Opening Advice for Running an Off-Season Tournament

I have been running successful tournaments for years now.
Elite Opener
Appalachian Duals
JV Super Regionals
Sick Nasty Duals
and my crown Jewel
Fall Qualifier The only Super 32 Qualifier in Virginia


Watch more video of Skyline Super 32 Qualifier (Nside Premier) on flowrestling.org

This leads to my coaching friends asking my advice.  I tell you what, I've had my bad tournaments in the early going, but things are going pretty well now.  It would be fun to write a book on how to run a tournament just to put it out there.

Anyhow, here is a response I sent to someone asking for some advice on the initial steps in setting up an offseason dual tournament:

1. Secure the facility – does your county have weird restrictions?
2. Look at your state and surrounding state schedules and secure a date that doesn’t overlap and the facility is available. 
3. Use personal relationships to get 2-3 decent teams to commit 100%  
4. Then advertise the snot out of it, rule of 6 is people need to hear/read something 6 times before they remember it, but it doesn’t have to be big 6 or 8 teams is good, 12 is plenty, any more than that is Great money but LOTS of work to pull off .
5. Ask your local association for refs first, then nearby groups.  Ask them to NOT ask other associations for help.  If they can’t get enough find them on your own, OR pay college wrestlers to ref they do pretty good.
6. Don't be afraid to fire a bad ref, the wrestlers and coaches are your clients and the refs are your employees.
7. Set it up round robin, with a final cross pool match

This should get you started!  Look forward to more tournament advice in future posts.