DOES NOT randomly draw in the byes. They do the right thing and seed everyone according to the rankings that were submitted. If you seed the top 4 and then the 5th ranked kid out of 12 is thrown into a first round match with the top seed, while the 12th ranked kid gets a bye... that penalizes #5 and rewards #12. How is that right? It sure is a lazy way of throwing the brackets together. I applaud District 2 & 3 for going the extra mile to get the brackets right.

Eric Johnson
Renegades Wrestling Club

D4 north does a great job of seeding!

Thank you so its only our district that is messed up. Who makes the rules for different districts, The way I see it they should all be the same

You need to go to the District one meetingwhich I believe is usually in October. Several years ago I brought this up at the meeting and was basically told "why should my #1 wrestler not get a match the first round. My son wrestled in many 5 man brackets. Many times that kid who is #5 could beat the #4 but is not too likely to beat the #1. In District one though that kid has just as good a chance of getting #1 as getting #4 in the first round.I also don't like a five man bracket as some kid will advance without winning a match. I know a five man round robin would add more matches but would be more fair.

I thought the subs went very well considering all the changes that had to be made. I also remember Pitt calling for help from anyone who could help with bracket changes. Dont know when the problem was found with the bracket, but I probably would have tried to get something done before things started, if it was eating me that bad.

It's simple. Just seed the entire bracket based on the rankings that were turned in, giving the byes to the kids that have earned it all year. The only excuse is not taking the time. Way to go District 2 and 3! Did District 4 do it also?

I don’t understand the seeding either. Ten wrestlers put into a sixteen-man bracket. My son was seeded #1 and had to wrestle 3 times to get into the finals. The #2 seed had a bye and a no-show and only wrestled twice the whole day. Six wrestlers received first round byes; four were not even seeded. I think it’s time for District 1 to look at how they seed South sub-district.

Ahhhhh district 1, one thing you can count on this time of year is that they will keep us entertained with their wacky ways of running qualifiers. They are the Dennis the Menace of districts so you can't hardly get mad at them.

I recall hearing alot of clubs compalining that the seeding meetings take to long now. Maybe we could go ahead and fix what aint broke and plan and all day seeding meeting, maybe get lunch catered in. That would be great. The best kids usually place and go on. I think its for the kids anyway, and I would think many of them wrestle to wrestle. See you in Chanute next year.

It takes D-3 3 to 3 1/2 hrs to make all weight changes and seed all brackets. Maybe Lance E. could give a siminar for D-1 on how to run a seeding meeting.

I think that our kids who have worked sooo hard all year deserve a little work on our part. If that means sitting at a seeding meeding for a little longer in order to make it fair so be it. With all of their hard work we need to show them a little respect and do things right.

District one South subs were not ran well this year. From seeding to bracketing etc. For example the brackets on the wall were not filled out AT ALL until finals. Also very understaffed! A lot of workers from other clubs. Maybe we should move subs somewhere else! My vote is Chanute! (and no I'm not from there)

Seeding at this level is such an in-exact science away. For example, in my son's bracket yesterday he had one kids who wrestled 6U all year, one kid that wrestled one weight class up all year, two or three that wrestled C and D brackets all year, etc. How can the coaches hash through all of that and make everyone happy. I've never sat in a seeding meeting for subs, but I suppose the coaches go a lot on gut feeling mixed with records based on watching these kids wrestle each other all season and hope they did the kids a service by seperating them out accordingly.

I have learned not to complain about seeding because, in the end, the kids sort themselves out.