Live feed

[masonbailey]

Doc, I know you run the Twitter feed (and do an awesome job, I've followed ever since the Navy has had me elsewhere), but any plans to use FloArena or Trackwrestling to keep brackets and matches up to date? I don't even know if you're the right person to ask, but I know you will know/find out the answer! Thanks!!!

[admin]

Sorry, that's way above my paygrade.

Trackwrestling is a fine site - I steal a good number of results from there. However, it is a chore at times to piece together and format results and brackets. In recent years I have agreed to transmit results after each round to the AP for distribution to the newspapers etc. (You may have noticed that years ago there were about a dozen people at the press table furiously keying results in to their laptop - now not so much). Getting such reports from the program that is currently used at the States is a snap - not so sure how it would be to try to extract it from Trackwrestling.

Floarena: A very flashy site, but I find it difficult to impossible to extract results from there. I feel like I need to be on some mind-altering pharmaceutical every time I visit that site. <smile>.

I cannot speak for the tournament administration, but as for myself, an old fat man, if what I am doing seems to work, then don't change it. CHANGE IS BAD!!

[masonbailey]

Hahaha! Awesome stuff, thanks for the response!

Keep doing what you're doing! It is way above what we have here in FL!

I'll just keep following the Twitter feed and relying on texts from Dad or other EF fans!

[aacoach61]

Mason- great idea, and thank you for your service to our country.

I'm afraid it's hard to get the WVSSAC to go big digitally. Just look at their website. Any wrestlng records, past champions, scores etc.? How hard could it be to hire a computer intern for a semester to permanently archive that data based upon all the hard work and data at WVMat.com.

I hope a current coach on the proper committee will push the WVSSAC to:

1. Provide regional host schools with UNIFORM software to report seeding, results after each day (if not live) and scores for all regional bouts, not just qualifiers. It's amazing that match scores for the regional finals are not even reported by some regions. I mean, how difficult can that be in this day and age?

2. The OVAC Finals at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling are broadcast annually on live tv by WTOV-9 (NBC/Fox; Steubenville) for 4 hours. It would seem to me the WVSSAC PAID STAFF could arrange for at least a webcast of our state tournament finals. Without Dr. Tim's volunteer efforts, WV wresting would still be in the dark ages. Heck, only a few years ago the WVSSAC put the wrong weight classes on the wrestling awards, then ignored requests to correct their error.

As parents, coaches, fans and taxpayers, we have every right to demand a better job by the WVSSAC when it comes to promoting wrestling.

[admin]

Some additional notes to share:

RE Live updates from the Civic Center: The Civic Center has been described as a large Faraday cage. Internet connectivity is spotty from there at times. Attempts have been made in the past to do live updates via the twt site, but such attempts have been stymied due to connectivity problems. I understand that an attempt will be made to do this again this year and a link will be posted if/when available.

RE Trackwrestling: State tournament management has explored Trackwrestling in the past. It is my understanding that tournaments run with this program are run from their website and not on software hosted on computers at the tournament site. I agree with the reluctance to run a tournament from a remote computer not under your control, particularly in view of internet connectivity problems in WV and also in consideration of the fact that Trackwrestling had a computer crash earlier this year during a number of tournaments they were hosting, creating a number of headaches for a number of tournament directors.

RE Flowrestling: Similarly, State tournament management has also explored Flowrestling. Lack of desired tournament formats has been a difficulty. In addition, it is not clear how much free access the fans have to these sites, vs pay to view.

I am told that State tournament management does have some newer software in hand which allows matside entry of results and live updates, which will be tried in some other tournaments next year. Personally, I would be a bit skeptical of matside entry of results into the computer - too much going on at matside - but maybe that is just the bias of an old fat man.

RE the WVSSAC: Fine folks with a tough job. While I don't want to come off sounding like an apologist for the WVSSAC, I think it only fair to point out that what the WVSSAC might do for one sport carries with it the expectation of doing the same thing for all sports. A live webcast of a wrestling match is one thing, (takes place indoors in a warm and dry well lit arena within a 28 ft circle), but how would one go about doing a webcast of the state cross-country championships, or the state track meet with multiple events going on at the same time, or the golf championships?

While on the topic of the WVSSAC, there is always much discussion regarding the WVSSAC sanctioning a middle school wrestling championship. If they did such, there would be the expectation that they sanction championships in ALL middle school sports. This would raise a boatload of issues, not the least of which is the $$$ middle schools would have to come up with to transport and lodge their teams at various sectional/regional and state tournaments.

Issues like this make me glad that I am just a lowly website editor and not in a position of any real responsibility. <smile>

[JennyHannan]

First of all, thank you, Mason, for your service to our country! I have much love and respect for our men and women in the military.

Second, I can speak from first hand experience on using the mat side scorebook provided by trackwrestling. It's pretty sweet... as long as you maintain your internet connection!!!

A few years ago when South attended the North Canton Holiday Invitational, I was so impressed that all table scoring was done on computer, right there at the table. The results for each match were posted literally within seconds after the winning wrestler's hand was raised. I'm not kidding when I say that last year I sat by myself (to avoid distractions) so I could see all of the mats in the main gym, and monitored the matches in the auxiliary gym on my phone. Didn't even miss a single stalling call or caution.

But anyway, after we came back from the tournament the first year we were there, I thought this could be the latest and greatest thing for South Wrestling, and possibly wrestling in the state! At our next home match, I had the mat maids keep the official book while I attempted to live score on the computer. Although I've made my living with computers for over 30 years, it took me a couple of matches to get "as quick" on the laptop as I was with my pencil and scorebook. Luckily there were no matches full of reversals or cat-and-mouse takedowns and escapes. Lol!

But just as I was getting in the groove, I lost my connection! Arrrrrgggghhhh! I never did get it back. I went back to my pencil and scorebook after that.

So with all that said, in my opinion, using software like trackwrestling could only be done at the state tournament if the connectivity was stellar. And then there would be the logistics nightmare of providing laptops at each table and training the workers.

I appreciate the work that the tournament staff do, and I appreciate the work Doc and his wife Mary Kay put into the Twitter feed. This sure beats the Dark Ages when we old folks had to wait for the morning paper to get our results!

[forthekids]

Mason,
Just tell the Navy to give you a coupe days off and tell Dad to foot the plane ticket. I am sure he could use you in keeping him calm! LOL. Thanks for the service Champ.

[J.W.]

Mason, wish it could be on something for you to keep up.

Jenny, you are correct track had a server crash, it was the first in a 12 year period and effected huge national events and a local event that I was running, but it was once in 12 years. The WSAZ was cancelled due to weather and they will schedule it again. Power outage took out a regional tourney and redirected to another venue halfway through.

Track offered it to us for free, I offered to help for free, the powers to be are anti track and anti flo. Will keep you posted best we can from the technologies that we have.

[mike.carman]

I watched the finals online last year at http://www.nfhs.org . I don't remember how I found it but I did. There was a fee to watch.

[dunbar76]

Mason, thanks for keeping up with EF . I try to keep up also. It's important to build a good solid base of support of former wrestlers and coaches. The kids need to know we support them and are pulling for them.