Personally, I don't really care to have a league tournament. I would much rather see schools be able to use those points to travel up North or down South to see better competition. You have to wrestle the Massillon Perrys, St. Eds, Elder, and Moellers to get to the state finals, and your certainly not going to be prepared by wrestling in yet another "central district" type tournament. By having a league tourney thats one less tournament that our central ohio schools would be able to compete in elsewhere. I know people are perplexed by the way some of these nominations fell, but I still contend that Jacob Spearman and Coach Spires could really care less about a sheet of paper that says one or two on it. I'd assume he rather have a gold ohio around his neck on a Saturday evening in March next year.

In the case on page one, it was Hoover. But mark this down... anyone that won by forfeit - or otherwise - over the MIGHTY PORT was lucky! Yeah, we're that good!

(It was just a joke. And so is this post. Unless you read below. Then, that's serious.)

I hope things work out for all involved.

I would like to point out that I have a 32-man bracket ready to go, complete with the availability of a true 2nd within the conference. You organize a place and time, and I'll run the tournament. Complete with team scores!

I agree that most kids really don't care that much about "all conference" honors, district and state honors mean much more. But, if this is the case, why pick these teams at all? If you are going to pick them, why penalize a kid that wrestles up a few matches for the good of his team? Maybe there should be exceptions to the 4 match rule, in some cases, so that the best competitors get properly recognized.

Well Mutt, outside of the holiday tourneys, how many teams are actually getting out up north? A handful? Most teams seem to be content on going to "another Cent Oh tourney." I think the league tourneys should be in place of those. At least it will be a more competitive Cent Oh tourney, not just another.
I agree we need to go north to get more competitive!
I even texted our coach after state asking him to try to get us up there more. I know he has been trying to get up there more than just the MIT.

Mutt cuts;705059 wrote:Personally, I don't really care to have a league tournament. I would much rather see schools be able to use those points to travel up North or down South to see better competition. You have to wrestle the Massillon Perrys, St. Eds, Elder, and Moellers to get to the state finals, and your certainly not going to be prepared by wrestling in yet another "central district" type tournament. By having a league tourney thats one less tournament that our central ohio schools would be able to compete in elsewhere. I know people are perplexed by the way some of these nominations fell, but I still contend that Jacob Spearman and Coach Spires could really care less about a sheet of paper that says one or two on it. I'd assume he rather have a gold ohio around his neck on a Saturday evening in March next year.

Points? Simply enough. Eliminate the Thursday night tris and duals and just have a year end, one day, 8 man bracketed tournament. Now you have extra points.

I still think you need to have duals.

I agree that a tournament is the way to go.....its the only true way to do this....

Not going to beat a dead horse over this....with all the messages back and forth I have to think most everyone agrees that the way the ALL OCC teams are picked is off a little...

I guess the big question is why did they stop doing this....

Stop having the league tournament

The one a few years back at Gahanna was a dual meet format. I think... I think... I think the masses want an 8-man, individual bracket.

To be honest, I'd like to see the dissolvement of the OCC. WAY too big for me. But that's just me.

You are correct it was dual meet format.......again it was more a team win but it did give the kids a change to measure up with each other because it was at the end of the season and I guess you can say they were at their true weights...

The problem with league tournaments is that the OHSAA still requires that your schedule carry at least (5 or 6) points worth of duals, they can't be all tourneys. Which means that you then have to run around and find dual, tris, and quads that probably won't do much for you either. The ADs were very much not in favor of the league tourney also because they lose out on $$. Additionally I think Riggs made a valid arguement a couple of years ago where he explained how eliminating the league duals slows the growth of our sport, and consequently thats a big negative. I mean look at the mid-state league.. you get so see middle school matches along side high school matches, some OCC duals have done this and also including biddy wrestling as well. It helps promote your program and the sport. You don't get that with a league tourney. And don't tell me that you can still do that with other duals because you can't. The one year we had the league dual meet tourney it was chaotic finding decent competition with open dates, and most of the time they were completely pointless duals (ie: why would Davidson dual Grandview? Outside of the brother connection there is no real competitive benefit to a large schoo dualing smaller schools)

Matcut I understand your point. I’m with the CCL so I have no dog in this fight however there is a way to do both and meet the dual meet requirements. If a team schedules 20 points then 4 of those points must be dual/tri/quads. Here in the City League we have 2 mandated tri’s and quads to help meet our 4 point requirement. We have a coaches meeting and we decide who we’re going to wrestle on those dates. In most cases teams with fuller line ups wrestle each other and teams with smaller line ups wrestler each other. At the most our league duals and end of year tournament will use 6 points which leaves each team with 14 points to schedules for the season. I understand the OCC has more teams than the CCL and if you guys did a tournament it would have to be a 2 day event if everyone wrestled which would require 3 points. Even with that and meeting the 4 point requirement teams would still have 13 points to schedule. I’m not sure how many points the current format uses for your duals it might work out better for all teams. Maybe the league should have a coaches meeting and see how the coaches feel about it then take it from there.

