I feel for the father/coach in question. There should be some guidelines, but no hard and fast rule. Too often people want a black and white rule because they dont want to handle the particular circumstances. Way too many variables exist in these tournaments.

I am personally dealing with this same issue. My 5 year old son in a low weight meets some of the "open" criteria. He won a B bracket in an open last year. Is this an open as described above? He placed in an open this year, but barely, beating one kid and getting schooled by two others. After going 1 and 6, including losing 5 in a row, I put him in a big novice, hoping to get an equal match-up. I was wrong. He easily won 2 matches and I suppose I could be accused of the same wrong-doing.

Leave the guy alone. Forget about adopting a hard and fast rule. Try to predict the competition/brackets and do the best you can to wrestle your kids where they can compete. Sometimes they'll be in over their heads, sometimes they'll be on top.

Lastly, I think the Ottawa coach and club officers should quit worrying about it.