Accident at Bryan Youth Tournament.

January 06, 2009, 09:15 AM

Hi All,

If you read the newspaper today (OWH) there is an article about a 61 year old man who was watching his grandson wrestle at the Omaha Bryan Youth Tournament. He reached for the rail, and the rail gave way. He fell 15 feet to the floor. He suffered multiple injuries including a broken wrist. Very unfortunate.

I am writing this to all of you out there who are involved with youth wrestling. It is a good idea to make sure you have insurance coverage for your events. YES the school's catostrophic insurance will cover the accident, but the district's insurance rates will balloon (nature of the game) and anyone associated with the event can be sued. Even if you aren't held liable, you still have to have a lawyer and representation. It only takes one of these unintended accidents to cause a lot of problems for any youth program.

At Huskerland we actually pay for your facility insurance if you are a member of Huskerland. We pay for your practice insurance and we also pay for your tournament insurance. If you haven't thought about getting involved with Huskerland, this might be a good time to do so. Get registered and get that coverage started. We use AAU and you are covered for 10 million in liability. This takes a lot of pressure off the school district and the folks that run the youth clubs.

Just food for thought.

January 06, 2009, 09:31 AM

DevilYouth

Was at the tournament and saw it happen and I have to say that as a Director of a club I would still be sick about the fall.

January 06, 2009, 11:04 AM

Mr. Pin

If you have a USA club charter membership you have coverage as well...

January 06, 2009, 12:18 PM

H/CC Coach's Wife

I have always worried that something (anything) would happen during our tournament. My question is - If both AAU and USA automatically covers your tournament and if being a member of Huskerland automatically gives you coverage for your tournament - why have we had to pay extra every year (above and beyond Huskerland membership and card membership) to make sure our tournament was covered or I am just a sucker?!!

January 06, 2009, 02:20 PM

grapplinman

Huskerland hasn't always paid for the blanket coverage for charter clubs in the past when we were with USA and Team Camp. However, AAU has allowed us to pay a blanket amount that would cover all of our member clubs' facilities, practices, and tournaments. We felt like it was in the best interest of our membership to pay this up front and save each club the money it would cost to purchase separate insurance. Certainly any club can be a member of USA and get insurance coverage as a member club. We just offer AAU insurance free to our Huskerland membership at this time.

I am not suggesting that anyone has to go Huskerland or AAU or USA. I am suggesting that every club out there have insurance coverage. These unforseen accidents can wreak havoc on a club, club coaches, leadership, and school districts. It is a good idea to be proactive; insurance is the way to go.

January 06, 2009, 02:48 PM

wrestle05

quote:
Originally posted by H/CC Coach's Wife:
I have always worried that something (anything) would happen during our tournament. My question is - If both AAU and USA automatically covers your tournament and if being a member of Huskerland automatically gives you coverage for your tournament - why have we had to pay extra every year (above and beyond Huskerland membership and card membership) to make sure our tournament was covered or I am just a sucker?!!

You are a sucker if you go to huskerland. They nickle and dime you and charge hidden fees. They are the only tournament that charges to see your bracket and not put it on the wall. If you dont buy one you dont know where to go. The huskerland membership fee gets you nothing but a team score. In the past the USA club fee paid for your insurance. Now this so called free insurance huskerland provides you can only get it if you pay the huskerland fee and now pay more for your cards. Huskerland is profiting from this deal.

January 06, 2009, 03:14 PM

525

AAU club charter free for this year, but be ready to start paying for it next year.

Let's see....Huskerland makes $2.50 on every AAU card sold in Nebraska....let's say they sell a moderate 2000 cards....that's $5000 in card sales for the 2008-2009 season. Huskerland made 0 in the past on card sales and USA continues to make 0 on the $10 in state competitor card. The AAU card for in state is $2 more than USA...so $2 multiplied by 2000 cards is $4000 extra going out of this state this year. Multiply $4000 by 5 years and thats $20,000. I think the real count for USA cards last year was over 3000, but I'm trying to be conservative.