Run an 8 man one day tourney for each division. Rotate the location between all the schools in the division. League is a great prep for the run to the state tourney. OCC seems to be one of the few leagues in the state that doesn’t run a league tourney. Take care of a lot of issues....

One way to fix this problem of the better guys not getting on a certain team is to drop the requirement of it strictly being based off of OCC duals. If you just let the coaches vote on who deserves to be on each team then it will turn out the way it should. It should be based on how the whole season goes. Also the talk of having an all conference tournament is simply answered. It is simply called the district tournament. There are added team but it is still the conference tourny. The only team not there is Olentangy.

And Big Walnut, and Bradley...

Pretty sure Bradley is planning on being there next year....

District tourney, coaches’ vote! C'mon, that makes no sense. Too many variables involved there and coaches’ don’t always vote with their brain but rather their heart. Conference tourney is the best fix; don't worry about dual results. Dual results can be used to seed for the conference tourney. Where you place determines what team you’re on. Plus not every wrestler is at peak performance early in the season when they wrestle in some of the league duals.

Agreed with the Coach. I think you will find that our wrestlers are proud to be part of the OCC. If we are going to name all OCC teams then it needs to be done correctly. How can we do this when kids are not wrestling the same kids because of moving around to benefit the team score.

Let the kids decide on the mat who deserve to be all OCC.....the comp would be greater than any duals we currently have...

You know, there is a way that everyone on a TEAM is "1st Team ALL OCC", that is to win the TEAM Championship! I fully understand that kids (and parents) would like the proper recognition for being the best wrestler in their weight class in their 8-team conference, but I think their are some bigger issues at hand.

1.) We are constantly losing support, fans, spectators, and interest in this sport. The only way that we can get student-body attention to wrestling, and community interest in wrestling is to create "team rivalries" with dual meets. Spectators need to be in and out of the gym in two hours or they will not attend the event, which means that duals are essential to the growth of the sport. There is nothing like two teams going "head on" for a Championship or for bragging rights. These events need to be marketed as very important, much like some tournaments market.

2.) I was once a wrestler at an OCC school... I wrestled at the State Tournament, was All Metro, District Finalist, wrestled for a DI College, and so on; but was never first team All OCC, due to the fact that in four years I seldom wrestled my "tournament weight class" in OCC duals... If there was a tough kid a weight or two up, then I would go there for the week, and I would not have it any other way. I feel that facing the best competition I could (for the TEAM) helped me in the post-season and helped my team win multiple OCC Championships; the recognition of being the best in my weight class was worth sacrificing for my team. I do not see how beating everyone up at my "tournament weight class" at an OCC tournament would have helped me down the line... I would rather take a loss or two to learn from. I have a feeling that many coaches in Northeast Ohio would agree that, because they are notorious for chasing down the best competition possible. (I do not mean to down play the significance of All OCC honors, just my two cents)

3.) Also, I simply agree that a huge OCC tournament is the exact same as the Central District Tournament, except the District Tournament uses zero points and has much more on the line, which makes the intensity much more relevant. If you want to be "All OCC" then beat out all the other OCC members at the District and State Tournament, which is my thought.

4.) Central Ohio does not have a High School facility that is capable of handling an event with that many teams. If you go to Cincy or Canton, then yes they have facilities that can support a tournament of that size the right way. Central Ohio just does not build athletic gyms that size.

I hope that all of this makes sense and can give some people some new input to think about/ talk about.

2, 3 and 4. Period.

I agree with Ozzie...

OCC needs to keep dual meets and establish deep rivalries. I also think the OCC needs league tourneys for each division not the whole league. It's all about TEAM and each wrestler should do what’s necessary to help the team in both dual and tourney.

Fans and parents like it quick and simple but we also need to be salesmen for our sport. If a kid enjoys the experience he will come back. If a parent enjoys the experience they will tell others. We have to make sure this is happening at the youth, middle and high school levels. You win with numbers, and large numbers usually mean something good is going on. It’s like running a business, once you get everyone working toward the same team goals and vision, the rest will take care of itself.