Re: Gamecock Dual - horrible tournament
Not that it's my job to defend, nor am I saying that I'm completely on the side of the defense, but ...
1st - The home cooking tasted great, and while I'm a skinny guy, that's not for a lack of trying on my part.
2nd - Coach Slaughter had a great plan for the tournament in place, but when he had a team back out at the last minute, and trust me, I've run, or helped run well over 50 tournaments in my days (I didn't sit here and count, just did some quick guess-timation while erring on the small side), when that happens, A - there's nothing you can do about, and B- whatever solution you create has to be created quickly, and isn't going to be ideal, no matter how brilliantly creative you are.
3rd - Coach Slaughter did a very good job of communicating with the coaches as changes were made, and was/is always open to suggestions from the coaches involved in the tournament. However, being open to suggestions doesn't mean that everyone is going to be made happy, it means that he's going to listen to concerns, and decide what he thinks is best for everyone.
4th - If no one beats Sumter at the end of the day, then apparently they did deserve the bye. If they get a walk to the finals match, and then get shut-out, then that's poor home cooking (they still serve outstanding food, so it would be more appropriate to grab a different analogy, maybe just pull-out some SAT words, and call it cronyism or something, that always impresses people).
I'm not trying to be confrontational, and I'm sorry if it comes across that way, I'm just a smart-____ that's had a long day without hardly any sleep, and as someone that's run wonderful tournaments where everything seems to go right, and someone that's run "horrible" tournaments where every time you turn around something else seems to be going wrong, I tend to be forgiving of someone that is willing to host a very competitive tournament, and I know is working his butt off for the betterment of the wrestlers on every team, while also trying to not neglect his own.