The final poll has been up for several weeks and nobody has voted for some time so we will go with the two winners; spicing up the Parade of Champions and showing individual results on the message boards. Following is the email I will send to Darin Boysen AFTER all of you have given your input and suggestions for rewording, etc.

EMAIL TO DARIN BOYSEN AT NSAA

This email is being sent on behalf of the members of huskermat.com. This is a Nebraska based website dedicated to the exchange of ideas and information about amateur wrestling, primarily Nebraska high schools and colleges. Members were concerned about the decline in attendance at the 2008 state tournament. We compiled the ideas presented on ways to reverse this decline and then voted on the two ideas we felt would most benefit the athletes, coaches, fans, and all concerned.

Two criteria for presenting an idea were established. One, we could not present an idea that related to something that NSAA does not control. So we won’t ask you to get all of the Omaha traffic off the streets as we approach the Qwest Center and we won’t ask you to ward off any adverse weather that may crop up at tournament time. Second, the ideas presented had to be something that could be implemented with little or no cost and did not represent a radical departure from the traditions of the state tournament.

The first idea that we would like to present is to use the message boards to report individual match results soon after they are finished. Many fans like to keep the brackets in their programs up to date. It is very difficult to do that inside the arena when there are multiple matches being wrestled at the same time. At the breaks between the sessions it is difficult to get near the brackets that are posted in the hallways because of the large crowds around those brackets. Use of the message boards could allow those who want to keep their programs up to date the opportunity to do so without leaving the arena.

The other idea that we want to present is to energize the wrestlers and the crowd with the Parade of Champions. We feel that a highlight tape of action in previous matches before the finals would be exciting. That tape could be 3-6 minutes long and then the Parade would begin immediately at the end of the tape. We also think it would be good to have a Grand Marshall of the parade. We have a large number of individuals who have been outstanding wrestlers, coaches, and contributors to Nebraska High School wrestling. The sight of one or more of these highly respected individuals leading the Parade of Champions would surely start the adrenalin rushes.

Please discuss these ideas with the other officials of NSAA. I am acting as spokesman for this project so please contact me if you have questions and with information about your decisions. I will relay the information to the rest of the members.

We thank you for your consideration.

Yours for better sports and sportsmanship,

Frank Ryan

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This is an attempt by the fans. It is difficult to expect the fans to have much clout. Hopefully it will start some thought processes. I still urge you coaches--FORM A STRONG COACHES ASSOCIATION. If you do that you will be able to meet with NSAA and the Board of Directors for an eyeball to eyeball discussion of where you want Nebraska high school wrestling to go.

as I heard from a pretty reliable source they had a video lined up for the parade of champions or before but they had tech difficulties and it couldn't happen I think they are trying to make it more exciting.

Frank,

As a parent and a fan, I wish that you would have added a few items to your email to the NSAA since you have taken it upon yourself to be one voice for all of us.

First of all, the letter should have been professional and not come across as lame as it does. If the voice of the fans can only come up with these two items that need changed, then you missed the boat. The fact that you relied on a silly poll on this forum to drive your letter does not represent the true opinion of the fans!

The letter does not include ideas or opinions of the coaches or the athletes. That is what will drive changes at the NSAA, not fans! How about talking about skin and health diseases and the prevention of such from athlete to athlete, ticket distribution, access to the front row seats for parents with kids int he final, the sharing of results quicker on the web or through a text or email distribution list, the presentation of medals that allow teams and fans to leave and clear the house before all of the wrestlers compete, the selection of the officials, the seeding of the tournament so the best wrestlers do not meet in the quarters or the semis, an all class champion, the reduction from 4 classes to 2 or 3, the reclassification of the teams to elminate wrestlers with losing records from qualifying for state, a dress code for coaches and athletes on the awards stand, the posting of pictures of the champions on the NSAA web site, rankings that are done by coaches and not a central expert with greater knowledge, a scholarship program for an athlete that epitimizes the true spirit of wrestling, and of course the final thing would be to allow beach balls in the arena!

This is not a complete list, but you can see that there are many more things that need to be considered in a letter to the NSAA, the AD's and the coaches to make some changes. It is truely a great sport, but without the promotion of the sport and a more active governing body, there will be many challaneges to overcome.

