As a parent I liked the atmosphere for 5A in Hutchinson in 2008 over the combined tournament 5A and 6A tournaments in Wichita in 2007 and 2009 that we attended. Personally, I was focused primarily on 5A only in both 2007 and 2009. Like Mike Furches also said I preferred the Hutchison 2008 championship matches where the focus was entirely on the one match instead of two championship matches going on at the same time. I preferred the regional championship match setup at Emporia this year for the same reason. They had the lights dimmed and a spotlight on the mat. My son loved that. The focus was entirely on that one match. We experienced that total focus of a packed gym again on one match at the MO-KAN Metro Classic this week. I don't think you can beat the experience of a packed arena focused on one championship wrestling match going on. To me it is a lot better than two going on at the same time.
I don't think that the sole purpose of where you have the tournament should be based on the ease of college recruiters coming to the event. There are many other ways for college recruiters to find wrestlers and the overwhelming majority of our state qualifiers are not planning to wrestle beyond high school. I would also be in favor of rotation of the tournament sites for the larger schools. I feel that having it every year in the same location is too big of a competitive and cost advantage for the schools in the surrounding area of the host city, cost advantage for the families of schools surrounding the host city, and the economic benefits to the host cities should be spread to more towns in Kansas.
