We are always looking for new ways to improve the state tournament. As many of you probably remember, the tournament used to be a two day event until three years ago when we decided to try and see if we could get all of the wrestling done in a single day. I receive significant feedback every year, and so far the response to the single-day tournament has been very positive.
In order to complete the state tournament in a single day, it is important that we start wrestling early on Saturday. This has necessitated a Friday weigh-in for Greco to give the pairers time to get the brackets ready for the 8:00 a.m. start on Saturday.
We have discussed the possibility of allowing satellite weigh-ins, but the prevailing opinion was that it was important that the integrity of the state tournament be above reproach. The results of this tournament can affect who qualifies for the various state teams, and we did not want to have situations where there might be some doubt about the accuracy of any particular competitor's weight.
None of this is written in stone, and we've seen many changes to this event over the years. If you would like to see some changes in future state tournaments, talk to anyone on the
Corporate Board and let them know your opinion. In particular, the Junior and Cadet divisions are the ones most affected by the results of this tournament. Both Mike Garcia (Junior Director) and Tom Peterman (Cadet Director) will be available at the Junior/Cadet table on Saturday, and would certainly be interested in receiving feedback concerning the format of the tournament.