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2020 Al Smith


Steven Sandefer

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I know there are a lot of people wondering what is happening with tournaments and holiday tournaments around the state.

I just got a call from our AD who spoke with our superintendent and head of HR; they do not see the St. Joseph County Health Dept. approving such an event with where case numbers currently are in our area. That is the position we are in, but I will provide updates.

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On 10/22/2020 at 1:11 PM, Steven Sandefer said:

I know there are a lot of people wondering what is happening with tournaments and holiday tournaments around the state.

I just got a call from our AD who spoke with our superintendent and head of HR; they do not see the St. Joseph County Health Dept. approving such an event with where case numbers currently are in our area. That is the position we are in, but I will provide updates.

Maybe Crown Point can host it this year.

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Emails went out today confirming the cancellation of this years Al Smith. 😢  The St. Joseph County Health Department will not allow an event of this size.

 

https://cavemensports.com/2020/10/28/covid-concerns-take-down-al-smith-wrestling-invitational/

Edited by Steven Sandefer
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1 hour ago, Steven Sandefer said:

Emails went out today confirming the cancellation of this years Al Smith. 😢  The St. Joseph County Health Department will not allow an event of this size.

Is it worth waiting at least a month? Wait and see how the Health Department might change in a month?

 

Work with a neighboring high school and host 7 weights each?

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1 hour ago, ehscoach said:

I mean same date. You take 106-145. Penn takes 152-285

How would that work? Same amount of people are coming to the county. Each school would need multiple coaches at each location. Multiple busses (unless you drop one off and take the other) I don't think the county would go for that. 

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17 minutes ago, brickfor6 said:

How would that work? Same amount of people are coming to the county. Each school would need multiple coaches at each location. Multiple busses (unless you drop one off and take the other) I don't think the county would go for that. 

The Health Department isn’t worried about how many people are in the county. They are worried about how many people are in one specific area ( like a gym) at a time. 
 

our gym has capacity of 200 right now. We can get more in our 2nd gym.

 

It’s not a fool proof plan. There are issues with coaches and bussing for sure. But we may have to be creative this season.

 

If half the wrestlers are in the building and half at another building, that would appease the Health Department. 
 

This may not be in the best interest of the tournament, I’m just throwing ideas out there.

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22 minutes ago, mikemorgan said:

Probably best to do 8 man brackets of the same 8 teams at each location.  It won’t end up perfect, but it happens.

Yes that is what I was indicating. Could have an Indy and region location to reduce travel so teams could off load their guys that don't make the second day.

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Well have pass the ideas along to our other holiday tournaments and see how it works outs. With 700+ wrestlers/coaches/workers (excluding any fans), it is quite difficult. Bottom line is, we wanted to do things the right way without jeopardizing our athletes, personnel, or other teams across the state; especially if team state does happen that same weekend. We had a great proposal to the St Joseph County Health Dept., but it was declined... Now we have to live with that and move our focus to our next large event, Sectionals.

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I believe you are all on the right path. It is going to have to be Broke up into segments/portions. I think a lot of people were very pleased

with how the IHOP was ran. That is an approach to think about. 

For instance EHS Coach , instead of big weekend tournaments you have a Quad meet (4 teams) . You utilize the HS Gym , Auxiliary Gym

and the MS Gym. Each location is assigned a Session HS-106-132  ,  MS-138-170  and  Aux- 182-285.

Now 4 teams each line-up has 14 wrestlers = 56 kids each kid gets 2 fans= 112 plus Coach's and staff 100 = 212 / 3 sites. Might be Possible

 

Or say Bloomington HS work together to Divide up a multi team Tournament. City's or towns with multiple HS within 5 to 10 minute are going

to be the Best and will Host many Tourneys if the Spacing can be Accommodable .   Thanks Bigtoe19

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9 hours ago, Bigtoe19 said:

I believe you are all on the right path. It is going to have to be Broke up into segments/portions. I think a lot of people were very pleased

with how the IHOP was ran. That is an approach to think about. 

For instance EHS Coach , instead of big weekend tournaments you have a Quad meet (4 teams) . You utilize the HS Gym , Auxiliary Gym

and the MS Gym. Each location is assigned a Session HS-106-132  ,  MS-138-170  and  Aux- 182-285.

Now 4 teams each line-up has 14 wrestlers = 56 kids each kid gets 2 fans= 112 plus Coach's and staff 100 = 212 / 3 sites. Might be Possible

 

Or say Bloomington HS work together to Divide up a multi team Tournament. City's or towns with multiple HS within 5 to 10 minute are going

to be the Best and will Host many Tourneys if the Spacing can be Accommodable .   Thanks Bigtoe19

The hole in that weight class division is having the available coaching staff to be in 3-4 locations at the same time.  Not to mention be able to cover multiple mats at the same location.  
 

Having a day 1 mini-tournament at multiple locations with the winners advancing to day 2 maybe the more likely option even if it doesn’t mean a few potential higher seed wrestlers face each other a couple rounds early.  It would likely end up having the Sectional to Regional feel just done in one weekend instead of two. 

Edited by MattM
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Based on the numbers I saw in Greenwood this weekend, there is definitely a way to make this happen if the venue can be changed.  Heck 2020 IHPO numbers were higher than 2019 Al Smith numbers. 
 

Forgive me if I am stating the obvious, just think this can happen for the kids. 
 

 

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14 hours ago, graham said:

Based on the numbers I saw in Greenwood this weekend, there is definitely a way to make this happen if the venue can be changed.  Heck 2020 IHPO numbers were higher than 2019 Al Smith numbers. 
 

Forgive me if I am stating the obvious, just think this can happen for the kids. 
 

 

There are a couple things other events such as IHPO have in their favor.

1. No minimum 45 minute wait time(personally think this should be changed by NFHS to 30 minutes)

2. No match minimum per day, currently 5 matches.

3. Schools are much more cautious than renegade organizations

 

That being said, I talked to an AD this weekend and he was telling me how they were looking to be creative with their conference tournament. There are ways to safely have events during this time. Big events like the Al Smith require a lot to pull off in a normal year, but right now it is almost brain busting.

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Maybe I am getting old and grumpy, but the Al Smith is Mishawaka's tournament. I get that people want them to do everything they can to make it happen, but at the same time, the tournament is a massive undertaking. It consumes a week of Dean and Steve and Adam and everyone else's life in the middle of the holidays. It has a plan and a schedule and years and years of rhythm and planning. 

 

The tournament is not just something you pick up and move out of town. Alter it and it loses its identity. Just my thought. 

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3 hours ago, Y2CJ41 said:

There are a couple things other events such as IHPO have in their favor.

1. No minimum 45 minute wait time(personally think this should be changed by NFHS to 30 minutes)

2. No match minimum per day, currently 5 matches.

3. Schools are much more cautious than renegade organizations

 

That being said, I talked to an AD this weekend and he was telling me how they were looking to be creative with their conference tournament. There are ways to safely have events during this time. Big events like the Al Smith require a lot to pull off in a normal year, but right now it is almost brain busting.

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the info. 

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