The number one thing that must be addressed is today's health conditions posing potentailly deadly viruses and skin conditions to our athletes, that may cancel or eliminate wrestling from sanctioned high school sports!

189 Mom, Frank's suggestions were taken straight from the survey conducted in this forum earlier this year. I think the suggestions being made are logical and do-able. They are being presented as coming from the fans of wrestling.

I, for one, commend Frank for taking the initiative here.

Where have you been the last 3 months 189Mom? It seems as if you have some good ideas, but your timing is poor and the tone of your reply to Frank is worse than your timing, imho. In the future are you going to be part of the solution, or a part of the pointing?

Wow, 189mom. That post was a uncalled for. I for one thought your condesending and subtley mean-spirited attitude towards Frank is out of line. I guess that's what you get when you take it upon yourself to try to improve things.

Frank, I just want it known that I appreciate your efforts. Keep up the good work.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Angrybilly,

I think Frank Ryan has done a considerable amount to try to help wrestling here in Nebraska. I believe by starting small with a few changes every year or so will allow us to have a better state tournament year after year. Keep up the good work Frank!

189 Mom,
What more do you want them to do about skin conditions, check with a UV light or petri dish tests at matside?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Red Rocker,

heh heh heh. Now that's comedy......

Let's keep this civil.

Everyone involved.

Thanks

I do know that at one time, Mr. Boysen was a member here. I don't have any idea if he still visits or not but he does know that this forum exists.

There is a reason there are 2 of the best wrestlers wrestling each other in the quarters or semis. If they're wrestling in the semis, there's a fairly good chance that (GASP!), it's the top 4 wrestlers in the state. If they're wrestling each other in the quarters, it's their own fault for not winning the district. In the current bracket draws, there is no way for the district winners ("one of the top four wrestlers in that weight bracket")to face each other before the semifinals. Seeding might make it for better wrestling, but what really needs to be done is the "best wrestlers" need to get it done 5 days before state.

189MOM,
As I read your post I think that perhaps you have not been tracking this thread from the beginning so I will attempt to recreate the general flow of the thread and then address some of your points.

After the state tournament there were many posts about problems that people saw in the state tournament but very few solutions. My reason for starting the thread was to give the members an opportunity to give some positive ideas for improving the state tournament. I have had some experience in negotiating in situations like this and have learned that the most successful negotiation comes about when a few points are chosen instead of presenting a "laundry list" of many points. Since this was as first time at this (as far as I know, I don't believe it has been done since I joined this forum a few years ago) I thought it would be best to stick to these basic criteria; that our request would be something over which NSAA had control, and that it be something that could be done with little or no cost without a drastic departure from the established structure on the state tournament. These were, and still are, my opinions. They were not meant to force anything down anyone's throat. As far as I can remember, no one took issue with these ground rules until your post today. At no time did I imply that no other persons could write to NSAA with their ideas. Many people did present ideas and I tried to give all equal opportunity to be discussed by the menbers.

Now I would like to address some of your specific points.

"You have taken it upon yourself yourself to be one voice for all of us." Several times throughout the thread I asked people to volunteer to write the final letter to NSAA. If you, or any other member, came forth and volunteered I apologize for not seeing it and handing that portion of the project over to someone else. If I took it upon myself to be one voice for all it was by default. I did not know that you would have preferred to do it.

"The letter should have been professional and not lame....." I am not a professional writer and everyone who reads this forum will agree with that. However, I felt it would be better to have an unprofessional who was willing to do it than to have a professional who would not do it.

"...Silly poll does not represent the true opinion of the fans." It represents the opinions of the majority of the fans who voted. Please tell me how I should have learned the true opinions of the fans.

"....letter does not include the opinions of the coaches and the athletes." I don't know all of the people who submitted ideas in the initial phase of this project but I do know some of them and know that some of the ideas were submitted by coaches. I don't know if any athletes submitted ideas or not. I have no idea who voted in the polls, but assume that at least some of the voters were coaches and athletes.

Your post gave a long list of things that should have been included in the letter. I addressed that earlier. Several times throughout this project I mentioned that I thought that we should limit our requests to 2 or 3 items. I do not believe there was any disagreement with this concept until today.

