This was my 1st time back at Hays since the early 90's, having gotten used to how 5A does things at Hartman the last 20-some years. I was a little disappointed in a few things:

There was no Parade of Champions to start the tournament, only an announcer saying how many wrestlers each school brought. It would have been nice to bring them in, Olympic style.

The PA for the Finals struggled tremendously with names on the introductions. One poor girl didn't even get her name mentioned, only her school & record. She was unsure of what to do until he started announcing the next weight. Any good announcer will seek out those individuals/teams and learn how to say names like "Courtois" pronounced "Court-twah" instead of "Court-tee-ose".

The Finals medal presentation was lackluster as well. Very disorganized, in my opinion. I miss how 5A did each medal after the preceeding weight, and marches the medalists in to music (like "Final Countdown" or "Imperial March"). These are State Medalists! Show some pomp & circumstance!

On a positive note, the hospitality room was good (and Free, unlike how 5A used to charge). Even if they ran out of food, they did a great job of trying to resupply and keep coaches happy.

Overall, a good experience, just not what I was used to and FHSU was asking for feedback. My 2 cents worth!

I also thought the weekend went pretty well, but there are some growing pains. I agree that the announcer was AWFUL. This is not the first time he has announced, but I hope it will be his last. He had ALL DAY to figure out the pronunciations of names and to practice. I do not understand why he was chosen. He didn't do any of the announcing all weekend, and they brought him in for that? I agree with most of your assessment Devast8tr. Some of the issues are easy fixes, with a little planning, others are limited by the facility itself.

A few of my suggestions:
1. Absolutely NO CHEERLEADERS. They are completely unnecessary, and contributed to the overcrowding problem.
2. Tighten up security and limit floor access. Perhaps different colored wrist bands for those on the pass list, but who do not need to be on the floor ie. administrators etc. The "security" was often looking at their phones and letting anyone walk on in. I saw several little brothers and sisters on the floor that aren't even in high school.
3. Ban the long banners that hang down to the gym floor. I know that everyone wants to recognize their accomplishments, but they were just another obstacle to maneuver in an already crowded arena. Maybe one banner per team in the interior of the arena with a size limit perhaps.
4. Set up a place for teams to camp out in another gym in the building, similar to what Salina did, and have a screen with the bout tracker being broadcast in there. That was quite helpful last year. This might also help to ease the overcrowding problem.

I think the biggest issue was how crowded the arena floor was. Overall, it was a good event, that I hope KSHSAA will continue to tweak and improve.

I totally agree that the announcer was awful, almost to the point of embarrassing
I also agree that cheerleaders should not be allowed. With this format and lack of space, that's an easy cut.
I also think that the pictures that hang down and block the view are not needed. Maybe they could be hung up at the team camp.
I don't think they need a parade of champions, because they introduced the wrestlers before finals. Maybe liven up a bit
I also think that the dance team is not needed, unless they put them on when they are taking the 1/2 hr break for setup.
I believe that they ran out of food because managers/kids with a wrist band went to eat. Different color of bands would stop that, or go back to tickets. Hospitality room was good, as usual. Maybe a little cramped.
For some reason the finals took almost 3 hrs.and that was without the podium. I think they could get kids on the podium, then kick them to the track for pictures on the podium there. Something to speed it up would be a good thing.
I would also like to have the finals drawn to see what weight we start at. I don't think they were this time.

Overall I was satisfied with the tournament this year, next year I hope they make some adjustments to speed it up and ease the crowd situation on the floor.

Coach best part of the tournament was your heavyweight championship match. That was an instant classic! Kudos to both wrestlers! I am biased but I think Stephen and Nickelson at 175 was an all out exciting brawl as well.

Parking City 5a has the best announcer. Josh Wells. Bar none. He does his homework beforehand. Josh is under appreciated in the wrestling community. Thanks Josh!!

Thanks, and you are right, that #175 match was awesome to watch. I don't know if I could pick a weight that had the most exciting match, because I thought there were quite a few final matches that had me twisting, yelling and yelling some more. It was fun to watch