We crammed a 32 person bracket into a day and a half. Tournaments for each division started earlier or went later with several logistical problems. Communication was awful.
The medal round matches were treated more like exhibition matches before the finals. Those medal matches were scattered around the dome with no clarity as to time or mat assignment. We had a kid wrestling for 5th/6th and his parents missed the match. The match was suddenly up on a mat not used by our division and there were only 2 other matches going on in the dome at the time. It was a disgraceful way to treat those kids/families finishing their season and high school wrestling with a state medal.
The metal detector thing is demeaning. At least create a 2nd entry point so we can move through faster in the morning and not have to stand out in the weather. I went out to the parking lot before finals and came back in. I was pulled aside and wanded because I left my keys in my pocket and set off the detector. Here I was, a coach who had been in and out of the tournament the entire event being wanded like a terrorist threat.
Leaving all the mats out for the finals does not create a focused championship finals experience. I know youth wrestlers are getting to wrestle on them today, but.... the high school wrestling community is being treated poorly in the modern Mat Classic
