HOW PARENTS, FANS AND COACHES CAN MAKE THE ALL-STAR SELECTION PROCESS BETTER!
HOW PARENTS, FANS AND COACHES CAN MAKE THE ALL-STAR SELECTION PROCESS BETTER!
Being asked by Utah Amateur Wrestling Foundation (UAWF) President and 2007 All-Star Classic Committee Chairman John Webb to serve on the selection committee is a great and humbling honor. I was glad to add my expertise and passion to this committee which I feel has many great minds and hearts. These men want to promote Utah wrestling, honor our great prep wrestlers, and raise money for amateur wrestling causes in Utah including UVSC wrestling.
My biggest fear with being on the selection committee aspect of the All-Star Classic committee was to make serious errors in how we selected the participants. Each year since this event’s inception, there has been some controversy regarding this process.
This is the first time I’ve been involved in the selection of the wrestlers in any kind of formal way and again I tried to take this position seriously and with humble honor cognizant of the importance of selecting these wrestlers for this event. I don’t mind this one thing—I have spent a lot of my holiday break on the phone with coaches, parents, fellow committee members and even friends of wrestling out there who have expertise that I might even possess. I don’t regret doing this work except for one thing—it was too much work and some simple things could have made my job easier and ultimately the committee’s job easier, thus making the selection of the all-star wrestlers a near perfect process (I don’t think perfection would be possible but I am shooting for the stars!).
I think I have a very good knowledge of Utah wrestling overall. However, I think it is strongest at the 4-A and 5-A level where I have coached and the fact that 4-A and 5-A schools are in near geographic proximity to where I actually live. Sometimes it is hard to know what is going on down in Delta, over in the Uintah Basin, down in the southeast corner of Utah, in Utah’s Dixie or even Cache Valley. I have joked that I’m knowledgeable but not clairvoyant (though the term omniscient would be the most correct term to describe my dilemma).
So this is my dilemma; I can’t know everything. I can’t know every single result out there. I can’t know every exact tournament finish or just how every match really went down. Even spending two to three hours on the phone for several straight days does not solve this quandary.
While the Utah wrestling churns out scores of nationally elite wrestlers, top coaches and some good loyal fans, we have to admit that we are seriously lacking in the promotion of our sport. We complain about how the Utah media ignores our sport, but do we really help our cause?
Answer these simple questions: how many high school programs have a really good web page? (Check out Northridge—I think they have the best one!) The answer is very few. How many teams or schools have signed up for HYPERLINK “http://www.trackwrestling.com” www.trackwrestling.com to enter their results and put on their team rosters? The pathetic—sorry for the strong negative term—answer is three (American Fork, Lone Peak and South Summit). What is HYPERLINK “http://www.trackwrestling.com” www.trackwrestling.com you ask? Well it’s a way for every school in the United States actually to put up their dual meet and tournament rosters and even put on their wrestling rosters and other fun features. It also has a feature that after you put in your dual meet score, it can automatically e-mail your results to any newspaper or other media outlet. And one last question–just how many schools call in their scores the old fashion way to the newspaper?
I think you get my point.
But don’t blame the coaches (though we deserve some of the blame). Parents can step right in and help. After all, does the home site coach after a dual meet have time to call in the score as he’s cleaning up and moving the wrestling mat back into the wrestling room? I’m wondering how many football coaches actually call their scores in, especially after a tough loss. But I’m sure some parent (or assistant coach) gets this task done. Parents can really help out with these things.
The thing is…just how easier, just more assured could I feel as part of the all-star selection process if I had more information and this information was easily accessible? Wouldn’t it be just plain cool if all the schools would get on HYPERLINK “http://www.trackwrestling.com” www.trackwrestling.com and put on their scores? Wouldn’t be cool if all the teams would just call in their dual meet scores to the newspapers (though this track wrestling would take care of it for you via e-mail)? Wouldn’t be cool if every school had a web page that looked a lot like Northridge’s?
I don’t think I’m shooting for stars or asking too much. It just would take 2-3 people (parents, coaches, assistant coaches, boosters) per program to design and maintain a good web page, keep up on HYPERLINK “http://www.trackwrestling.com” www.trackwrestling.com, or just call in the scores. I’ve mentioned this HYPERLINK “http://www.trackwrestling.com” www.trackwrestling.com web site because I really think it has great potential. It really can be an exciting web page to promote wrestling and a great tool in several other aspects including benefiting future all-star committees and their selection of all-stars.
Don’t get me wrong on these counts. One, I think we’re getting very close to getting the selection of all-stars done almost as right as possible (bearing in mind it is impossible to please everyone). Second, there are some programs making efforts in promoting their program to their fans and the media. And lastly, I am hopeful that many will take the contents of this piece in the right way and look for ways to promote the program.
If you stumbled across the article, please take it in the right vain and then put these words into tangible action. Promote your program and the boys. These are your sons, brothers, cousins etc. and they deserve all the positive promotion they can get for taking part in the best sport ever created. If you have never heard of HYPERLINK “http://www.trackwrestling.com” www.trackwrestling.com before, now you’ve heard of it. Click on it, sign up, and get started!
Article Done By Brian E. Preece
Member of the 2007 All-Star Committee