I just got done talking to Alan Pokorny and he has informed me that all district 6 wrestlers may now go to any district to qualify. I know it is a short notice but any district six wrestlers who want to wrestle tomorrow to qualify they may come to Seward to do so. I will not charge any late registration fee and you may walk in tomorrow morning and register. I will be at the Seward High School at 7am tomorrow so fill free to attend. Any questions email sewardwrestling@gmail.com or call me tonight. I hope to see you there.

John Hayek
Seward Wrestling Club
(402)641-8757

how are the numbers for this tourney so far?

Wow! This is what I was asking for back in January. I was told we had to go to O'Neill. Unfortunately, I didn't see this until today (after the tournament started).

With the top 6 qualifing at each District, I'd be interest to know how many entered. IOW, how many Didn't make it. Taking 6 from each District doesn't seem like much of a thinning out.

Poor numbers for this district - few kids didn't qualify. Some kids had none in their bracket. Tournament was ran fine and kudos to Seward, not their fault that their were few numbers. Believe they just take 4 from each district with the exception of the Omaha district.

bccdavid - believe that is only for District 6 (Lincoln) - think you still have to go to O'Neill

So let me get this straight: USA has a districts to qualify for the State tournament in GI. Pretty much anyone that shows up qualifies for the State tournament. Hmmm. Why do we have Districts?

Cotton: O'Neill is taking 6 from their District - not 4. It will be interesting to see the #'s at O'Neill next weekend.

We hosted district 7 yesterday. Didn't have great numbers, but had very talented kids. We had several brackets that ended up with 8-12 wrestlers. In years to come the districts will grow.

bccdavid,
Why? For the following reasons:
1. More opportunities to use your USA card. People ask and want a value for purchasing a USA card. We are giving you what you ask for. Please don’t criticize us for attempting to do what people want.
2. Increase numbers at the USA state folkstyle tournament. Let’s use 200 entries per district for an easy place to start (some districts will be larger). That is 1600 kids across the state participating in the USA Districts. If only 50% go on to the state tournament that would be 800 kids. Last years tournament was 500. That is a big increase and if 75% of the kids attend that would be 1200 entries. To give you an idea on how large 1200 kids is it would be larger than Huskerland has been the past several years and almost the size of the Midwest Classic.
3. There are many people out there that want this. I have been extremely pleased with the positive response that we have received for this. You cannot please 100% of the people but I would say I have received about 95% positive response on this and about 4% were statisfied when we explained the situation and gave them a solution. For a new event like this with so many variables that is an extremely high positive response.

We never expected high numbers the first year out, but as with any new event it will continue to grow. I have had many people email, call, and talk to me about this that have never been involved with USA. The first year we moved the USA state tournament to Hastings (then Grand Island) there were 175 kids and it grew to 500. I would not be surprised to see the same thing happen to the district tournaments.

We welcome all ideas and suggestions on how to make things better. The best chance of getting your ideas heard and acted on are to attend the state meeting at the conclusion of the USA State Folkstyle tournament.

quote:

Originally posted by bccdavid:
Cotton: O'Neill is taking 6 from their District - not 4.

Please reread their flier. Only 4 qualify from O'Neill.

OK, which one is it?

This

quote:

Originally posted by Badger:
bccdavid,
Why? For the following reasons:
1. More opportunities to use your USA card. People ask and want a value for purchasing a USA card. We are giving you what you ask for. Please don’t criticize us for attempting to do what people want.

Or This

quote:

Originally posted by B Corkle:
Just wanted to let everyone know that we will take entries through Thursday with no late fees. This is different then what was stated on the flier. The stipulation that you must have a USA Wrestling card has been lifted as well. So, no USA card required. There will be trophies for the winners of each weight bracket and team trophies as well. Look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday. You can register on-line at: http://ops.esu8.org/~bryancork...rict_Entry_Form.html If you have any questions email me at bdcorkle@esu8.org

The districts weren't required to have usa cards but strongly suggested for liability purposes. We are creating more opportunities in the future to use a usa card. District is a step in the right direction. The minority weight brackets will not be full this year, but seems to be the case at a lot of club tournaments every weekend. That will change as numbers increase.

Corkle you are doing a great job up there. We need a club like yours in that part of the state. Got some dual teams for the state dual tournament....how bout 9th through 12th?

Here is my question to either Badger or 525 - when you have a district to qualify, are you going to allow other kids in to the USA State Tourney that didn't qualify for some reason or another - I believe if you do that you will have people upset - Districts will lose its purpose as well as NE USA Wrestling lose its credibility. Just from talking with people, this is their concern. I for one support USA Wrestling and loves what it has to offer, I am just curious to find out where you guys stand on it.

quote:

Originally posted by cotton-mouth:
Here is my question to either Badger or 525 - when you have a district to qualify, are you going to allow other kids in to the USA State Tourney that didn't qualify for some reason or another - I believe if you do that you will have people upset - Districts will lose its purpose as well as NE USA Wrestling lose its credibility. Just from talking with people, this is their concern. I for one support USA Wrestling and loves what it has to offer, I am just curious to find out where you guys stand on it.

The State tournament is set up for 32 man brackets maximum. That's 8 districts times 4 qualifiers per district. If a wrestler does not place in his district they may petition in to wrestle at state baring there is an opening from another district. In future years there may not be openings at all. There probably will be openings this year. A wrestler can not petition in if they didn't wrestle at their districts. That would fall under "hardships" and again the wrestler could be allowed if there is room in the state bracket and the hardship is approved by the board.

If there are wrestlers that want to wrestle at state but didn't qualify in their district, we sure don't want to take that will away from them. Like I said, there must be room in the bracket or they can't go. Petitioning in will get tougher each year until one day there will be no room at all.

Hope this helps answer your question.

In terms of making things more consistent in the future with each district - all rules should be the same. Also, maybe try and get all the districts on the same date prior to other clubs setting up their dates so clubs could coordinate around them. I see frustration with some clubs losing wrestlers that usually attend their tournament due to having to attend the district. Just food for thought!!