Im not always against change, what I am about is the old addage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" In my mind I see nothing wrong with traditional tournaments on the flip side of that I appreciate the split style for all the values it brings. I guess what im trying to say is I personally don't see a problem with the way things are, the people I grew up around and the kids that I wrestled with loved the sport just the way it was the same way I do. I guess what it really comes down to in the end is. Are we going to become a hobby rather than a sport? A system that people are only willing to give 3 hours to on any given day?

Surly Mr. Nowak you can appreciate my reluctance to switch our sport to something that people only want to do in their spare time. I have heard comments over the past few years from coaches, parents, and the like of things like "lets hurry up and get out of here so we can go have a beer." I heard one official mention that they wanted to get out of a tourny early so they could go watch the KSU women play a basketball game!! This alone is enough to make me wonder. Im not saying the goal of a tourny should be to keep everyone around all day, in fact you should try to get done as early as possible, but when you start making changes to the way a tournament is run to accomodate parents thats where I turn a def ear. The kids will be just fine, unlike some adults they can entertain themselfs for hours on end with gameboys, cd players, etc. etc.

As far as participation in our sport goes I tried to make it fairly obvious that I would much prefer to have a smaller number of people who can stay totally into the sport through the good parts and the bad, than have a large number of people who treat the sport like a chore.

I know how to roll with the punches, that doesn't mean I have to like them.