So yes you're getting something for free, but do you really think you get anything for free?

If you have more than 5 kids on your wrestling club that decide to wrestle at the NE USA state tournament and the Huskerland tournament, that will be an additional charge of $50 in insurance cards cause the kids will need both. That's about the price of a club charter. Figure this too: If Huskerland tournament gets 1000 kids this year...and USA gets 600 kids this year...We would all agree that 90% of the kids going to NE USA State are going to Huskerland too, right? Take 600 and multiply by $12 and that's how much more money it cost Nebraska wrestlers to compete because Huskerland decided to change to AAU...that's $7200...OH and that doesn't include the clubs that will charter both AAU and USA. Multiply $7200 over the next 5 years and you have $36,000 extra cash going out of this state that never needed to.

4 years ago USA paid the charters when Huskerland first switched to USA. I guess you can say its an "introductory offer".

Each club should have some kind of insurance and for the costs its pretty cheap. You can go to www.nebraskausawrestling.org and get what you need and support wrestling while your at it.

Fred Franklin
Nebraska USA Wrestling kids director

January 06, 2009, 08:15 PM

525

quote:
Originally posted by 525:
AAU club charter free for this year, but be ready to start paying for it next year.

Let's see....Huskerland makes $2.50 on every AAU card sold in Nebraska....let's say they sell a moderate 2000 cards....that's $5000 in card sales for the 2008-2009 season. Huskerland made 0 in the past on card sales and USA continues to make 0 on the $10 in state competitor card. The AAU card for in state is $2 more than USA...so $2 multiplied by 2000 cards is $4000 extra coming out of Nebraska's wrestlers pocketbook this year. Multiply $4000 by 5 years and thats $20,000. I think the real count for USA cards last year was over 3000, but I'm trying to be conservative.

So yes you're getting something for free, but do you really think you get anything for free?

If you have more than 5 kids on your wrestling club that decide to wrestle at the NE USA state tournament and the Huskerland tournament, that will be an additional charge of $50 in insurance cards cause the kids will need both. That's about the price of a club charter. Figure this too: If Huskerland tournament gets 1000 kids this year...and USA gets 600 kids this year...We would all agree that 90% of the kids going to NE USA State are going to Huskerland too, right? Take 600 and multiply by $12 and that's how much more money it cost Nebraska wrestlers to compete because Huskerland decided to change to AAU...that's $7200...OH and that doesn't include the clubs that will charter both AAU and USA. Multiply $7200 over the next 5 years and you have $36,000 extra cash going out of this state that never needed to.

4 years ago USA paid the charters when Huskerland first switched to USA. I guess you can say its an "introductory offer".

Each club should have some kind of insurance and for the costs its pretty cheap. You can go to www.nebraskausawrestling.org and get what you need and support wrestling while your at it.

Fred Franklin
Nebraska USA Wrestling kids director

January 07, 2009, 03:16 PM

grapplinman

I'm surely not going to get into a battle of words with the learned 525 or wrestle05. Obviously both of them have their biases and slants. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I will say that neither is relaying the facts accurately, but that is a debate for another time and place.

Since 525 brought it up, I would sure like to plug a few upcoming events which will be available for the AAU cardholders. First of all, in Omaha, I believe it is on the 31st of January will be AAU Winter Nationals. It will be held at the QWEST Center and will be an outstanding event on 14 mats. We are only too happy to bring National level events right here to Nebraska. Similarly, UNO will be hosting an AAU Regional / state Folkstyle tournament the first weekend in April. The tournament will feature wrestlers from the surrounding states. Lastly, UNO will be retooling the summer AAU Ironman. For the first time ever this event will be a unique Folkstyle Championship. It will feature a Takedown Event, a Mat Grappling Event and of course traditional folkstyle wrestling. Something here for every wrestler! I would encourage people in Nebraska to not shy away from some of this awesome competition right here in our very own back yard.

You can clearly see that there will be a lot of bang for your buck for our AAU card holders. And we aim to continue improving our offerings each and every year!