I am brand new this year to being a wrestling dad so I am sure I do not understand how everything works. I also understand that I am going to come accross as making a big deal about a six year old wrestling when I should just be happy there are such good people willing to put time into coaching my kid and putting on great tournaments. I read the by laws and could not find any guidance on how seeding actually works. But after looking at my son's bracket for sub district which continues to change, I am confused. There are six kids signed up for his age and weight class so an 8 man bracket is being used. There are two kids in the top side of the bracket (so both have byes) and four kids in the bottom side (so none have byes). This makes no sense to me. I know there are two teams with multiple kids in the bracket so I was told they are not allowed to be on the same side in a bracket. I have yet to read that anywhere. The two best kids (based on records) in the tournament appear to be in the 2 seed and 3 seed so they will have to wrestle each other to go to the finals. I was told neither could be the number 1 seed since they were six and there was an 8 year old wrestling. The two seed is 36-5 on the year. The 3 seed also has a good record, has wrestled a lot of tournaments and is very tough. The number 1 seed has wrestled two tournments. He may very well be the best wrestler, but he does not appear to have the record to support it. Is this how all districts do this or is this just an arbitrary method. It seems much more logical to reward the kids who have wrestled each week and put in all the hard work get rewarded for their effort. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Eric Coates

1-4 2-3 3-2 4-1 AT DISTRICTS

That was the easy one to figure out, but thanks.

How did you get records of the kids? And how do you know that wrestler only wrestled in 2 tournaments all year? We didn't have records at our seeding meeting for any of the kids. Just rankings. Plus, coaches and clubs do their best to split kids up when there is 2 or more in a bracket.

rcmustang

In district 4 south we have always seeded according to record except in the case of a 6 year old wrestling in sub-district. Since there is no 6 and under division, the 6 year old is required to wrestle in the 8 and under. With that being the way it is, we do not allow a 6 year old to be seeded over the 8 year old unless the 6 year old has wrestled the 8 and under division throughout the year and has a better record. If he has only wrestled in the 6 and under division, than that would allow an 8 year old with a loosing record to be seeded above the 6 year old with an undefeated record.

The ruling for teammates is that separation of club members is recommended but not required, trackwrestling and most tournament directors will usually try to separate two teammates but cannot always accomplish that

Thanks for the insight. That explains why many six year olds start wrestling 8 & under the last few weeks of the year. Just makes for a weird looking bracket when the 1 and 4 get a bye and the 2 and 3 do not. No big deal in the scheme of the world, it all plays out on the mat. I am just another one of those 40 year old fat dads who thought it was a great idea to get his son into wrestling when they sent the signup form in kindergarten but did not realize I would get totally consumed with practice, weigh-ins and tournaments every week for 4.5 months.


As for the question about knowing records, we have become friends with people from all over the state, so we follow our kids and theirs.

Eric

Lol. I know right. That 4.5 months seems to get longer as they get older.

As far as seeding, "rewarding" kids for going to tournaments usually isn't brought up in seeding meetings. Seeding meetings can sometimes be downright scandalous, and sometimes right on. It's an educated guess and they get it wrong sometimes. Also if you don't have someone from your team present, or they aren't paying attention, a kid can be seeded lower. It always works itself out. Better to concentrate on the wrestling and not give ur child an out by saying they got screwed by a bad seed. I think I've lost track, and now don't really care about how many times my boy and so and so should have been seeded differently. It always works itself out. I always think of the quote, "Prepare them for the path, don't prepare the path for them." Good luck this weekend!