I am a parent of a wrestler, and here we are at the Upper and Lower State and brackets for all divisions are no where to be found. If this was basketball/football it would be posted every where. I realize wrestling may not be the most glamorous sport, but these kids should at least be able to see brackets of their friends, etc. If lower state can post their bracket then why not upper? if 3a upper can post theirs why not 2a/1a? as a fan would just be nice if this was on track wrestling so we can foolow all divisions. Sorry for the rant!!
SC needs to do better keeping fans informed
- Thread starter spartanburgheel15
- Start date
Agree...our sport is followed by an ancient website scmat.com and a message board forum. I'm thankful for these boards and the volunteers that keep it up, but it would be nice to have an improved website for SC wrestling in general.
rhino_wrestling_club_sc
Two Year Starter
It takes a lot of effort from all ends. I try to be proactive and write up my own articles/press releases to give to the newspapers about my club wrestlers after every tournament. Sometimes it gets printed, sometimes it doesn't. This year they only put our SCYWA Upper State results in, but they received something from me after every tournament via email and social media. They did a good job posting my FS/GR results, so I do appreciate them giving me space whenever they can. I agree that brackets should be posted somewhere for everyone to see- possibly the SCHSL website? I'm fortunate enough to have a good relationship with a coach who emails me brackets and other info when I ask.
Better website and print coverage would be nice, but we as a community need to be more proactive and get whatever information out to the media and public. The big question is if this information is being shared with the media so the public can see it.
Better website and print coverage would be nice, but we as a community need to be more proactive and get whatever information out to the media and public. The big question is if this information is being shared with the media so the public can see it.
First of all I just want to point out that the "ancient website" that was mentioned does a pretty good job of getting the information out to the public. I've always felt like wrestling didn't get the coverage it deserves, but the coverage we do get is much appreciated by the coaches. Mark Buford does an outstanding job with the SCMat website. That being said, he can only post what gets sent to him.
I would love to see another website created that focuses on the sport in our state. We don't need a better site, we need another one. That way results can be sent in to two places. I think the biggest problem is that many coaches don't send in results, heck I'm bad about it sometimes. As far as brackets go, they usually aren't released to the public until the day of the tournaments, AAAA lowerstate was released Wednesday night because they are pretty straight forward once you get the seeds done.
Last thing, the coaches who host the tournaments are quite busy right up until the start of the tournament setting up, making sure everything is ready, and getting their own team ready. The brackets are usually the last thing on their mind.
Good luck to all wrestlers this weekend.
Cody Slaughter
Sumter High School
I would love to see another website created that focuses on the sport in our state. We don't need a better site, we need another one. That way results can be sent in to two places. I think the biggest problem is that many coaches don't send in results, heck I'm bad about it sometimes. As far as brackets go, they usually aren't released to the public until the day of the tournaments, AAAA lowerstate was released Wednesday night because they are pretty straight forward once you get the seeds done.
Last thing, the coaches who host the tournaments are quite busy right up until the start of the tournament setting up, making sure everything is ready, and getting their own team ready. The brackets are usually the last thing on their mind.
Good luck to all wrestlers this weekend.
Cody Slaughter
Sumter High School
I agree that there is a disconnect. The going trend for years has been if you're
not directly involved ( i.e. coach, wrestler or parent of wrestler) there is little info about most events. Not to take away from the ones who do a outstanding job of sharing, while others don't provide the
basic information such as what, when and where for the wrestling events. I have come accustom to who puts on the event determines how much information i will recieve.
Now my 2 cents about this great sport.
2015 Best Western North/South All-Star Classic at North
Myrtle Beach High School is another example of not getting the word out to the public. The selected individuals were informed a few weeks ago and
there has been no public announcement of team members. The All-Star Classic is the weekend after states
(March 6-7). If history repeats itself
there will being public information next week, days before the state individual
tournament and about a week before the event. Not sure why this information is being withheld, maybe for reasons normal follows don't know but i don't understand why not give this sport and its parting seniors press time. MOST sports do this to capitalize on
bringing some extra attention to the Sport and its all-stars.
