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player ready...For some wrestling fans unable to attend regionals on Saturday, Feb. 6, the Illinois High School Association has good news,
The state’s governing body plans to once again use trackwrestling.com to compile results at the state meet, as well expand its use for regionals and sectionals across the state.
“We are in an age where everybody wants instant information in their area,” IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said. “We will take that step on the wrestling side.”
The trackwrestling.com website will allow fans to follow results as they happen during regionals, sectionals and the state meet.
Oak Park-River Forest assistant coach Fred Arkin said he has been working with the staff at the Conant Sectional to provide live scoring on Feb. 13. There will be a laptop at each mat that volunteers will use to enter results right after referees raise the winner’s arm.
“The results are immediate,” Arkin said. “Fans can get online, up-to-date results posted as soon as the bout is finished. For administrators of a tournament, you don’t need runners. You do not need anyone bringing bout cards to the table.”
Previously, a scorekeeper would write down the final score of each bout on a slip of paper and a volunteer runner carried it to the main scoring table. The result was input into a computer and, at the end of the meet, the team score and brackets were printed out and distributed to coaches and reporters.
With trackwrestling.com, the brackets and team scores are constantly updated during the meet.
Arkin said that live streaming of matches also is in the works for upcoming seasons.
OPRF coaches used the website on Jan. 23 during the Huskies invitational. In addition to maintaining live scoring on a laptop at each mat, meet officials projected the schedule on a screen so wrestlers could see when and where their upcoming match would be.
At a smaller event such as the Class 2A Hinsdale South Regional, organizers will continue to use bout cards, but scores still will be posted online after each bout.
“I am on the board for the IKWF (lllinois Kids Wrestling Federation) and they use trackwrestling all the time,” Hornets wrestling coach Kevin Formanski said. “It will be a lot easier for the next sites at the sectional and state tournament. No one has to report anything.”
Formanski said once all the regional results are in the system, the trackwrestling site will produce sectional pairings.
“Anyone at home can follow it if they can’t make it to the meet,” he said. “If you have a kid at the school and you’re a relative from out of town, you can search for the regional.”
Officials for the Class 3A Glenbrook South Regional and the Barrington Sectional will continue to use bout cards, but still expect to post up-to-date results on trackwrestling.com.
Glenbrook South wrestling coach Tom Mietus said his school has enough laptops to run the regional without bout cards, but will use paper results as a backup.
“I would believe most schools would still have someone scoring on a paper bout card. I would use the paper bout to make sure that the results were entered properly,” Mietus said.
Barrington athletic director Mike Obsuszt assigned a member of his staff to oversee the scoring for the sectional.
“We will not be running the (web) system at each table,” Obsuszt said. “We will simply be imputing all results from each mat into the system.”
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