I am not arguing whether or not KSHSAA should pull the plug on FHSU hosting the tournament, just adding a little insight. Typically, MIAA schools play bball on Wednesday or Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon. The Friday night game is the result of the MIAA bball tournament held next week. First round games will be played on Monday (women) and Tuesday (men) at the site of the higher ranked school. This change in schedule is similar to the last regular season high school football games being played on Thursday to allow time to prepare for playoffs on Tuesday.

If the tournament needs to be moved, then it needs to move. If not, it needs to stay. Either way I will continue to follow 3,2,1A wrestling.

P.S. I almost hate to say this on a wrestling board but... Hi, my name is Brad and I watch other sports.

I don't understand this part of that article ""Football runs in the red," Hammeke said. "If you take all the expenses into account, you're not making money. I don't know if we're making any money if you take the facilities and the lights and all that.""

I have been to the last 4 Championships at Hays for football. Yes, I know off topic.

COSTS:
They do give up their facilities for a Saturday, but usually their team is done with their season by this point. The only lights they use are the lights under the stands, with a 1 o'clock game there is no need for the "expensive" lights to be on, very few FHSU employees working, and they have volunteer community lesions to deal with qualifying teams.

PROFIT:
Add the concession revenue to the other revenue shares they are guaranteed.

Taking all this into account as well as cleanup crews for the stadium which are usually student workers or work-study scholarship students. (same for wrestling as well as how they clean after home events) how are they losing money.

I have been to volleyball and men's/women's basketball games at FHSU. They don't really pack them in for these, definitely not like I have seen at state wrestling, basketball, and football.

He should show viable proof that they are losing money, heck ask the community who is profiting the most from the event to help offset the costs or become sponsors to help ease the costs and losses, if they are really loosing their butts on it like they claim.

I understand the remarks about splitting up 1A. They have now split 1A and 4A, wouldn't this lead any realistic group to look at re-classification. weather that would be evening out the numbers or finding a better way to classify schools. Or heck go back to the way it was and leave them all together for everything instead of having split divisions for different sports.

Just thoughts and rambling.

John Niehues

I agree some other options need to be explored. In regards to Holliday Hays comments it's not a huge deal! Tell that to the kids that lose their first round match and have to wait and weigh in at the end of the day then try to wrestle 5 consecutive matches to place. Also the guys in the finals having to wait until after 6:00 on Saturday. Changing the State format because of a basketball game? Is this in the best interest of all the State Qualifiers?

Greg-

Hasn't some of the other sports been giving some interest to the Dodge City venue? I thought I had heard Dodge was willing to play state vball and bball there. Haven't heard anything on wrestling there. Surely having state basketball there the next weekend wouldn't be a problem as Hays has done it for years.

I didn't realize the MCL bball tourney was there. Are they just moving it to a host school and playing it at the school's gym? I can see how maybe that would be an issue playing 3 rounds of boys and girls games in their building that week.

I love going to Gross the last weekend in February every year. If you want to keep it in the west part of the state Greg, it looks as though Dodge City might be the only option with a big enough venue.

I have heard, and do NOT attest to the veracity of this story, that Dodge City offered their Convention Center rent free for the 1A VB and/or BB tournaments. However, as the story goes, the offer was refused because the Convention Center is attached to the casino, which caused concerns. Again, I have no first hand knowledge that any of this story is true. I know there has been at least one wrestling tournament held there. . .Mid-Plains?. . . and those who were there gave the facility rave reviews.

The semi-finals and finals of the MCL BB tour have been played at Gross since the late 70's or very early 80's. The League had always been given one of two weeks in January; basically the second weekend and third weekends. The weekends would alternate back and forth each year; one year the early weekend, the next year the late weekend, and so on. FHSU could schedule and the MCL Schools could schedule knowing "whose" weekend it was. In the past few years those dates became harder and harder to get, and there were requests to reschedule game times on the dates we had been given. This year a completely different week was proposed, which would have played hell with already established schedules of the MCL schools. . . and with no guarantee that the proposed week would be available in the future. At a meeting this year called to discuss the contract the league has with FHSU, the question was asked point blank of the FHSU admin by an MCL administrator: "Is the MCL BB tournament a priority for FHSU?" The answer was "No." So, we are going to take it to league schools and keep the $7000+ it cost us to use Gross Coliseum this year for Friday night and Saturday.

For a lot of reasons, short drive, tradition and some wonderful personal memories, I would rather stay in Hays; as Dylan so eloquently put it, it is "hallowed ground" for 321A wrestling; but the love is no longer being reciprocated.

I want to clear up some of the issues brought up here in the last couple of days. I do know that the FHSU administration is very supportive of the 321A State Tournament and in no way wants it to move. It has been brought up about the past and how it always worked out with no basketball games scheduled that weekend. FHSU used to be part of the RMAC and their schedule did not present any issues for the weekend of the state tournament. They then entered the MIAA Conference. Originally the number of teams and the makeup of the Conference presented no issues either. Since then, the Conference has grown and the scheduling has changed. Everyone needs to keep in mind that trying to change a game date or location does not involve just the 2 teams playing. These games are scheduled involving at least 2 other teams playing on a road trip for the week. Also, as someone mentioned earlier, the MIAA tournament starts next week, Monday and Tuesday, so the game could not be scheduled for Sunday. We need to realize Gross Memorial is the home of the FHSU Tigers basketball and wrestling teams and they should have priority for its use.
These tournaments are a huge undertaking by the FHSU administration that has nothing to do directly with their programs. Did anyone thank them last year when they spent several hours moving snow and preparing the location from the blizzard dropping 17" of snow? This is not an issue between FHSU and the 321A State Tournament. It has to do with scheduling that is currently out of FHSU hands.
The atmosphere is second to none at Hays during the 321A State Tournament and I hope it continues. We need to be careful not to lose it based on some misinformation. If anyone has any issues, good or bad, make sure and let FHSU know so they can address them.
Brian Schumacher

I don't think there has been any misinformation! For whatever reason, FHSU cannot do an appropriate job hosting the 321A State Tourney any longer! If some other place can do a better job, it is time to move! I would suggest that the KWCA needs to gather the opinions of the 321A coaches and make a recommendation to KSHSAA from there! Maybe the 321A coaches are willing to put up with FHSU treating them like an inconvenience and they will recommend keeping it at FHSU. From what I've heard from several of the 321A coaches, I do not think that will be the case.

Here's this year's silver lining: everyone makes it to day #2

Is that a silver lining or a dark cloud Mike? If (and I hope and pray we don't) we have any of our kids go 0-2, I would prefer it happen on day 1. This will result in 56 more kids on the mat Saturday morning warming up and we all know how much of a mad house it is without those additional 56. And this is not "my thing" but I know a lot of cheerleaders, sponsors, moms, etc..........spend A LOT of time on posters, banners, etc....and they take a lot of pride in doing so. Well obviously due to the circumstances this year they will have to remove anything they have hung on Friday, and return Saturday morning to repeat the same process. And schudog, I agree with your comments to a certain degree, but the "lack of hospitality" displayed to all the competitors, coaches, and even fans in the past few years has declined dramatically. I had a personal experience last year that I will not post here, but would be glad to explain what happened in person.