trackgopher

This was an event that was in the works with Mark Durham (the guy who runs the IHSAA Finals) to run it after DII Midwest Regionals @ UIndy. The logistics just did not work for this year, but this is definitely something that is being looked into more heavy in the coming years. I love the people who think this is a bad thing. Just think about it as another meet that our athletes are allowed to get some matches in. We are into the part of the year where the athletes should be getting better and getting matches in. In most of our days, we would have 75 folkstyle, 100-200 freestyle and greco matches during the offseason. Now the kids are lucky to get 30 matches in the offseason. I for one am always a proponent of getting athletes on the mat to get better. Maybe I am a fool to believe that.

And seeing how easy it is to switch, even the idiots who run the TW for the State Finals could not mess it up.

If anyone is sick of watching College Football, you could always go watch Preseason Nationals. Track appears to be streaming the event for free!

Two team battle for 1st East Chicago Central Semi State win.

Thanks Mike for the compliment. Does anyone else have any criticism or areas to improve on beyond getting an additional person to be a camera operator for the event? We strive to deliver the best experience and with the introduction of Track's video and archiving, we hope to continue to deliver that excellence. Please if anyone has any comments, concerns, ect. please let me know. Also any kind of comments you have know that it is not for nothing until next year. The duo that were running IHPO will also be running Northwestern University's Midlands and the IHSAA State Finals to name a few.

I completely agree with Joe. I want to thank a million people for their support, help, and patience during this years IHPO. We ran into a huge issue in the middle of the tournament, but it was taken care of due to the experience that the other track "gurus" and I had. Thankfully Joe decided that he should have a couple of us "gurus" at the tournament. It is also very interesting when someone would think that I am the novice when I have ran 23 meets alone with Trackwrestling. Anyway back to my thank yous. Thank you to the Trine wrestlers, they had very few mess ups when you think about the number of "bad results" that we had last year. I was very impressed by the professionalism and hard work that all of them possessed. So thank you to Joe and Coach Dan Callahan for setting them up to work. By the end of the day all of them were basically fixing the computers so that I didn't have to be the "track gopher" anymore. We absolutely could not have ran the meet as efficiently as we did without the help of the Trine guys. Thank you to the officials. At some points, I would have rather been on the mat with you guys. But I am a wrestler, so I knew I needed to push through the adversity of what was going on. But anyway, I saw a lot of officials working their tails off, and I really was happy with the result of the meet. Even if Barnett and Pettit missed a bunch of calls. Haha. Thank you to Scott Raypole, he was available for anything that our "gurus" and officials needed. If we needed a table, we got 2. If the officials needed into their locker room, he would open it every 5 minutes. He did a ton of work and I really appreciate having someone in his position that is that willing to help anyone who needed the help. To the Carroll parent, wrestlers, and volunteers. This was a first class ran tournament. I was impressed that you were all willing to do anything to help out. And the wrestlers, I arrived at 2:30 and was amazed at how fast you guys put the gyms together. It was incredible. THANK YOU to the fans and wrestlers. There were many technical issues, but I hope you all understand that I and the others around me were trying to fix everything in a timely manner. And thank you to all of the fans and wrestlers for being understanding when something happened, and I hope that we showed all of you the respect that you were showing us at the head table. I hope everyone knows that Trackwrestling did exactly its job the entire tournament. When we are trying to run the tournament on a server and the server and router are not communicating, it does not help. I do not blame the server and router on anyone, honestly. I just was very impressed with the amount of understanding that everyone had when we had to shut the tournament down and fix our problems with the server. So thank you all for your understanding. Lastly, but certainly not least, thank you to Joe and Alexis for bringing me back for another year. Even after last year and the issues that 90% of the general public did not know was occurring. I was on the phone with a "guru" and support at Trackwrestling for about 25% of the tournament because the rounds of the tournament were changed. Thankfully I have built a big enough support system that I have the necessary tools at my disposal. I had a ton of fun, even if I had to run the entire tournament. Oh and Joe, I lost 13 lbs for your sake. Trackgopher, out!