The sixth annual Utah All-Star News Article
The sixth annual Utah All-Star Classic promises to be bigger and better with a new format that will bring in more participants but at the same time preserve the exclusive nature of this event.
For the first five years the Utah All-Star Classic or All-Star dual pitted the 4-A and 5-A against the 1-A, 2-A and 3-A. Now there will be four teams with 5-A, 4-A and 3-A having their own separate squads and the fourth team will be a combined team of 1-A/2-A wrestlers. The Utah All-Star Classic will be Tuesday January 9 at the Utah Valley State College’s (UVSC) McKay Event Center located in Orem, Utah.
This new format will double or nearly double the amount of participants of past events yet the quality of wrestling will remain extremely high.
“I think the genesis of this new four-team idea was to give more deserving wrestlers an opportunity,” says Dr. John Webb, who heads the Utah All-Star Classic Selection and Organization Committee. “Utah has a lot of wrestling talent and we wanted to showcase a bit more of it. In the past years there hasn’t been a lot of 1-A wrestlers in the event and by creating four teams we can also reach out to a segment of the Utah wrestling community that has not been represented much in past All-Star duals.”
With increased wrestlers, and wrestlers truly representing all five classifications, the Utah Amateur Wrestling Foundation (UAWF) which sponsors this event hopes to attract a much larger audience for the actual dual meet itself.
“The primary objective of this event is to raise money for the UAWF and its promotion of amateur wrestling in Utah,” states UAWF President Cole Kelley. “We want to have a larger audience for this event, increase more media interest in this event, and attract more sponsors. All of this will make this event more profitable as we work to help support amateur wrestling in Utah.”
The UAWF was an organization founded in 1999 whose initial efforts were to save the wresting program at Brigham Young University. After that effort failed the organization turned its efforts to raise money to start a wrestling program at UVSC. The UAWF will continue to support the UVSC wrestling program and the Utah All-Star Classic is a huge part of this effort.
However, expanding the teams is not the only significant changes in how this event will be put together and what the fans will see on January 9.
“We want the wrestling to be action packed,” says Utah Wrestling Coaches Association (UWCA) President and All-Star Classic Committee Member Alan Porter. “We’re going to have wrestling going on at the same time on three mats. This will give the audience a lot of great wrestling action and it will reduce the actual length of the event.”
In past All-Star events there were 14 or more individual matches on a single mat and after some opening ceremonies and highly competitive matches the event lasted longer than three hours on some occasions.
The All-Star Classic Committee is cognizant of the fact that Tuesday is a school night and many people are traveling a great distance to watch this event. The new format with 28 total matches will feature nine sets of three matches done on three mats with the tenth and last match deemed the “feature” match of the night. Simply, there will be more wrestling action condensed down to an event that should last no more than two hours and be extremely “fan friendly” for both the seasoned and novice wrestling audience.
For the event’s participants, coaches, family members and sponsors there will be a reception prior to the event. Team and individual photos will be taken and the participants will be truly treated first class.
Further, the UAWF and UWCA has worked together to bring in prominent wrestling announcer Sandy Stevens to co-announce this event. “Sandy Stevens is probably the best wrestling announcer in amateur wrestling,” states All-Star Classic Committee Member Andy Unsicker. She will announce the action along side Steve Wilson, considered one of the top local wrestling announcers. The fans will be in for a special treat,” says Unsicker. The UAWF is also working to plan to have Stevens do an “announcer clinic” for all those interested on the afternoon of January 9.
The All-Star selection committee has also started a web page called utahwrestling.com whose main purpose is to create interest for this event. Fans can vote for their choices of the All-Star and get updates on this event as it comes together.
The general plan for selecting is the teams is to have the classification representatives work with their coaches to select the teams for the All-Star Classic. Porter and fellow committee member Brian Preece will then put together the actual 28 match-ups the fans will see on January 9.
The committee wants to wait as long as feasibly possible to announce the teams and final match-ups. “There are still some big tournaments the next two weekends which will help crystallize the final selection process,” says Porter. The Selection Committee has targeted December 30 as the date to announce the teams and actual match-ups. “One thing is for sure,” remarks Porter. “We’re going to have some great wrestlers and great wrestling matches.”