2023 State Freestyle & Greco Roman Tournament

[cbg]

A friend just informed me that the numbers for this years tournament was over 550 entries which is great news.  After following Tennessee wrestling for over 50 years I don’t ever remember Tennessee having over 300 kids at the state tournament.  If those numbers are correct I could see having 700+ kids wrestle in the tournament next year.  We’re there any good matches at the tournament?

[dontstopbelieving]

With the rise in participation, TNUSA Wrestling has got to get real venues for the Iron Man tournament and State tournament, they are obviously making a a lot of money at 30 bucks a pop per kid and more than that for the Iron Man. If you want the numbers to keep growing grow the venue. I hear a lot of parents complaining yesterday about no space and how long it lasted.

[TotallynotLEO]

It was a madhouse with how packed it was at Summit.  The young kids wrestled til noon and the juniors/cadets started then. As the Juniors and cadets got there while the young kids were finishing up, it got to where you couldn't walk. 

As for competition,  there were some outstanding matches. Everyone I spoke to said this year's competition was on a different level. I saw a lot of good freestyle wrestling.  Guys you thought would be favored got tech falled. 

Stadel and Symborski had a couple really good matches. The upper weight classes were full of hammers. 

[cbg]

2 hours ago, dontstopbelieving said:

With the rise in participation, TNUSA Wrestling has got to get real venues for the Iron Man tournament and State tournament, they are obviously making a a lot of money at 30 bucks a pop per kid and more than that for the Iron Man. If you want the numbers to keep growing grow the venue. I hear a lot of parents complaining yesterday about no space and how long it lasted.

My guess is that TNUSA Wrestling will be forced to make it a 2-day tournament if it remains at Summit High School.  The real issue is that there are really very few venues that are large enough to host a tournament that has 750+ entries which is the direction they are headed.  They could run the juniors & cadets on Saturday and the little kids and girls on Sunday and that would aid the overcrowding issues.  For TNUSA Wrestling this is a GREAT problem to be having!  As for the entry fee being $30.00, that really is on the low end of what most states are charging.  Someone told me that the admission fee for the patrons was on $5.00 which is crazy low.  When the AAU Kids State Tournament is charging $25.00 for admission, I would certainly look at charging no less than $15.00 next year.

[CoachCTaylor]

TNUSA is growing and it is awesome to see it happening. I know from our club we grew triple the size we have had in the past even tho some did not wrestle this weekend. I agree that the event needs to become a 2 day event or different venue. TNAAU State and the Top 100 Series are normally hosted at sites that could accommodate TNUSA number while also allowing room to grow. The only other complaint I heard/told about were the medals. Medals are not the end goal as most of us know BUT for a-lot of these kids medals play a factor. If TNUSA  wants to continue growth especially with the younger kids they need to step up their medals. With a change in venue and medals along with upping the gate fee I believe you could help fill the money gap. 

[cobrakid8]

18 hours ago, cbg said:

A friend just informed me that the numbers for this years tournament was over 550 entries which is great news.  After following Tennessee wrestling for over 50 years I don’t ever remember Tennessee having over 300 kids at the state tournament.  If those numbers are correct I could see having 700+ kids wrestle in the tournament next year.  We’re there any good matches at the tournament?

absolutely great to have that many kids at the State tourney! Really nice to see the growth of FS and GR wrestling in the state and it should help the state build up to be better than ever if they can continue to grow those numbers. I agree that it should be a 2 day tournament or if they can move to a larger venue. Very glad that Soddy boys were able to do as well as they were, now I wished they could get some girls to start wrestling and start building a program. Especially for being one of the OG's to have girls wrestling, even if it was just against Red Bank to fundraise for the boys program back in the 90's. 

[mjg3]

On 5/7/2023 at 1:46 PM, cbg said:

A friend just informed me that the numbers for this years tournament was over 550 entries which is great news.  After following Tennessee wrestling for over 50 years I don’t ever remember Tennessee having over 300 kids at the state tournament.  If those numbers are correct I could see having 700+ kids wrestle in the tournament next year.  We’re there any good matches at the tournament?

Just think how much faster it would grow if we separated it out to small town/medium town/big city!  We could have 3 state champs in FS and Greco.  Participation would skyrocket.

[KidGloves]

7 hours ago, mjg3 said:

Just think how much faster it would grow if we separated it out to small town/medium town/big city!  We could have 3 state champs in FS and Greco.  Participation would skyrocket.

I love this post with so much of my heart. 

[cbg]

8 hours ago, mjg3 said:

Just think how much faster it would grow if we separated it out to small town/medium town/big city!  We could have 3 state champs in FS and Greco.  Participation would skyrocket.

Absolutely, wouldn’t it be great if we just separated it out and gave everyone a state championship medal that paid their entry fee.  Lol

[TotallynotLEO]

I mean,  they already do.  

You guys are going to be so mad when you find out they separate them by age.  Can you believe that?  

8u

10u

12u

14u

Cadet

Juniors 

You guys are right,  they should make em all wrestle each other regardless of age.  The only way to really crown a state champ that matters.  I'm sure the junior champs are really bummed out that their title is junk now.  

/sarcasm 

[mat73557]

12 hours ago, TotallynotLEO said:

I mean,  they already do.  

You guys are going to be so mad when you find out they separate them by age.  Can you believe that?  

8u

10u

12u

14u

Cadet

Juniors 

You guys are right,  they should make em all wrestle each other regardless of age.  The only way to really crown a state champ that matters.  I'm sure the junior champs are really bummed out that their title is junk now.  

/sarcasm 

I love this post with so much of my heart.

[wssm]

14 hours ago, TotallynotLEO said:

I mean,  they already do.  

You guys are going to be so mad when you find out they separate them by age.  Can you believe that?  

8u

10u

12u

14u

Cadet

Juniors 

You guys are right,  they should make em all wrestle each other regardless of age.  The only way to really crown a state champ that matters.  I'm sure the junior champs are really bummed out that their title is junk now.  

/sarcasm 

I guess all that really matters is how they do it in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and California.