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I wish we could take credit for coming up with this idea. We have tried doing "scrimmage matches" at HS meets in the past with various high schools in our area. However, it was tough to make this work when you never knew how many JV matches each school will have so most kids only got 1 match.
Then at the Fall KWCA Clinic, I heard Mizzou Head Coach Brian Smith talk about scrimmages that they were hosting before home duals. They have many of the Missouri Clubs apply to get to participate in these. However, what caught my attention was what Coach Smith said next.
How many times do youth wrestlers get to wrestle matches NOT in a tournament setting? How many times do they get to wrestle just to wrestle, no medals, no pressure, no long days? How many times do they get to wrestle where it is just them and their coach matside? Wrestle a few matches, eat a piece of pizza, get a drink and go home!
We took this idea for a "Match Mixer" to our lead coaches at the start of the season, and they wanted to give it a try! Next, we sent an email in December to two area clubs explaining the idea and inviting them over. Allen County took us up on it.
Stephanie sent me a spreadsheet with the wrestlers that signed up with her. This looked a lot like a tourney entry form. We then merged her spreadsheet with our club wrestlers and sorted them out by age and weight. We then went through and "grouped" these kids by age and weight to create 2/3/4 wrestler round robins. We guaranteed each wrestler 2 matches and most of them got 3. We setup 4 wrestling surfaces on 2 mats. We paper bracketed and numbered the matches.
The Allen County Mat Warriors started showing up around 5:30. Both clubs warmed up on the mat, stretched, got match numbers from their coaches and we started wrestling shortly after 6 p.m. Parents stayed in the stands and could only come to the floor to tape their wrestler's one match and then went back into the stands. Parents bought pizza and water bottles to snack on from a table in the entry way. Each kid got a coupon for a free pizza/water to use any time during the evening.
We got 4 officials from our current HS wrestlers, a wrestling dad, a former coach and a HS wrestling alum. They worked for free to help the kids get match experience. If a pin occured, the official looked at the coaches and asked if they wanted to continue. Almost all the time the answer was Yes. Almost every match went all 3 periods. At the end of the match, the official had the wrestlers shake hands with each other, the official and the opposing coaches. There was no raising of the winner's hands, just a good show of post-match sportsmanship! (We even threw away the match cards that we were keeping since we just did this to help train our parents on scorekeeping.) Coaches got a chance to talk to their kids at mat side after a match and cover some key points that will help them down the road.
Our table workers were parents and family out of the crowd. Wrestlers reported to the table and checked in, got their colors and headed for their leg bands. A little before 8 p.m. the last match was wrestled, we cleaned up, and we all headed for home to watch the Florida vs. Oklahoma, BCS National Championship Game.
We had a great experience. All the kids got good mat time with different partners. The parents all seemed to enjoy getting to watch their kids wrestle several matches in a couple of hours. We would be curious if other clubs try this how it works out and what different things they try.
Also, you need to invite a club that has a well organized director like Stephanie McDonald. She e-mailed me several notes and changes over the few days before. She also called me the day of, with a couple of changes. This made it very easy to have everything ready to go when they got there!! (Thanks Stephanie!)
This is something we hope to try and do once or twice per season as a change of pace from the normal practice routine!
Doug Vander Linden
Burlington Wrestling
