Have been following the thread on this subject for awhile, and have finally decided to post a reply...
Indy Wrestling Club has offered Outstanding Wrestler and Team trophies for years, and I don't ever recall quite as much to-do over them as this.
The intent of the trophies is to provide additional incentive and rewards for kids and clubs. IWC doesn't have to provide them, and they add quite a bit of cost to the tournament budget.
Medals are nice, but imagine the pride a kid has in their hard work to have a 2 foot trophy on their mantel at home. Recognition for excellence is a driving force for humans (kids or adults).
Nothing in life is fair (by the current definition in our society). One poster even suggested that such an award be given to ALL PARTICIPANTS because they are outstanding for even competing. This sounds suspiciously like Rec League Soccer/Peewee T-Ball/Public School System mentality. Perhaps all tournaments should charge $100 per entry, and give everyone a big trophy for showing up. Everyone these days seems nervous about their kid finding out at an early age that there are winners and losers in every aspect of life.
As another person stated, it would be nearly impossible for refs/coaches to keep track of 400 wrestlers on 5 mats, and offer an opinion as to who was truly outstanding in their age class. Quality of competition also has to be factored into what would truly be a subjective decision.
Therefore, the only objective method for awarding the trophy is to establish a criteria, and stick to it. That criteria is:
1) You must be champion in your bracket
2) The champion with most pins wins
3) Tie-breaking is based on total pin time, then technical falls, major decisions, etc.
All brackets are formulated so that seeded wrestlers are afforded maximum opportunity for this award. Yes, it's true that a kid in a 16 bracket has more opportunity than one in an 8 bracket, who has more opportunity than one in a RR. On the other hand, they probably had to overcome more and tougher competition to become champion. How many times have you seen a 3 kid RR with one "A" wrestler and two novices? Does the "A" wrestler's spankin of the two rookies in 15 seconds each mean he/she is the "outstanding" wrestler?
It should be pretty obvious from the above why the "fastest pin" trophy was eliminated from the tournament awards. Now that was a trophy that was often meaningless.
There is not, nor will there ever be, a "fair" method of awarding this trophy. The team trophy situation is no different, yet I've never heard a complaint about that. An excellent, though very small team could post 4 champions out of say 6 wrestlers, and still lose to a team that entered 40 wrestlers and logged a bunch of 2-3-4 placers. Everyone accepts that total points is the criteria for this award. OW is, and should be no different.
I am going to post a poll regarding OW awards. Very curious as to the results.
