Good morning folks,
The NVAC Championships were great yesterday; hats off to Nate and the whole Vergennes wrestling apparatus! The event was well organized and well run. Most of our kids got three matches, and we were done by around 4:00 p.m. I think blending the teams to fill lineup holes worked especially well--I noticed that the kids filling those holes were cheered just as loudly by their surrogate teammates as they were by their actual teammates, which made for an exciting atmosphere. I also think this format works well in the sense that it gives every wrestler a chance to contribute; in other words, sometimes just not getting pinned makes as much of a difference, team-scorewise, as getting a bonus point.
While I like individual tournaments, I have to say that this seems like the way we need to go if we are going to grow the sport. Perhaps we would all be better served if some of the lower attendance tournaments switched to this format, inviting the same (or even more) out-of-state teams, and coming up with an official protocol for filling lineup deficiencies with kids from other teams.
Lastly, it was great to see Channel 3 at the event. I didn't catch the broadcast, but I'm encouraged that somebody got them to show up. Thank you, whoever you are!
~Doug
