The State of West Virginia Wrestling

[Sparsons26105]

Money from the WVYWA? First of all, they have no money from last years tournament to give back to anyone. Has anyone in the state seen a penny from this organization?

The WVYWA was created due to guys having a chip on their shoulder about money and qualifying for a youth state tournament. There are many issues with what the WVYWA is doing to youth wrestling in WV. They have created turmoil, confusion, and miscommunication. The Jr. State/Wood county folks hurt themselves by not allowing people from outside of Wood County give ideas on how to make the Jr. States better. The seeding for Jr. States is a mess. Always has been and always will be as long as it goes back to parent honor system. Far too often I see a kid come in with zero or 1 loss and watch him not win a match at the state tournament. This is something that Wood County has known about for years and have been too stubborn and unwilling to accept change.
The WVYWA came in and made it worse. They created a regional system that is completely unneeded. They want to compare us to wrestling power houses like PA and OH. Yes, those states have qualifiers and regionals to get to a youth state tournament however those states have thousands of kids on the mat. Here in WV we are experiencing a decline in population which hits schools and neighborhoods hard. My nephew wrestles for a wood county youth league and I not only see the declining numbers on the mat when I go watch him wrestle in tournaments, but also on the soccer field when I watch his travel team go to other places throughout the state. Less folks living in WV means less kids playing all sports, including wrestling. Most regional tournaments last year was a waste of everyone's time. to qualify for most weight classes you simply had to make weight. Then the miscommunication. First and foremost, they have not updated their website in any way. It was promised that they would keep up-to-date points for kids wrestling in qualifying tournaments, but that has not occurred. One of the regional directors actually told me "Points in qualifiers mean nothing, we will seed them where ever we want or need". Then you have the mess with 12 year old 7th graders. At first, they were permitted to decide if they wanted to wrestle in the middle school division or the 11-12 division. Then without any notice they changed it to where 12 year old 7th grades were required to wrestle middle school, then changed it back. All of this occurred in a manner of months.
I have posted on the youth forum many times that I do agree the Jr states needs to change. I am not one of those people that simply do not support the WVYWA because I do not like change. I was actually excited to hear about the creation of the organization. But overall, it is a mess.
I feel that the best thing for WV would be a combination of the two. Wood County and the WVYWA has a chance to do this. Simply take out the regional system. Require all youth that wants to attend the state tournament to register and wrestle in a qualifier. This establishes base weight and will help with seeding criteria. Simple as that.
Brent and Buddy did a fantastic job running Jr. States this weekend. I worked and was unable to attend Saturday, but I was able to watch most of Sunday. My only complaint is that the floor passes that they give to coaches is essentially worthless. The area around the mats was packed with parents, grandparents and anyone else that wanted to be down there. They did not block my view in any way, but having that many people mat side is a asking for trouble from a parent/fan. The folks that I sat with all had nothing but good things to say about Saturday as well. Looks like the crowd was solid.
Bottom line is that the WVYWA has not given ANY money back to anyone in in WV. They have too many expenses to do so. To make money, they will need a change of venue. Yes, Wood County uses the money they receive to better the programs that are part of their rec league, but I know that it truly is not much. Probably not worth the headache of running that tournament.

[forthekids]

I for one think the new format is good and promotes the sport. I never in my 50 plus years around the sport and on the mats seen I better run youth tournament the one in Huntington last year. YES, few bugs need worked out but very minimal. As far as amount of money made on Parkersburg states. Are you kidding me the make a killing! NOT saying they shouldn't but cmon man don't say it is not worth putting on tournament. OUTSIDER looking in with ZERO attachments to either I can say just like the world we live in now. CREED caused all this to start in first place.

[Cummings]

CREED caused all this to start in first place.

I didn't know this was Billy's fault?!

[Matofficial]

Just a little history. The WVYWA was formed several years ago by a group of guys promoting youth wrestling in the state of WV. These guys were from Wood, Jackson, Roane and Kanawha Counties, heavily supported and made possible by the Wood County Rec. There were youth wrestlers from all regions of the state that wrestled with this group. This group of wrestlers attended, camps, tournaments and promoted tournaments. I guess my point is that Brent was correct and one should do a little research before opening ones mouth and removing all doubt.

[mike.carman]

Just a little history. The WVYWA was formed several years ago by a group of guys promoting youth wrestling in the state of WV. These guys were from Wood, Jackson, Roane and Kanawha Counties, heavily supported and made possible by the Wood County Rec. There were youth wrestlers from all regions of the state that wrestled with this group. This group of wrestlers attended, camps, tournaments and promoted tournaments. I guess my point is that Brent was correct and one should do a little research before opening ones mouth and removing all doubt.

Last year was the first year for the WVYWA. We are only in our second year of existence and it is true, we have very little money to work with right now. As with any startup organization, we are struggling with sustainability. Our goals for the most part, do not reach into the immediate future but further down the road. You have to start somewhere and we realize there will always be those who resist change. If we make this organization what we intend to, and I believe we will, all areas of the state will benefit from this and some of the burden will be eased for our smaller communities. WCRL wrestling has been a great organization and will continue to be a great organization. Jr States is a great tournament and will continue to be a great tournament. WVYWA is building and growing and will continue to offer the best product we can deliver. Last year we took a giant step in that direction. This year we hope to improve a little. I had an old coach tell me, "Improve 1% everyday and in 1 year you have improved 365%." If we could get WCRL involved in our organization, the whole state benefits. If we keep lashing out at each other, then we go back to status quo and that my friends is stagnation. We are in the 21st century. Others across the country are doing things different. Dual meet competitions are rising and more and more teams are embracing team competition over open tournaments. We are behind the times on this and need to catch up. We need to be moving forward in unity, not in opposition.

