Great Weekend and Event this past weekend at the WVYWA

[figure4match]

Great Job to all involved.. It was an event filled weekend that has come and gone in a blink.. Eights mats in one room and being able to view all was amazing!! With 700+ wrestlers in attendance, I believe this tournament is off and running in the right direction. There are details that can be improved upon but nothing that can't get cleaned up over time.

You can tell a lot of time and effort went in to planning and organizing this event. The awards are unique and relative with pride for a YOUTH WV State Champion. To go into something and or to make better, change is needed. There are risk and rewards in anything you do but I feel this organization (WVYWA) has a goal to develop wrestling within this state to bring parity with others and hopefully prepare our youth for High School.

I can't say that I'm a fan of this tournament being held so late in the month of March but to have on the same weekend as the NCAA Div I tournament helped top the experience for me and our team.

Thanks you Huntington for being a great host town.

Looking forward to next year...

[mscoach64]

This tournament was great. only issue we had was with the long line getting in the arena. However, the competition was great. The atmosphere was great. It was great to see the kids on the mats without 500 people surrounding the mat. This is by far the most exciting thing that i have been apart of within the youth wrestling ranks in years. The awards were great.

With that said...my kid had a great experience in Parkersburg as well. What we need is to get over this issue.

The WVYWA is a great thing in my opinion. The tournament needs to be held as the "official" state tournament. But, why can't Parkersburg be exactly what it says....the JR States? Why can't we still have this tournament and recognize it as a tremendous achievement as well? To me, the WVYWA is like being the Heavyweight Champ and the Jr States would be like being the Middleweight Champ. Both are high honors. What we need is for WVYWA regionals to be (and i'll give examples) March 5. Then, Jr. States can be March 12. Then the WVYWA can be March 19. The 3 biggest tournaments of the year.

This can be the greatest thing for youth wrestling in the state of WV if both tournaments can learn to work together. I am excited about that impassibility.