From a few people I heard several coaches weren’t happy about it.
2022 SWOWCA Coaches Classic
- Thread starter @joemariocampo
- Start date
MPhillips
Well-known member
How many coaches told you they weren't,, "happy about it?"
Enough that things should change. Nepotism/cronyism at its finest. Joe runs a good tournament but things need to be spread out amongst several people not one solely to make large decisions. Better yet…..have a seating meeting
MPhillips
Well-known member
Seed meetings ended years ago for this event. I believe there was a vote to do away with them like every tournament. All tournaments go on the same criteria they use last year accomplishments. So if little Johnny didn't do so well last year he has no criteria for seeding.
Do you really think Joe would like to run a tournament of this size instead of coaching his kids
I wouldn’t know him well enough to say what he would like or not like to do. Though I can say how do you get paid to coach kids and then not coach to be paid to run a tournament? That’s neither here or there it roots down to the base of how does one person seed an entire tournament of that side solely on his own? There needs to be a checks and balances!!!
MPhillips
Well-known member
JasonRoush
Well-known member
Just an FYI, at the SWOWCA meeting on Monday night, which unfortunately many schools choose not to attend even though there are only 5 all season, seeding was discussed and we decided that there SHOULD be a seed meeting. In result, we DID have a seed meeting on Friday morning after coaches entered rosters and criteria Thursday night. Do you know how many coaches chose to attend that seed meeting? The answer is TWO, two coaches joined... During that seed meeting, the majority of the time was spent making sure coaches entered criteria correctly....which is OFTEN not the case...and in some cases, coaches entered NO criteria altogether...
Don't get me wrong, I think there absolutely needs to be an emphasis on seeding...I was the one that brought it up at the meeting Monday and requested that we at least allow other coaches to have an input and that we re-visit this before the end of this season and have a better plan in place in preparation for next years tournament... but unfortunately I seem to be in the minority that even care...We had 38 teams this weekend...we had 3 coaches attend the seed meeting (which was virtual btw and any coach could attend if they cared about seeding or the tournament in general...) ... just sayin'...
So it appears the "Ask a Ref" thread no longer exists on yappi, so I'll just ask here since I saw two different instances this weekend at SWOWCA where a funk situation was completely missed by the ref and a Takedown was erroneously awarded (in one case nearfall was counted). No disrespect to the refs as half the people in the gym probably missed the mistake themselves, but I just wonder what kind of special training southwest area refs are getting with regards to takedowns involving funk situations? And also, what is the protocol if a scenario pops up where an inexperienced head ref misses a funk situation, awards a takedown, counts 3 nearfall, and 30 seconds burns off the clock before a more experienced assistant ref says, "yeah you got that all wrong." ? By the way, I don't think either case would have reversed the final result, but it just made for a less-than-satisfying viewing experience, frustrated the coaches, and confused a lot of fans in the audience. Thanks for any feedback.
I’m glad it was noticed and will be addressed. Though I wonder how many coaches could attend at that late of notice of the virtual meeting and/or if communication was clear as the ones I spoke with did not appear to know anything about it. Again, just an oversight or late notice didn’t work with their schedule.
I agree on falsifying criteria I just believe it should be more readily available especially when everything was pretty much chosen by one person.
Again, glad the coaches have seen and understood this is something that needs addressed!!!
From Butler:
Home by 6 each day. No complaints!
Facility/Plenty of space. No complaints!
Officiating. No complaints!
Tournament administration. No complaints!
Competition. No complaints!
Awards. No complaints!
Seeding. Who cares, it’s pre-season! It only really matters from February on.
Great job Joe, Middletown, and SWOWCA. Until this is at your school, you really have no clue what goes into it. Thank you for several years Harrison!
Home by 6 each day. No complaints!
Facility/Plenty of space. No complaints!
Officiating. No complaints!
Tournament administration. No complaints!
Competition. No complaints!
Awards. No complaints!
Seeding. Who cares, it’s pre-season! It only really matters from February on.
Great job Joe, Middletown, and SWOWCA. Until this is at your school, you really have no clue what goes into it. Thank you for several years Harrison!
Danimal Dan
Well-known member
I've attended this tournament for at least the last 30 years and this year's event was just great. Middletown facility is super nice and everything ran smooth as can be. The addition of Floarena was also appreciated by me since I could not attend Sunday but got to monitor the results as they happened. Very well done tournament director and helpers.
GrizzlyDad
Well-known member
How was the hospitality room …lol, that’s the best thing up here is the way they take care of the coaches and media and feed them. Ironman I would say has the best hospitality room.
speedthatkills
Well-known member
From a fan/dad/volunteer perspective the tournament was great. The amount of room was great, concessions on both sides of the arena(did run out of food before noon on Sunday so I give a B- in this scoring area), 99.9% of fans were great, we actually had multiple check ins from staff to ensure we had everything we needed at tables(literally different people came over 6-7 times to make sure we were good), visually the arena was great, wrestlers had multiple locations and areas to warm up, cool down, decompress, vent, etc, parking was ok. Tons of spaces but a little strectched our around the school(yea I am nitpicking now), outside food options were good if you wanted to run out between matches. Really nothing bad to say. One ref did struggle a little multiple times but overall I felt like the officials were closer to mid season form than the wrestlers. Overall I give it a very solid A- bordering on an A.
