I am not faulting Ottawa for the mistakes made at this District Tournament. Yes I am sure that with so much to do and such little numbers of individuals that are willing to help that it is a hard job. I do commend Ottawa for stepping up to the plate and hosting this tournament. My first suggestion is getting notices out to everybody, including the parents of the wrestlers about your October meeting. I had figured, that a meeting took place to discuss these issues but was unaware that everyone is invited to attend. Now if this is not true please advice me. As I had stated at the end of my posting some people will look at this as just complaining about the issues. Well I guess after reading some of the replies and how delicately some of you have stated your thoughts I was right. I in no way am trying to put fault on one individual or organization. I was trying to suggest that it's time to start thinking OUT OF THE BOX as this great sport is growing everyday and what you have done in the past will not work in the future if we hope to keep the growth continuing.

Mr. Hinderliter I have received your e-mail and first let me apologize for the rudely comment of checking into Menningers. As you can see I posted my comments at 12:31 am, which I should have waited until Sunday morning therefore my frustrations would have calmed down a little. Then I would have made more reasonable comments. I am sure your team does the best with the hand you are dealt with. In my business life I have always followed the saying of “If you keep on doing what you have always done, your going to get what you have always got.” Therefore I strongly belief that change is inevitable for us to continue the growth.

“Husker fan” I believe that there is no way you should eliminate the 14 and 16 age groups as a majority of these kids have been participating since they were 6 to 8 years old. I think doing that would be a big mistake. However I do agree with “dice55” in looking into using the KSHAA weight classes for these two age groups. Looking at the KSHAA classes versus Kid classes there are 6 extra weight classes. My suggestion is reduce the classes down to the following:
100, 110, 120, 125, 130, 135, 140, 145, 150, 160, 170, 185, 215, 245, 275
This would bring the number of weight classes down to 1 more than what the KSHAA has for high school. This I believe would help in reducing some time at these tournaments. I agree with “someone” who stated that the younger kids enjoy watching the older kids. I also believe that this is a great opportunity to help promote the sport as most of the younger kids do want to wrestle like the older ones, therefore eliminating them would do more harm than good for the sport. Yes at practices it does get crowded but with good coach's they will ensure that accidents don't happen. If your club is big maybe practices should be split with the older kids practicing at different times than the younger ones.

“Coachdad” I don't think at any point did I mention I could do a better job. But being the fact that I was unaware of the meeting in October I was commenting on how much thought process is put into these tournaments. I am sure those that do attend are trying to do the best job possible, but are those individuals looking OUT OF THE BOX for solutions or is it the MONEY issue. I however do think your comment on money and availability becoming factors is correct. As “Jackson” stated the Johnson County Athletic Center can fit 10 whole mats. If not this facility, then maybe another. Or, keep it at Ottawa but utilize the Junior High School gym also. With it being so close to the high school I can see where a tremendous amount of time could be reduced if it was utilized. But from what I had heard the reason for not using the Junior High gym was the lack of getting mats from other schools. But if it is because of workers maybe do like the state tournament and require each club to be responsible for working at this tournament. On the money issue if my memory serves me correctly the entry fee for the district tournament for the past three years has been at $12.00 per individual. With everything in the world, prices do go up every year, therefore why has this figure stayed the same. I suggest taking it to $15.00, which would add an additional $2,112 to the district from just the 704 wrestlers that attended the tournament this past Saturday. Having 65 clubs, number shown on list from web site, I would suggest that if each club was required to contribute a required amount, such as $200 for example which would bring in $13,000, from some sort of fund raising effort you could help offset the cost of having this tournament. Or better yet, why not try to produce a program for this tournament that will generate income from advertisements in the program. Or possibly looking at the College football Bowl idea and look into acquiring some corporate sponsorship for this tournament. These I just a few off the top of my head suggestions, which I am sure if people would start thinking about how to improve next years tournament now instead of in October you would see a great improvement.

On the officiating issue, after thinking about it for a while maybe the cause for the inconsistency is fatigue. I do understand that it can and does become difficult at the kids tournament. But looking at the fact that these individuals have worked a long day just as us fans have spent a long day maybe finding ways to help shorten the tournament could help out in this matter.

With all this said I only hope that we don't accept the fact, as it seems that “someone” has put it that we should just expect the long day. I truly believe if everyone would stop and critique ourselves we could find a better way to accomplish the goals that are set out. I do commend the Directors, their staff, and the workers at this tournament along with Ottawa for their dedication and hard work.