The state dual team wrestling tournament will remain the day before individual tournament begins next year. The Iowa high School Athletic Association moved the event to Des Moines last year in hopes of boosting attendance but it also caused some controversy after some teams rested their state qualifiers.
Alan Beste of the Iowa High School Athletic Association says they took a look at the information they had and talked with the coach advisory committee and felt like the dual tournament was in the right spot to make it a marquee event.
Beste says the coaches view the individual tournament as the most important one. “I think that’s probably the case in wrestling general, I think that the mark that every wrestler wants to achieve, is that they want to be an individual state champion, so coaches have to make decisions…on what’s more important. Is it the team to try and involve all of the kids who are involved in wrestling at your school, or is it the individuals who are vying for that individual state title/,” Beste says.
Beste realizes that some coaches could choose to rest their state qualifiers again next year. “That’s a tough choice and it’s a tough decision for coaches to make, and so we feel bad for that reason. But it also solved a lot of issues for the coaches, when we used to have the team tournament after the individual tournament, that caused some issues as well,” Beste explains.
Beste says there is no way to satisfy everyone and keep both tournaments the same week. “We really feel like the format that we have is going to be best as we move forward for high school wrestling in the state of Iowa,” Beste says. He says they have gotten input and will try to tweak a few things to make it easier on the wrestlers, but he says it’s impossible to solve all of the issues.