Coach JDean
Active member
I also attended the SWOWCA meeting the week of the CC tourney and just to follow up on what Coach Roush said, he did bring up finding a better way to seed kids and it was discussed. We need to give Coach Campolongo credit, it was thrown out there that he could use some help with the seeds during our meeting. He had enough on his plate and seeding was just another thing he was tasked with. I'm not even sure he asked for that headache, but he took it on as part of his duties in running a great tourney. Like Roush said, it wasn't a huge turnout of coaches so not every school was represented at the meeting. As it was also pointed out, it was kind of last minute so some coaches couldn't adjust their schedules especially if it was on a Friday morning while Coaches were teaching or working their normal job. What Joe did this weekend was pretty incredible and if seeding is only issue, then I would say that is a win! I would 2nd what Coach Peck said, It was one of the smoothest CC tourneys I have ever attended and you can't beat the time we were done on both days. I've been around the tourney for over 25 years as a coach and I've seen the seeding change from coaches meeting and voting, to having a non-bias seeding committee decide, to criteria and then to a morphed version of criteria and coaches input. It's hard to keep everyone happy since you have such a variety of teams (Kentucky, D1, D2, D3), Some teams with Jr. High State Champs, where do they fall? Should KY State Qualifiers/Placers have same criteria as Ohio? Same for D1 or D2 and D3? Then you have kids who were injured and may have no criteria, but coaches know they should be in the mix somewhere, like the Ferguson kid from Oak Hills who won it! And some coaches even sending in JV records. A lot of variables go into it all and it's not a correct Science, but I think Coach Peck said it best, it's still a "preseason" tourney so who cares about the seeds, what really matters is from Feb. on.
Good Luck to all the teams out there and most importantly Stay Healthy my Friends and oh yeah..... Happy Holidays!
My son was seeded 7th and finished 2nd. His seeding was right based off his performance from last year. That is what you have to go by with this early of a tournament.
Everything was great except for 2 things. The food was not that great considering you are there from 10 to 7 on Saturday and 9 to 3 on Sunday. Could have offered better on the food side. Also the bathroom situation was horrible. They had 3 bathroom stalls and no toilet paper most of the time. 3 bathroom stalls for about 1,000 to 1,500 people. Not good.
white_chocolate
Active member
My guess is the reason one person had to do all this is because probably not many people were willing to volunteer their time to take some stuff off the plate of others. I am sure Joe would have loved the extra help if you were willing to setup the gym, or coordinate all the table help, or coordinate and run the concessions, or the hospitality room, or organize the officials, or running the tournament on Flo, or hiring athletic trainers to work the event, or help compile data for seeding on around (guessing) 350 to 400 wrestlers from all levels and at least 2 different states, or tear down/cleanup the arena after completion, or staff and run weigh-ins, get sponsors for the event, coordinate the media production of the finals, order and arrange the awards, or the several other things I probably forgot to mention.
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jhoward1972
Member
My question, I am not worried about seeding, but does anybody have the records of the wrestlers prior or during the event? I do a lot of stat stuff and need that info to finish my stat sheet (basically how we do against guys in regard to their W/L record, gee whiz stuff). I recall seeing W/L records on the dashboard while in action but can't find anything now and can't make myself scour conference websites.
I thought SWOWCA was a pretty good tournament. Our team then went to Brecksville and I am still in shock of seeing Ohio #1 and 2 at 113 in the knockout consos. Crazy event with 240+ ranked wrestlers. Seeding was almost irrelevant there. LOL. I think the only time it's truly mattered was when extras can wrestle and the extra gets the easier draw. Nobody wants their same-weight teammate appearing to do better. The 1s and 2s make it thru no matter where they start. Matters more for the lower guys praying not to face #1 and get 30 seconds of mat time. Maybe do prelims and leave the top 4 or 8 out of it. idk all the OHSAA rules on that.
I thought SWOWCA was a pretty good tournament. Our team then went to Brecksville and I am still in shock of seeing Ohio #1 and 2 at 113 in the knockout consos. Crazy event with 240+ ranked wrestlers. Seeding was almost irrelevant there. LOL. I think the only time it's truly mattered was when extras can wrestle and the extra gets the easier draw. Nobody wants their same-weight teammate appearing to do better. The 1s and 2s make it thru no matter where they start. Matters more for the lower guys praying not to face #1 and get 30 seconds of mat time. Maybe do prelims and leave the top 4 or 8 out of it. idk all the OHSAA rules on that.