Originally posted by dadthencoach:
Look, boys and girls, this is what it comes down to:
1 - Mr. Beste was getting heat on both ends. School administrators were tired of the four-day State tournament. Coaches, wrestlers, managers, cheerleaders and student fans, gone for four days, when everyone knew they didn't have to be. On the other side, Mr. Beste was getting heat from the DSM Convention and Visitors Bureau that he had better NOT drop that fourth day, which would lose them a quarter of the biggest sports cash cow they annually get. What to do, what to do.
2 - Cedar Rapids' plan to remodel the U.S. Cellular Center was Mr. Beste's escape hatch. At least for a year, a different site had to be found. So, Mr. Beste could move State Duals to Des Moines and at the same time try the "Grand Experiment" of moving them from their over 25-year traditional setting the week after REAL State to the following Saturday. Didn't exactly back the stands, but still a nice event. Last year, Mr. Beste announced that a "committee of coaches and administrators" had voted to make the change to this year's schedule and it was full-speed ahead.
3 - But Mr. Beste made a couple of gross miscalculations. First, He did not expect the backlash in the media and from coaches across the State (and we're talking big-name coaches) who have blasted this decision from Day One. Second, since no one has stepped up say "Yeah, I was on the committee," it appears more and more that this was a decision that Mr. Beste and/or the IHSAA administration made on their own, think no one would question it. Oops.
4 - Now the storm has hit Des Moines. The head coach of the No. 1 3A school in the State has announced to the media that none of his 11 traditional State qualifiers will even weigh in today. He will send his three non-qualifiers to the mat, along with 11 JV kids. And a lot of other coaches may do the same thing. It's a form a protest perhaps, but it is also something else. What if you wrestled straight up, trying for the Duals/REAL sweep? What if one of you studs got hurt and you got neither? Would that be worth it? No. And if you ask the coaches across the state, almost to a man, they will tell you they don't like the new system.
So here you have it: A new plan on the verge of failing. An organization bent on a new course of action no one wants to take and a civic group breathing down this organization's neck saying "you'd better not cost us any money."
Then, just for fun, Mr. Beste crossed that rubicon when he publicly stated that moving the REAL tournament back to three days was done for academic reasons.
So, one of four things will happen after this week:
1 - Today will be a disaster but remain unchanged, qualifying schools will continue to make it a JV festival and it will die in a few years.
2 - Today will be such a disaster, and the outcry so great that it will return to Cedar Rapids next year.
3 - A compromise will move duals to January or something.
4 - Duals will just be dropped altogether.
It will be an interesting week.
