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December 28, 2004
The Clash - National High School Duals wrestling tournament has quickly grown to be one of the premier dual-format high school wrestling tournaments in the country. The thirty-two team event is held near New Years each year in Rochester, Minnesota. The tournament is organized and operated by the Southeastern Minnesota Wrestling Coalition (SEMWREC). A Minnesota non-profit organization created to promote and support amateur wrestling.
This year's tournament features 16 Minnesota teams and 16 out-of-state teams. Ten teams were State Team Champions last year in their respective states.
Teams competing this year are: Adrian, MN; Lake Stevens, WA; Albert Lea, MN; Litchfield, MN; Apple Valley, MN; Lincoln-Wisconsin Rapids, WI; Caledonia, MN; Lodi, WI; Carl Sandberg-Orland Park, IL; Mayo-Rochester, MN; Coon Rapids, MN; Minot, ND; Daniel J. Gross Catholic-Omaha, NE; Owatonna, MN; El Modena, Orange, CA; Pierz, MN; Frazee, MN; Saint Michael-Albertville, MN; Glenbard North-Carol Stream, IL; Sedro-Woolley, WA; GMLOK, MN; Simley, MN; Goodhue, MN; Skutt Catholic-Omaha, NE; Harry A. Burke-Omaha, NE; Stewartville, MN; Hastings, MN; Vacaville, CA; Hayfield-Alexandria, VA; Wasatch-Heber City, UT; Higley, AZ; Winner, SD.
The first annual Clash Tournament was won by Glenbard North of Carol Stream, IL two years ago. Apple Valley won last year's tournament.
Tournament Director Steven Patton explains how the 32 teams are selected and how the seeding process works:
The Clash tournament is an invitational. That is, you cannot just sign up for it; you have to be invited. First, we invite teams to return that did well the year before. No one gets an automatic invite, but if a team does well and wants to return, we usually find a way to make it happen. After that, Randy Cirksena, our lead recruiter, starts contacting teams around the country that won their state championship along with other nationally ranked teams. Depending on their interest and their squad's returning strength, they may be invited to participate. There are a lot of valid reasons why teams elect not to participate. The most common reason is the expense of traveling. Many of the coaches ask us to call back in a year or two which we gladly agree to do.
Once we sign all of the teams we can that way, we start looking at teams that have asked to participate. If the team is "representative of the level of wrestling in their state" and we have no other entry from that state, we may invite them to participate. For example, Higley, Arizona asked to participate this year (mainly because the coach is from Minnesota and wanted to expose his kids to this level of wrestling). Although they only placed 6th in their state tournament, we thought it would give everyone an idea as to the general level of wrestling in Arizona.
Although the Clash does feature "premier" teams, our real goal is to offer a venue to compare the relative levels of wrestling in the various states. Our goal was to never to have more than a third of the teams from Minnesota. Unfortunately, due to holiday scheduling restriction in Iowa, we had to break that rule this year. One other note, besides impressive records, we look for programs with "class and tradition". Wrestling may be unique in the extent in which those two aspects play a role in a team's overall success. We have had some teams in the past like Perry, Oklahoma and West Waterloo, Iowa that may not have been at their peaks, but that are part of a storied wrestling tradition. It is an honor to have these teams compete at our tournament.
Contrary to popular opinion, the seeding process goes fairly quickly. Two weeks before the tournament, we send the list of teams to five nationally noted wrestling sports-writers and ask them to provide their suggestions for seeding. Those sportswriters are Bob Pruesse of the Amateur Wrestling News, Rob Sherrill from W.I.N. Magazine, Tom Owens from InterMAT, and Dan Fickel and John Hennessey of WrestlingUSA Magazine. Each of these writers indicates who he believes should be the four top seeds, the four number two seeds, and so on. We enter these ratings into a spreadsheet and calculate an average "seed-rating" for each team. This year's top four teams were Heber City-Wasatch, UT (1), Apple Valley, MN (1), Carl Sandburg, IL (1.3), St Michael-Albertville, MN (1.4), Those teams are placed in the four #1 seed positions in the four first-day brackets. Then the next four teams are placed as the number two seeds in the brackets. This process is followed until the first 6 seeds have been filled in. We try to respect the teams' first day session preference (travel plans) and try to avoid any matchups that might occur during the regular session. When there are multiple teams from one state, we also work to place the teams in separate first day brackets. Finally we draw the last eight teams out of a hat and place them in the remaining 7 and 8 seed positions (while continuing to avoid instate match-ups).
Once this first pass is completed, we total up the seed-ratings of each bracket to see if the brackets are balanced (at least from a projection standpoint). If necessary, we make some minor adjustments (like swapping the #3 seeds in two brackets) to improve the overall balance. Finally the brackets are given a final review by the Clash Board of Directors and approved for use.
One important thing to keep in mind when viewing the brackets is that very little distinction is made between 4 and 5 seeds. The two teams may both have received 4.5 ratings and, as they wrestle each other, it doesn't matter which team was placed in the #4 sport and which one was in the #5 position.
The system may not be perfect, but it is fairly objective from our perspective. No one person really has control over the seedings nor can any coach influence the seeding process. Bottom line is that there are 32 very good wrestling teams coming to the Clash and many of them have a legitimate shot at the title. That's why we wrestle the matches.
The Third Annual Clash National Wrestling Duals will be held at the University Center Rochester Field House in Rochester, MN on Thursday & Friday, December 30th & 31st, 2004. Visit www.clashmn.org for more information.