The Breakdown - Episode 17 - Reflections on the 2021 NCSHAA 4A State Tournament
An Opinion Piece by Lee Hyder
You can find Lee Hyder on twitter @hyderluck
Competing in the High School State Wrestling Championship Tournament is a special event in an athlete’s life. In North Carolina it means you are one of the 16 best in the state in your weight class and school classification. The tournament should be held at a facility that is appropriate for such a prestigious tournament. However, this past weekend the notion of competing in a special place to be the labeled a state champion was thrown on its ear. It was not a last-minute bad move on the part of the NCHSAA either but rather a deliberate decision to host both the 4A and 1A Tournaments at one location.
Glenn High School in Kernersville, NC is a small 4A high school located in Forsyth County. It appears it’s only redeeming quality to be a host of a state level tournament is its relative location in the center of the state, thus equalizing the travel time between schools located on the coast and the far western part of the state. As a facility, it is completely inadequate to host a state level tournament let alone two on the same day. Seating capacity is too small, you can only put two mats in main gym and the aux gym looks like it was the original gym when the school was built in 1950. The HVAC was non-existent and rest room facilities were completely inadequate for the number of fans present that day.
It was no wonder the local fire department and Forsyth County Sherriff arrived to deal with over crowding less than 30 minutes after the start of the 4A tournament. They temporarily shut down any access to the facility leaving fans and wrestlers stranded outside. Eventually the Fire Marshall arrived with an ultimatum, reduce crowd size or the event gets shut down. It was at this point that the 1A Tournament was moved to Uwharrie Charter HS.
What I described in the previous paragraphs should be a nightmare scenario for any Tournament Director, Athletic Director or any associated with the NCHSAA. Yet, curiously enough all of the decision makers for the North Carolina HS wrestling season let it happen. Why?
When the tournament formats and locations were first announced at the beginning of the season, I know there were grumblings because of no ‘wrestle backs’ being allowed. I had never been to Glenn HS before but read on social media that it was a “bad plan” due to the above-mentioned deficiencies in the facilities. Yet, no one from the NCHSAA made any sort of announcement to address the concerns of the wrestling community.
On May 14th 2021 the North Carolina Governor relaxed restrictions on crowd size, mask requirements on indoor facilities to include sporting events. The NCHSAA has made it a policy to walk lock step with the Governor’s office on COVID policy. Apparently, that only applied to restrictions NOT lifting of restrictions. They had ample opportunity to return the tournament format to its normal 16 man bracket double elimination style format. They also had ample opportunity to review the facilities being used the championships. It appears the NCHSAA did not review anything or if they did, they chose not to alter anything. In either case I think it can be argued that the NCHSAA neglected to do what is right for the wrestlers, teams, and fans.
On June 15 2021, the 4A Mid-West Regional Tournament was held at Glenn HS. That tournament lacked a working HVAC system, an open concession (despite being told no outside food allowed), a restroom facility entirely too small for the crowd size. If the regional tournament served as a validation of the concept, then alarms should have gone off with NCHSAA officials. Apparently, none did because no changes to the location or tournament format were made.
The NCHSAA needs to perform better. A recent State Senate investigation revealed they are the most valuable state athletic association in the union and technically is worth more than the Atlantic Coast Conference association. An organization with such resources should not be afraid to use them when they realize they chose poorly on the location of a state level competition. The NCHSAA needs to do better planning and have a more rigorous site selection process to prevent such debacles again. The committee or person’s responsible for this horrible event should be held accountable.
I have been involved in wrestling off and on since 1977. I have been to more tournaments than I can remember, but I have to say I have never seen a tournament moved to a different location after wrestlers have weighed in. I hope I never see it again. It was a huge disservice to the wrestlers, coaches and fans. I have also been in a lot of crappy gyms for youth tournaments but I have never experienced what I experienced what I did last Saturday for a state level event, in any sport. That experience should never be repeated.