Basketball has announced their all-star
roster, over a month before the all-star game and the first week into playoffs
start. The same can be said about football
selection process of all-stars normally well before playoffs start. This bring added attention to the playoffs and thus butts in the seats.
I was and still am a football guy but 10 years ago my son introduced
me to a sport that I embarrassingly thought Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair participated
in. (Might of even asked once or twice who
was Cael Sanderson). After a short time I
was realized just what I had been missing and even had regrets that I never participated.
So while following wrestling for the
next 10 years the common complaint from wrestling community is that wrestling has
to take a back seat to the other southern rich sports. I will agree that in the
last 10 years the popularity and participation has increase drastically but not
where it could or should be. When my son
started there was only a few youth clubs being ran by HS coaches during the
season, now almost every school has one, not to mention the emergence of yearlong
training centers that allow a wrestler to spend all year on the mat. The wrestling talent has and will continue to
get better but the question is will the interest in the sport increase at the
rate to keep the talent coming. Putting
a great product on the mat doesn't necessary mean butts in the seats.
SCWCA has some great coaches that truly love working with the
kids and this great sport (surely can't be for the $$). No disrespect to these coaches and most already
have their cup runneth over. It's just not fair to ask them to teach, coach,
drive the bus, tend to family responsibilities, and on their "free time" publicized
and market their sport. Some still find
time to spread the word on this forum and send results to SC Mat.
How to spread the word or better yet further expend the sport?
My opinion, appoint or hire a individual or group to handle the publication
and marketing of the sport. I think the
SCWCA would be surprised on the amount of help they would receive if just
asked. Its a digital age that everyone has a phone, tablet or some type of gadget.
"You can
have the best product in the world, but if nobody knows about it. what good is
it?"
Phil Knight,
chairman of Nike Inc.
not directly involved ( i.e. coach, wrestler or parent of wrestler) there is little info about most events. Not to take away from the ones who do a outstanding job of sharing, while others don't provide the
basic information such as what, when and where for the wrestling events. I have come accustom to who puts on the event determines how much information i will recieve.
Now my 2 cents about this great sport.
2015 Best Western North/South All-Star Classic at North
Myrtle Beach High School is another example of not getting the word out to the public. The selected individuals were informed a few weeks ago and
there has been no public announcement of team members. The All-Star Classic is the weekend after states
(March 6-7). If history repeats itself
there will being public information next week, days before the state individual
tournament and about a week before the event. Not sure why this information is being withheld, maybe for reasons normal follows don't know but i don't understand why not give this sport and its parting seniors press time. MOST sports do this to capitalize on
bringing some extra attention to the Sport and its all-stars.
Basketball has announced their all-star
roster, over a month before the all-star game and the first week into playoffs
start. The same can be said about football
selection process of all-stars normally well before playoffs start. This bring added attention to the playoffs and thus butts in the seats.
I was and still am a football guy but 10 years ago my son introduced
me to a sport that I embarrassingly thought Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair participated
in. (Might of even asked once or twice who
was Cael Sanderson). After a short time I
was realized just what I had been missing and even had regrets that I never participated.
So while following wrestling for the
next 10 years the common complaint from wrestling community is that wrestling has
to take a back seat to the other southern rich sports. I will agree that in the
last 10 years the popularity and participation has increase drastically but not
where it could or should be. When my son
started there was only a few youth clubs being ran by HS coaches during the
season, now almost every school has one, not to mention the emergence of yearlong
training centers that allow a wrestler to spend all year on the mat. The wrestling talent has and will continue to
get better but the question is will the interest in the sport increase at the
rate to keep the talent coming. Putting
a great product on the mat doesn't necessary mean butts in the seats.
SCWCA has some great coaches that truly love working with the
kids and this great sport (surely can't be for the $$). No disrespect to these coaches and most already
have their cup runneth over. It's just not fair to ask them to teach, coach,
drive the bus, tend to family responsibilities, and on their "free time" publicized
and market their sport. Some still find
time to spread the word on this forum and send results to SC Mat.
How to spread the word or better yet further expend the sport?
