The main problem in starting late is not with the tournament directors, it is with you the parents and coaches. When you have 1000 kids, like we did a couple of weeks ago at Johnson County, and 100 of the entries were submitted wrong, the right thing to do is chnage them so these kids and parents who travel can get on the mat. But people, that is 10% error, and there is not excuse for that. We all make mistakes, but entries with no weights, ages, etc just makes it a nightmare to bracket. I am sure Mill Valley had the same issues. So if you complain about late starts then now you know why- the parents and coaches are so sloppy on their entrants that it takes hours to fix all the mistakes and you do not know who is where until weighins the morning of the tournament.
Tom Williams
This is an issue that has been near and dear to my heart for some years. As someone else stated in another thread recently, and I'm paraphrasing, "you do not inconvenience the 90% of clubs, coaches and parents who did it right because of the 10% who didn't." By adding and rebracketing you only increase the problem in the future. Why should club directors, coaches or parents take the time to make sure their entries are correct? If they make an error, it will be corrected at the tournament at the expense of the rest of us. Now, if there are errors that can be corrected without delaying the tournament then by all means take care of those, otherwise scratch them and their entry fees, and move on. By continuing to correct these errors we are simply compounding the problem in the future.