[coach_williams]

Coach Williams, I'm sure you have traveled to WoodCounty, right... To say that only the wv/:;)(-$ is the only group promoting youth wrestlin is very offensive. Every year of my adult life, a wood county school has won or was runner up at the state Wrestlin tournament! So obviously there is someone promoting youth Wrestlin or our high schools would not be filled with stud wrestlers each and every year... What ever region South or PHS is in is the toughest by far, year in and year out....
So I say again, you offended my by saying this alphabet soup organization you must be affiliated with is the only one...
To me that organization was created to compete with Wood County's youth programs... Jr. patriots, Cougars, wood county recreation.... I don't have a bone in this fight anymore, but not recognizing the youth programs that have put our state on the map is an insult! Where has the state's youth tournament been held for the past 40+ years? Hint it's not alphabet soups, they started one to compete with wood county's program! I'm not politically correct

I guess you missed the part where I said that WVYWA is the only organization promoting youth wrestling IN THE STATE. I have been around long enough to know that Wood county promotes wrestling in Wood county. I have never, ever seen you Wood county boys in the north or east helping out. You are not promoting wrestling in the state, you are promoting it in your community. That is fine. Nobody is upset that you support wrestling in your area.

No, I am not affiliated with WVYWA, but if I were I wouldn't be ashamed of it. The WVYWA has a stated mission to promote wrestling state-wide. Like it or not, they are the only organization that is doing that.

[coach_williams]

I take offense to your post. The WVYWA association is not the only entity promoting youth wrestling in this state.

Thanks
Brent Sams

No reason for you to take offense. Nothing was directed at you in any way shape or form. If there are other entities promoting youth wrestling across the entire state then, by all means, fill me in.

Fill you in? ... ummh, let's start with an entity called WVMAT.com. I believe there is a young man in Preston County sponsoring a web site that promotes youth wrestling across the state. And now you are also twisting your words from your original post from "WVYWA, they are the only entity in our state working to promote wrestling at a youth level." to "promoting youth wrestling across the entire state.". It's kind of demeaning to anyone and everyone that ever posted something to this website, to help promote wrestling across the entire state. Of course, there is no one in Milton that ever puts their 2 cents in. And then there is a Gator in WV that shows up anywhere and everywhere, from Brooke County to Independence, to promote and encourage wrestling across the state. Your statement is arrogant and bashes anybody, everybody, or organization that ever sponsored a tournament or hosted an event or been involved. Yosemite Sam? Referees? Coaches? Mat maids? Managers? Parents? Your statement comes across as insulting to anyone not associated with the WVYWA. I could fill you in more, but it's after three in the morning, I just posted full results from the 40 Annual Jr State Wrestling Championship, but to some people, that does not fall under the umbrella of promoting youth wrestling across the entire state.
I will let you in on a little secret, You are not the only one. To the small local event, the area events, national qualifiers, and all those giving their time to make it happen. They are all promoting youth wrestling across the state. It's not just you and the WVYWA that is making wrestling happen in West Virginia. Thanks to all those that contribute to the youth wrestling across this state, even the WVYWA. Every little bit helps.

1) I was clearly talking about promoting wrestling statewide and not making any kind of an insult towards anyone. Perhaps you need to spend a little time on developing some thicker skin.

2) I get that you Wood county boys like to go on the attack when you think someone is associated with WVYWA and try to berate, insult and demean them, but I am not associated with WVYWA.

[forthekids]

Every body take a deep breath it is going to be alright! Everybody does things their own way. Brent does a wonderful job as does Ricky up north and so on and so on....

[Sparsons26105]

I for one think the new format is good and promotes the sport. I never in my 50 plus years around the sport and on the mats seen I better run youth tournament the one in Huntington last year. YES, few bugs need worked out but very minimal. As far as amount of money made on Parkersburg states. Are you kidding me the make a killing! NOT saying they shouldn't but cmon man don't say it is not worth putting on tournament. OUTSIDER looking in with ZERO attachments to either I can say just like the world we live in now. CREED caused all this to start in first place.

First of all, you are completely correct. Yes, this new WVYWA was created because of GREED. Yes, Wood county makes a little money off of it, but they do have to pay for the field house and they give teams that help at tables or other areas part of the money. When you look at the big picture, each youth league in Wood County does not get much at all individually. They do buy clocks and mats that are used for their entire youth league as well. So nobody is getting rich off of the tournament by any means.
If a small team or club wants to raise some cash and better their wrestling community then they need to host a tournament and get the money. Don't blame Wood County for hosting a fine tournament for generations. Start a well organized tournament and people will continue to support it.
Also people missed the parts of my previous post where I am not kind to Wood County. I have said many times that they need to change the way the seeding occurs. That part truly needs fixed and will be beneficial to wrestlers. And at no point in my post did I say that the WVYWA ran a bad tournament. I simply said that they have essentially hurt WV youth wrestling by dividing what numbers we do have.

[Goldenponyboy]

Well yeah no one is making money in wood county, look at the numbers. With 700-800 kids you made some
Change for sure. The point is each year the regionals is hosted by another team in the region and they get the money. Of course first few years of any organization as mike Carman has said it will take awhile to see some black, especially when you get a huge venue and top of the line awards and singlets for finalists. It feels like a true state tournament just like high school. I have been to both and the change is what is needed. Some regions might just have to show up. It is what it is, high school has the same issue so are we just going to make one big open for that as well?? No?? So why do it here. And it is a growing stage maybe in the next few years it will be a battle. I know of a few in our region that is very stacked and some kids that could place might not make it to the state tournament, so for those kids it's a big deal to make it to states. Just another open tournament we could go anywhere and get that. I think for youth middle and high school this is where it's at.