My opinion, appoint or hire a individual or group to handle the publication
and marketing of the sport. I think the
SCWCA would be surprised on the amount of help they would receive if just
asked. Its a digital age that everyone has a phone, tablet or some type of gadget.
"You can
have the best product in the world, but if nobody knows about it. what good is
it?"
Phil Knight,
chairman of Nike Inc.
I wasn't trying to call out any coach or scmat. I am saying why not just have upper/lower state use trackwrestling so we all can see brackets , results etc.
AAA Upper State is using Track. We had brackets posted publicly until Friday at noon. I was asked to block them until the tournament was over so that Lower State coaches could not follow the live brackets and use it to their advantage. Track is awesome and we will use it at Eastside every chance we get. All of our duals are even broadcasted live for our parents that can't get to the matches.
Some coaches are stretched thin and just can't add anything else to the plate. Some don't want their results public for whatever reason. Personally, I like everything being out there for all to see. It's all gonna come out in the wash.
Some coaches are stretched thin and just can't add anything else to the plate. Some don't want their results public for whatever reason. Personally, I like everything being out there for all to see. It's all gonna come out in the wash.
Lugoff-Elgin has posted results of every event/match that we've competed in (even when the results were embarrassing for us) to our local paper, scmat, and the state paper, if not the night of the event, then the day after at the latest.
However, we won't use trackwrestling because that's what Eastside always uses, and I'm still bitter about them using their Jedi mind tricks to always make us leave important things behind in their gym (it can't possibly be our fault). That and I think that Lou Holtz had some quote about if you are always copying what those ahead of you are doing, you'll never get ahead of them, or something like that.
By the way, Maholtz, I don't remember if I ever said thanks for getting me my laptop back, but I truly appreciate it.
However, we won't use trackwrestling because that's what Eastside always uses, and I'm still bitter about them using their Jedi mind tricks to always make us leave important things behind in their gym (it can't possibly be our fault). That and I think that Lou Holtz had some quote about if you are always copying what those ahead of you are doing, you'll never get ahead of them, or something like that.
By the way, Maholtz, I don't remember if I ever said thanks for getting me my laptop back, but I truly appreciate it.
Agree Mav, some coaches don't want results/info out there...I don't understand it, but there are a lot who don't. This subject has been one of my biggest issues with wrestling in SC since I moved down here. You have to promote the sport in order to grow the sport.
Personally, the use of track, if you are not doing a lot of tournaments, is costly...and you have to have internet access to use it. Some schools don't allow sports websites through their internet, so it is on the person running the tournaments to use their own internet service to get it done. Every tournament I run is run on user friendly software that gives the ability for posting live results....and I do it every chance I get to help promote the sport of wrestling. As a matter of fact, I have helped others in the state to obtain the software and some are not savvy with the online portion, so when their tourney is complete I will handle uploading tot he web for them.
The software used to do what is being asked is neither here nor there....the point is, it does need to be done to help promote the sport.
The other thing we need to remember is that Mark Buford does a fantastic job of getting information out via SCMAT website. He does not get paid for doing this and he does it in his spare time. He does it to the best of his ability to post info quickly for the public. It may look like an ancient site, but it gets the info out that he has readily accessible to him. A lot of the info he combs the internet for to find it...but there are also coaches in the state that get him the info.
Personally, the use of track, if you are not doing a lot of tournaments, is costly...and you have to have internet access to use it. Some schools don't allow sports websites through their internet, so it is on the person running the tournaments to use their own internet service to get it done. Every tournament I run is run on user friendly software that gives the ability for posting live results....and I do it every chance I get to help promote the sport of wrestling. As a matter of fact, I have helped others in the state to obtain the software and some are not savvy with the online portion, so when their tourney is complete I will handle uploading tot he web for them.
The software used to do what is being asked is neither here nor there....the point is, it does need to be done to help promote the sport.
The other thing we need to remember is that Mark Buford does a fantastic job of getting information out via SCMAT website. He does not get paid for doing this and he does it in his spare time. He does it to the best of his ability to post info quickly for the public. It may look like an ancient site, but it gets the info out that he has readily accessible to him. A lot of the info he combs the internet for to find it...but there are also coaches in the state that get him the info.
