Just wanted to update you all on the JV State Tournament. It will take place this Saturday @ Moore in Louisville. Wrestlers will get a pound as region 4 will be hosting their JV regional Friday night.

The link below lets you know who is in the tournament so far. The blank spots are results we are waiting on. Some alternates have been rolled in but we have to wait for the rest. Alternates are in green. Coaches, if your team or wrestlers from your team will not be participating then please let me know asap.

2016 KY JV State Entries

Flier is attached.

2016 KY JV State flier.doc

First and foremost, I want to thank Moore for hosting the KY JV State Wrestling tournament. The check in and weigh ins were organized and handled very well. It was a long day, but no fault to the Moore staff. Quality matches and brackets take a while to wrestle out. I was very pleased with the quality of the kids and teams that competed yesterday. Congrats to Oldham Co and St X finishing 1st and 2nd respectively.

As I've seen on the youth/middle school forum, I would like to see some feedback from other coaches and parents as to their experience yesterday. In retrospect, I think we would have been better off seeding the tournament. As the quality of wrestling grows in KY, we should respect those who have put in the time and work to be seeded. Also, I think we should respect those who place with a worthy medal ceremony. That being said, once again, I think Moore did an excellent job yesterday. And hats off to them and all their family support system for a great day of wrestling.

I second Nike Man's appreciation to Coach Moore for hosting.

What would be your recommendations on how to seed JV kids?  What criteria would you use?  I think all in-season tournaments should be seeded, including the varsity state tournament, but would find this difficult to do.

Using only stats from jv matches for criteria would hurt the stud that's behind a state champ.  Using mixed jv and varsity is going to unfairly affect the jv level wrestlers because they're normally not going to have a good overall record.  Normally I wouldn't care about that aspect but it is a jv tournament.

I started the JV State tournament back in 2008 to give young wrestlers something to shoot for as well at the end of the year. I thought this would help retain more young guys. This year was our best year yet as far as attendance with 32 teams represented. We started at 10:10 with a scheduled start time of 10. We did finish a bit late but we did not have one single break besides a small amount of time to honor two of our seniors before the finals. Wrestling rolled through from start to finish.

Thanks for your praise and advice. I agree we can do better with the awards presentation. Seeding however will probably never happen. I was swapping kids in and out all week long and the night before. I asked the coaches what they wanted to do before we started and they all said random draw. We had some teams travel from pretty far away and wanted to get started asap to get them back on the road.

Any other suggestions are welcome.

Thanks for coming and I'll see everyone at state!

Coach Mike Thomas
MTS Wrestling

One way to do it is to only consider wrestlers who's coaches entered in information (head to head) on trackwrestling.  However I wouldn't be willing to sit through a meeting and talk it out.  I would trust Coach Moore or someone unbiased who's proven to have the best interest of the sport do it for everyone.  This would require the coaches to enter their lineups by like Tues, and then head to head info by Thur to give him time to sort it out.  Those last-minute entries would then have to be drawn in, no matter what their record is.

Even though I think this would work it wouldn't solve the problem of deciding on the criteria.

JV State was the seventh or eighth tournament we have attended at Moore and we have never had a bad experience.  Granted this Saturday was a very long day, through no fault of Moore.  Just a lot of kids and a lot of good matches.  Hats off to the Moore coaches, parents and wrestlers.  They did an awesome job as usual.  It was obvious that alot of planning and hard work went into organizing this event.  I think everyone loved the variety at the concession stand (chicken noodle soup was the best!!) and the facility worker in charge of keeping the building clean was great.  Heard him on several occasions engaging and helping pump up some dejected wrestlers.  Referees earned every penny Saturday.  They had to be exhausted but I think they all did a really nice job.  Overall a very good day.  Thanks to everyone who had a hand in putting this tournament together!!!!

Thanks for the suggestions Zeus. My name is Coach Thomas by the way. I coach at Moore.

2 hours ago, thomam said:

Thanks for the suggestions Zeus. My name is Coach Thomas by the way. I coach at Moore.

Well considering you have two first names, I suppose he decided to give you a last name haha

Haha true, was confusing you with Coach Moore who does the rankings I guess.  We met at the tournament on Saturday.

This was my first year going to JV state and I am very pleased with the entire tournament. Moore parents, coaches and wrestlers are a class act and put on a great tournament.  I hope Coach Thomas keeps doing the JV state tournament a Moore because it is awesome to allow the kids to have something to shoot for.  I appreciate the opportunity. 

JV state was a very high caliber tournament.  Better competition than some of the varsity tournaments I've seen this year.  I would like to see it held somewhere that can have 4 mats though as wrestling didn't end till after 10PM.  Tourney was well ran, just not enough mats. 

We will definitely have 4 mats next year.