Will:

You are asking for feedback and although I no longer have anyone actively wrestling I guess I am still interested enough to be actively supporting the Kansas College Wrestling Fund and to still occasionally be getting on to this forum so I am going to give you some feedback.

First in general I really like the idea of this type of Grand State tournament. If accepted by the Kansas wrestling community I think it could be as close as we could expect to the Grand State concept. I think it is innovative and good you are trying to plan such a tournament. Here are a couple of questions I have though.

I am not sure why you are setting up an extra $10 registration entry difference for those who do not wrestle at their KSHSAA weight. It seems like you have set weights with a reasonable five pound weight allowances set up so why the extra $10? To give incentive for a wrestler to compete at the weight they competed in during the high school state tournament. There is NO WAY I can mandate this or want to but I would like to give a financial incentive to keep the state qualifiers in their respective weight classes.

I am not sure if high school coaches are allowed by the Kansas State High School State Association to coach underclassmen in a post season event like this. I really do not know but I thought maybe they might be restricted from doing so. Do you know for sure if they are allowed to? They are NOT allowed to coach their underclassmen and I don't see any way to get this changed in less than 12 months. Coaches will have to swap corners and coach other kids. At this point in time the man in the corner isn't really going to make a difference.

You state on the donation part that it will go to Fort Hays State University Bob Smith Wrestling Endowment or the Kansas College Wrestling Fund. Does this mean that the wrestler on his registration will get to choose where he wants his donation to go between the two funds? I haven't really committed this in any way but I was considering a 50/50 split. If so why just Fort Hays State as a specific school option? Mainly because this is what I want to do. FHSU is the ONLY four year, public school offering wrestling. It is the ONLY school in Kansas that has a wrestling specific endowment set up. If pressed I will give 100% to FHSU to help them accelerate their fund to a point where they can offer 9.9 scholarships as allowed by the NCAA. Currently they are just over 7 and that is creatively speaking. They are not fully funded. I am on the fence about supporting, financially, schools that are motivated by profit to offer wrestling not because they support the sport. I have continued to support both but in this manner. Or does this mean the wrestler will be able to choose another college if he prefers to have it designated specifically to say Newman, Baker, Benedictine, Ottawa, or other universtiy. Since this is a statewide tournament perhaps it would be best just to designate the donation to the Kansas College Wrestling Fund or as an alternative give the wrestler the option to be able to designate his donation to the Kansas college wrestling program of his choice. That way senior wrestlers who have already committed to another Kansas college could designate their donation to their future school or perhaps one where another family member is currently wrestling. I think it would be a mistake to limit a specific school donation to only FHSU. I am not going to create an entry form with a multiple choice questionnaire as to where they want their $1 contribution to go to. If the KCWF wants to fund this tournament I would be happy to let every $1 contribution go to that fund. I would then expect to see every board member there from the start of registration until the last mat is rolled up.

The registration fee of $31 or $41 might be a little rich for some Kansas wrestling families especially when they need to also plan for other traveling expenses. This might keep some quality wrestlers from participating and thus lessen a little the Grand State competition. Obviously you have not operated a tournament of this size. Rent, security, AWARDS, clean up, mats, internet, computers, clocks, printers, officials, table workers, etc. We recently conducted a tournament at the Salina Bicentennial center with nearly 700 competitors. It was a one day event and a moderate admission was charged. The net result was a plus $20 and change. Next year they want to increase the facility rent. The security alone for that event was $1850. I would LOVE to make it free. Are you offering a sizeable contribution to this effort?

The danger of giving feedback is that it can be seen as all negative. I really do not want you to think I am all negative on this. I like the overwhelming majority of your idea for this tournament.


Feedback... It FEEDS improvement and it FEEDS creativity! I don't claim to have all of the answers. All feedback, negative or positive can be constructive. I can dish it out so I am certainly willing to take it. I don't want to beat the streets asking for hand outs but IF anyone is volunteering then I am not going to turn them