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Holiday feasting not over yet

Fans can have all they want with three county tournaments this weekend.

By BOB PUTNAM, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 5, 2002

For wrestlers, coaches and fans, the holidays mean more than presents, big family gatherings and endless seasonal specials. They are also about tournaments.

This weekend is stuffed with them.

There are 23 tournaments going on around the state and nearly every public and private school will be participating in one.

Three tournaments are being held in the county -- the Jerry Mita Invitational at Pinellas Park, the Hooters Classic at Seminole and the East Lake Invitational.

"Apparently everybody had the same idea this weekend," Seminole coach Kevin Kennedy said. "There are just so many tournaments going on. It's mind-boggling."

While having so many tournaments to choose from is a wrestling fan's dream, it is also a tournament organizer's nightmare.

Just ask Pinellas Park coach Scott Stern.

His tournament, the Jerry Mita, is normally held the second weekend of December but had to be moved a week earlier because the school is hosting a girls basketball tournament Dec. 13-14. The change meant Stern had to compete with two other local tournaments for teams.

"It's hard to find teams to come to your tournament when they probably can find one to go to in their backyard," Stern said.

Stern found out just how hard the past few months.

Bradenton Manatee, which had won the Mita the past three years, could not attend because it had already committed to the East Lake Invitational.

Miami Palmetto, the tournament champion from 1995-98, backed out the day before Thanksgiving because of a scheduling conflict.

And Wharton was unable to make it because the majority of its wrestlers are on the football team, which is playing in a Class 5A state semifinal Friday.

Teams that were once shoo-ins are not anymore. Stern said he had a commitment from St. Cloud, the defending Class 3A state champion. But Stern was told a few weeks ago the Bulldogs might not be coming.

"Maybe they'll be here. Maybe they won't," Stern said. "Who knows?"

Despite the uncertainty, Stern is guaranteed at least one thing at this year's tournament: a champion other than Manatee or Palmetto for the first time since 1994.

"We know that it's going to be competitive," Stern said. "And that's what you want with a wrestling tournament, a chance to win."

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