Post by VAWrestling on Feb 27, 2024 12:34:13 GMT -5
I agree with many of the original post's complaints. Here is my two cents:
Venue:
-Need to change. What about the Virginia Beach Event Center where the Class 4-6 state tournament was held? Plenty of space, restrooms, concessions, etc. VA Beach also has the infrastructure to handle this amount of people with regard to hotels and restaurants. Unless you want fast food, Doswell and Ashland are food deserts. They moved the start time to 1pm, but on some mats the second session didn't start until 3-4pm. A lot of kids didn't eat dinner and were wrestling until 10pm or later. When we finally got out of there, most of the restaurants in the area were closed. At the very least, get some food trucks in there. Any college arena in the state would have worked too.
-It would also be nice to have a more modern venue that has wifi. You had to go outside anytime you wanted to check Trackwrestling.
-The fan/wrestler/family experience was miserable. One mom said, "This is what hell must be like." The lawn chairs and blankets strewn everywhere made it feel like a refugee camp.
Tournament:
-too many age groups on Saturday. Some kids were wrestling past 10pm at night. There would be hour wait between between matches, but if you advanced to the later rounds, you would have back-to-back-back matches in the medal rounds. Should have been U8/10 and girls on Sat, and U12/14/16 on Sunday.
-definitely need qualifiers. A lot of kids down there probably weren't ready.
-some effort should be made to put teammates on the opposite sides of the bracket
-some of the brackets were way too large. I saw a lot of kids crying and injured by the end of the night. Eight matches in one day is a lot to ask of a pre-teen.
Misc:
-I didn't see them wash the mats once during the entire weekend. By the end of the day, the mats were filthy.
-there needs to be people policing the inner mat areas if you have a wristband system. Too many moms/families/kids inside the gates crowding the mats. The refs would try to clear them periodically, but they need someone to do it full time.
-Agreed, it felt like a money grab. $60/wrestler x ~1500 wrestlers = ~$90,000. You can get a better venue.