This thread will be used for the Tournament Committee to push out useful information and schedule updates during the 2020 USAWKS State Folkestyle State Tournament

Mark Stanley
Tournament Director

We have posted recommendations in light of concerns over COVID-19 (Coronavirus) for anyone planning on attending this year's state tournament. Click here to view the recommendations.

At this time we do not have any plans to cancel this event.

For key information on the tournament, including the updated schedule, go to www.usawks.com/invites/2020StateKeyInfo.pdf.

Thank god there is no plan to cancel. This coronavirus scare is ridiculous.

Totally overblown !!

For sure!!
Dr’s say it’s pretty much similar risk as influenza.

If people are worried about it, stay home, don’t shut down the world and cancel everything.

Thank you USA/KS board for using common sense, and not cancelling.
Craig Amrein

I'm just glad there is enough common sense to not cave in to the "peer pressure" by cancelling.

Like the others have said thank you usawks.

I'm on board with going on, but it makes you wonder what the professionals know that we don't. We are all betting not 1 person there is infected. Not sure what those odds would be.

Drama drama.......Do you consider CNN professional?

It's not about odds, it's about liability. If you get a cluster of infections coming out of any one of these events, somebody is going to get sued.

Not at all Doug. I don't waste my time over there. But NCAA ,NBA, MLB, NHL, and multiple heath care facilities, state post secondary institutions and state departments I would think have good intel.

The board of USAW-Kansas has revisited it's decision on whether to hold the 2020 State Tournament this weekend in Topeka and has decided to go forward with the event. This decision was based on the fact that only a single case of infection has been found in Kansas thus far and balancing that risk against the loss of the premier tournament for this year for over 1900 youth who have worked hard to qualify to wrestle this weekend. The board also noted the Kansas State High School Activities Association, after monitoring recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, has also decided to proceed with the state basketball tournaments as scheduled.

The decision to continue with the tournament does not mean we are complacent over the possible risk of contagion. We will take reasonable measures available to us, including increasing the frequency of mat cleanings. We do have some limitations due to the short time frame and availability of some supplies, but within those limitations we will do what we can do at the organizational level.

We want to encourage every person to consider their own situation to determine whether they should attend the event. This virus seems to be particularly hazardous for certain at-risk groups, particularly the elderly and those with current health issues, and individuals who are in those at-risk groups should seriously consider staying at home at watching the matches on Trackcast, since all of the matches will be streamed and can be viewed at home.

Anyone coming to the event should follow the recommendations previous posted (click here to view recommendations) click here to view recommendations[/url]). If the status of the tournament should change, for any reason, we will post that on this site as soon as possible, but the plan is for the tournament to proceed as scheduled.

If USAWKS is going to have this event you should at least eliminate the parade and announce that wrestlers are not to shake hands with the officials or coaches before or at the conclusion of matches. If one person there has coronavirus it's going home to every community in Kansas. I love this tournament as much as anybody, but you should at least take every measure in your power to lessen the transmission if you're going to have the tournament. I know that's not a popular opinion, and if I was wrestling I'd go anyway...but there is a reason that basically every other sporting event in the nation has been cancelled.

Is this decision based on what is best for kids? I feel the risk out weighs the reward. Only time will tell.

Thank you very much. I agree with everything you said . Your response is very logical. if it gets canceled now it will not get Rescheduled and these kids have worked there behinds off all year for this event. If someone believes they are at risk they have every right to stay at home and watch from there. We venture out to Walmart, School, work, and so on. We were at risk for disease and illness every day of our lives.
Thanks again! Looking forward to this great event!!

The Expocentre is currently undergoing construction. They have worked to minimize the impact on our event, but there are some changes, including the long steps being removed.

Click here to see a map with the changes.

Agree 100%

We have a better chance of hitting the lottery than we do of contracting Coronavirus in KS right now.

1215 confirmed or "presumptive" cases in the US now. .000003715 of the population MAY have it.......... that a decimal point and five zeros in front of the 3715....

The amount of economic damage the media is doing to our country is asinine....... Look back at the other "end of the world" viruses that turned out to be nothing more than a way to get people to tune into our fake news media......

I understand that there is a concern given the severity of this virus, but I think people have to make their own decisions, not have them made for you. As such, I greatly support the idea of continuing with the tourney. And, given that wrestling is a contact sport, I am not really concerned with handshaking. Although I understand others may disagree.