I believe that you should write to NSAA with your ideas so that you will feel that you have been fairly represented. You can get their address and email addresses from the NSAA website, www.nsaahome.org.
From your sign on name I assume that you are the mother of a wrestler. Good luck to you and your wrestler in the future.

Frank...I was not trying to be mean spirited...I am frustrated by the lack of voice the people have whether it is for wrestling, school boards, presidential elections. Too many times only a few opinions are expressed and they do not resolve the issues at large. There was no ill will intended towards you. I apologize.

I wish that what is best for the people by the people was a more true statement today. It appears that only the will of the rich and powerful gets the results and actions that they want to see achieved. WE need more voices and more authority to impact the sport that we pay for with our property taxes and school systems support. I am tired of the NSAA and their imposing their thougths and beliefs on the athletes and families that they are supposed to support. The bigger question is how do we as a larger body organize and make sure our voices are heard. Yours is a good attempt, but what I fear is that as one person with only a few ideas, it will be easy to brush you off. We should discuss a way to get organized and really have a voice!

Once again Frank, I apologize!

MOM

MOM,
It takes some courage and character to "cowgirl up" and apologize. I admire and appreciate that trait. When the blood pressure comes down I don't think we are that far apart in what we want. I think we both want what is best for the sport and all that are involved in it. We just have different ways of going about presenting our case.

If we can get a small concession, or even just an acknowledgement that we are here, from NSAA this year then maybe we can get a bigger crumb next year. I learned something from my kids as they were growing up. When I said, "No" I thought that meant "No". But they knew that it meant, "He doesn't understand the question. I'll ask it again later in a little different way".

If NSAA says, "No" this year it will be up to us to ask the question in a different way that they will understand next year.

I hope to meet you in person at the state tournament next year.

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right.”

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Frank Ryan,

189MOM, Thanks for coming back and clarifying your earlier statement!

quote:

Originally posted by 189MOM:
Frank...I was not trying to be mean spirited...I am frustrated by the lack of voice the people have whether it is for wrestling, school boards, presidential elections. Too many times only a few opinions are expressed and they do not resolve the issues at large. There was no ill will intended towards you. I apologize.

I wish that what is best for the people by the people was a more true statement today. It appears that only the will of the rich and powerful gets the results and actions that they want to see achieved. WE need more voices and more authority to impact the sport that we pay for with our property taxes and school systems support. I am tired of the NSAA and their imposing their thougths and beliefs on the athletes and families that they are supposed to support. The bigger question is how do we as a larger body organize and make sure our voices are heard. Yours is a good attempt, but what I fear is that as one person with only a few ideas, it will be easy to brush you off. We should discuss a way to get organized and really have a voice!

Once again Frank, I apologize!

MOM

Ok, I'll apologize for one of my comments too. Just not all of them! I do think everything that can be done, is about skin conditions. I don't think we need the NSAA to look into that any further. Especially if they're not concerned at ALL about it in the other sports. As anyone at the C-3 district could tell you, the kids already felt violated after skin checks, it was ridiculous.

Skin problems caused our 215 pounder (#1 seed in District) to not wrestle in Districts...it happens and will continue to happen until schools, coaches, wrestlers and parents realize how important it is to have clean facilities/gear on a daily basis. We all could name a handful of schools that don't clean their facilities as well as they should be. Spring/Summer wrestling has a bad rep. for spreading stuff also. It is something that wrestling will face every year.

Agreed. Just don't know that there's anything else NSAA can do about it. They already recommend all the things you mentioned. I agree, not all schools, parents take it seriously enough to do what's needed. As I said though, what else can NSAA do about it? The only thing I'd like to see is regulate the other sports on skin condition as well. There were 3 cases of ringworm and a case of shingles. Guess what, put tape over it and never missed a practice or game. Don't tell me he didn't come in contact with anybody. We had 1 case on our team and everyone was on alert.

Unless someone offers something different for the format of the email I will send it to Darin Boysen tomorrow night.

"We confide in our strength without boasting about it; we respect that of others without fearing it." Thomas Jefferson