KirkWhiteWrestling.COM

 KirkWhiteWrestling.COM 
This will focus on letting readers know of changes to the website, or new information of importance.

List of the Newest Items:

1. 2010 Boise State Wrestling's Team Camp June 28-July 2.  Visit the camps page for live links and online registration.
   
2. New wrestling instructional video for sale on the webstore page (Curtis Camp DVD, $25).  Focus on Leg Riding, Crab Riding, Split Turk, High Leg/Hip Heist!
   
3. WIN Magazine features Boise State coaches Kirk White and Chris Owens in the technique corner in the 2008-09 issues.  Look for us!
   
4. PayPal option added for purchasing DVDs.  Go to the WEBSTORE to ORDER!  Credit and Debit Cards now accepted.
   
5. Contact Kirk White by email at kirkrwhite@yahoo.com (DVDs, camps other than BSU) or kirkwhite@boisestate.edu (work)
6. Kirk's new mailing address is 2412 Kootenai Street, Boise, ID 83705-5950.  Cell number is STILL (208)559-8249
7. Kirk White's Wrestling Technique DVDs are on sale for $100, visit DVDs page.

 

Article of the Month:

Mat money
Wrestling tournament at the Tacoma Dome means millions for region
C.R. ROBERTS; STAFF WRITER
Last updated: February 28th, 2010 08:00 AM (PST)
Forget the Olympics. The real sports action – and the real money – rode into Tacoma last weekend on the triumphs, dreams and disappointments of 1,200 high school wrestlers and their friends, fans and families.

More than 30,000 people visited the Tacoma Dome last week on Friday and Saturday to attend the four sessions of Mat Classic XXII, the state wrestling tournament that attracts wrestlers – 1,008 boys and 192 girls from 261 schools – who compete in six divisions and 14 weight classes.

With the wrestlers came coaches and parents, grandparents and former hometown heroes, cheerleaders and other supporters. In total, the participants and spectators directly spent an estimated $4.6 million.

They spent their money on hotel accommodations from Fife to DuPont. They ate in restaurants throughout the region, and they went shopping at Tacoma Mall, Freighthouse Square and stores across the county.

More money is spent thanks to Mat Classic, officials say, than at any other single recurring sports event in the county. Not basketball or football, not monster trucks.

It’s high school wrestling.

THE EVENT

The 24 mats borrowed from 24 area schools were unrolled Thursday evening. As crews arranged the Tacoma Dome floor, coaches and wrestlers registered while early fans staked out tournament territory in the grandstands.

“Tacoma has become a home for the WIAA as far as state events go,” said Mike Colbrese, executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.

“We play football there, gymnastics and wrestling, then two weekends of basketball, then softball. Tacoma means a lot to us,” he said.

Mat Classic, he said, generates the third-greatest tournament gate receipts in the state – behind football and basketball.

For Mike Combs, director of public assembly facilities for the city, Mat Classic “is just an incredible event. It’s an amazing event. It’s got to be one of the top five tournaments in the country, and this is probably the only building in the state where you could do it.”

The tournament generates $20,500 in direct rental fees paid to the city, Combs said. Add parking revenue – at $8 per vehicle – plus the salaries paid to personnel including security guards and ticket takers.

“It started smaller. This thing grew into a huge event,” Combs said.


FROM I TO XXII


Jim Meyerhoff, who wrestled for Puyallup High School in the mid-1960s, was one of three directors of the first iteration of an all-state-regions, all-weight wrestling tournament.

That first tournament was an 18-mat event held at the University of Puget Sound. Previously, the state’s different enrollment divisions – 3A, 2A and 1A/B – would hold their statewide gatherings at different locations, in various years from Central Washington University in Ellensburg and Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake to the University of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran University in Pierce County.

“We put our heads together,” Meyerhoff, now assistant executive director for WIAA, said last week. “It all came together in 1989. Before the Tacoma Dome, there was no option unless we went to the Kingdome. Logistically, the biggest problem was only that it was new to us.

“The biggest resistance came from 1A and B schools – they thought they would be buried. I wanted to make sure that wouldn’t happen. That was never a question afterwards.”

Today, he said, “this is the biggest single state wrestling tournament in the nation. This is the big show.”

Cross country, he said, is the only other high school sport where participants come from all state divisions to compete in a single event.

“When they’re done, they go home,” he said.

At Mat Classic, however, many stay. From the unofficial weigh-in on Thursday night, to the first matches Friday morning, to the participants’ parade and the championship matches on Saturday evening, the wrestlers and the people they bring are in Tacoma.

And on Saturday night, they eat.


SPENDING


“Our crew is excited about having the business,” said Will McVay, general manager of Tacoma’s Red Lobster restaurant.

On Saturday night, McVay said, some 50 people from the southeastern Washington town of Pomeroy – wrestlers, coaches, fans and families – showed up for dinner.

“With the economy being as it is, the more people we have, the more hours everybody gets,” McVay said. “Our crew is excited about having the business. It’s just good for local business. We have the teams come over, especially Saturday night when they’re done. We know that it’s this weekend. We prepare.”

