1. Don’t ever stay at the Clarion hotel, this was the worst experience in a hotel I have ever had, and there have been a lot of strange out of the ordinary experiences.
2. If Brute says they are going to do a OTC, or hard luck tournament, don’t believe them, they screwed wrestlers and families out of money by making this promise and then giving them one match with a 1-1-1 period. They also allowed All-American placement wrestlers wrestle in this against individuals who had been beaten out. Where is the honor in that.
3. Brute is about profit, don’t let that fool you. When one of our kids had their singlet stolen, and we asked them to make an announcement about a lost or stolen singlet, they refused. I could go into a lot of detail here but in short their response was that it was foolish to expect that a parent or coach would hold their kid accountable.
4. Dante Rogers, Joey Stephens, Cole Zogelman and Kendric Maple showed what the concept of team is all about. In their matches against each other, they had fun. The Zogelman, Maple match was the funniest and most enjoyable match I think I have ever seen, including, tag team matches. When I speak about team and family concepts, these guys displayed it in a remarkable way.
5. Back to Brute again, but what is up with putting Kansas kids on the same side of the bracket in the tournament. I hate to say it this way, and I know some will assume because of my son, which it is not, but we had numerous kids on the same side of the bracket, and in many situations kids that didn’t have to be. I am convinced, that Brute tournament organizers need to understand the implications of the pocket book if 140+ Kansas Wrestlers decided to go someplace else and wrestle.
6. Competition, it was great, as good as any national tournament I have been to. Some very tough brackets with some very tough wrestlers.
7. Officials. There seemed to be some very quick calls. Trent Cox, despite what some may say, was doing great against Adamson when the official called two very quick stall and potentially dangerous situations. After the second stall call, and a point, it changed drastically Trent’s style of wrestling. Don’t get me wrong, Adamson is a great wrestler, and exceptional wrestler, I think an National top 3 wrestler but Trent got screwed on those calls. Even friends of Adamson next to me agreed on the calls and made the original comment during the match that the calls were bogus. Overall the officials on the Freshman mats were exceptional. All officials were very quick to call the stall, or potentially dangerous in some situations where they shouldn’t have in my opinion. The officiating in the match with Cox was not appropriate however, and when the official walks directly over to the people mat side watching it and makes the comments he did, he needs to quit officiating. They were uncalled for and unprofessional.
8. Another comment regarding the officiating, and I am not trying to blast the officials, again, overall did an excellent job. But the call made on Aaron Ely was absurd. Understand Ely never fully went to his back. He had the young man in a pinning combination and went to his lower back and the mat was slapped as a defensive pin. Randy and others are in shock for a reason. Don’t trust me on this one trust Randy and everyone else who saw it, it was totally a horrible call that was never even actually close to a defensive pin. Mistakes happen, it is just a shame when mistakes happen to people as good as Aaron Ely, and I’m not talking about the wrestler Aaron, I’m talking about the young man.
9. Kansas, despite all the obstacles, continues to garnish respect. Our young men act like young, mature men at tournaments. While there may have been some problems I was unaware of them. I had several officials and others coming to me making positive comments about our wrestlers.
10. Again, organization of the tournament. To start the seniors on one night at Sapp Fieldhouse, and then have weigh in’s at the same time in a venue 6 miles away for underclassmen is crazy. One of our greatest nightmares was trying to figure out how to get kids to weigh in 6 miles away and still be present to coach our kids wrestling in the Senior Division.
11. Overall, I know it looks like there was some negative, and there certainly was, but the tournament was still overall a very positive experience. What made it so though were the wrestlers, fans, and coaches involved. Not just from Kansas but from around the country. Then our Kansans have a lot to be proud of. I know that if I ever do this again there will be some organizational changes but you learn and move on. There are so many that we could all thank, the coaches, moms and of course Randy Hinderliter near the top of the list. Mostly though, I thank the wrestlers. They are exceptional young men who it was a joy to share the weekend with. Some of them taught me a few more things than I wanted to know, like how to play Texas Holdem, but more than that, some of them reminded me again of the importance of having fun. Thanks and looking forward to preseason work outs and tournaments. As for right now though, get ready for college, keep the grades up, and enjoy Summer Wrestling.