“It’s pretty much a citywide sellout,” said Tasha Bishop, general manager of La Quinta Inn and Suites of Lakewood.

“If the tournament had not been in Tacoma, we would not have been busy. Wrestling and track and field are our biggest” tournaments, she said.

“We spent $1,000 just at the Dome, on souvenirs and concessions,” said Sandy Hood, wife of Lake Roosevelt Raiders coach Steve Hood.

The Hoods live in Coulee Dam, and the Raiders draw students from the towns of Nespelem, Elmer City, Coulee Dam, Grand Coulee and Electric City, Sandy Hood said. Many of the students are associated with the Colville Confederated Tribes.

Hood said the team – six wrestlers qualified for the tournament – spent $3,800 for its hotel bill alone, plus another $1,100 for meals.

“We ate at Quiznos a lot for lunches,” she said. “We went to Dairy Queen for dinner one night.”

Lisa Mustion came from Kelso with her family to watch daughter Elle wrestle in the 119-pound division. The Mustions spent three nights at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in downtown Tacoma – and in doing so spent “close to $700 just for our immediate family.”

They lunched at The Rock and at the Dome, and breakfasted at their hotel.

“Our extended family, 17 relatives and close friends, stayed at two different motels and spent $1,000 in combination, motels, eating out and for tickets,” Mustion said.

“It was a fantastic weekend. My stay was fantastic,” she said.

And Elle took third place in her division.


HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS


“Year after year, we can count on this,” said Tim Waer, executive director of the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Commission.

His is the agency that promotes and courts events and negotiates deals with the WIAA and other tournament sponsors.

One advantage to high school competitions, he said, is that they occur “in the shoulder season. In mid-July, hotels already have business. But girls’ soccer comes in November, football follows, then gymnastics and Mat Classic in February. Who’s traveling in February? Then basketball during the first two weekends of March. Track and field. Boys’ soccer, debate, bowling. All told, Tacoma is the home of sports championships, by far.”

Because of Mat Classic, he said, hotels and motels in Pierce County “for the most part, sell out.”

In the lank days of February, that means money.

Using a conservative estimate, Waer figures that an average spectator party of one person will stay 1.5 nights paying an average room rate of $99 per night. Add parking and $3 spent on concessions at the Dome, plus food elsewhere, and Mat Classic – by his estimation – generates $4.3 million in direct spending. Add the participants, and the event, he estimates, generates $4.6 million in direct spending.

Then there’s the multiplier effect of dollars spent generating more dollars spent within the community – if you believe in multiplier effects.

For this fillip, Waer said, area hotels will give the WIAA 480 complimentary room-nights for tournament officials – for a total value of some $42,600.

“The Dome and the city have been incredibly generous and flexible in dealing with the WIAA,” Waer said. “They have taken a pencil to facility rates.”

Waer said that beyond the competitions currently held in Tacoma, he would like to add golf and baseball.

The current five-year contract for the wrestling tournament ended with Mat Classic XXII, and negotiations for an extension will begin soon, according to city facilities director Combs.

Said Calabrese, of the WIAA, “We have had some discussions. It is getting more expensive. There is a breaking point.”

Still, he said, “the event is financially successful.”

Which may not mean much to Sandy Hood of Coulee Dam.

She just wants a place where the best of the Lake Roosevelt Raiders can match their skills against wrestlers from across the state.

“It’s a big deal,” she said. “We’re already talking about next year.”

C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535

c.r.roberts@thenwstribune.com

Photos from the 2006 Sunkist Int'l Open Freestyle Tournament, October 14, 2006

White secures a reshot double leg and looks to elevate Cort Peterson in his second round match.

 

White continues his elevation of the double leg to his favorite "death sentence" finishing position.

 

White completes the 5 point exposure to seal the period and "death sentence" his opponent. In the picture, both wrestlers are completely airborn in this powerslam style finish.

 

White scores first against Scott Owen with his first period reshot in the finals.

 

White and Owen handfight for position.

 

White in a wrestling stance with BWC coach Chris Owens in the background in the Orange shirt.  It was Owens' first time coaching Kirk White since the 2002 US Nationals when White beat Joe Heskett for the first time in his career.

 

White and Owen both downblock after coming out of a handfight scramble.

Ben Cherrington on the Award stand after winning the 2006 NCAA DI National Wrestling Tournament at 157 pounds.

More Cherrington Awards stand pictures.  Cherrington also beat Brian Stith in the 2006 Pac-10 championships finals.  Way to go Pac-10.

 

 

   

 

2006 NCAA Champions photos: All ten NCAA Champions, Including: Joe Dubuque, Matt Valenti, Nate Gallick, Dustin Schlatter, Ben Cherrington, Johnny Hendricks, Ben Askren, Shane Webster, Jake Roshalt, and Kole Konrad

 

Ben Cherrington gets his hand raised and then hugs BSU Head Coach Greg Randall after winning the title.

    

Cherrington walks in the All-American parade before his finals victory over Brian Stith of ASU.