David Mariola - T.A.B. Middle School Wrestling Tournament 2026

Overall fun experience for all teams competing. Our experience was not so fun. My son's first match he hit his head ended up with a concussion and unable to continue on. A trip to the ER to confirm and rule out a brain bleed. A few things I was overwhelmed with was the TV placement and no where for the wrestler to sit beside the bleachers. I wish they had a designated area for the wrestlers and all their belongings. This made it difficult for spectators to find a seat.

This was a great tournament. The tournament flow was well managed. The wrestlers were great to watch. I enjoyed not only watching my son wrestle, but enjoyed watching other schools team.

No seating and limited parking for such a large event with that number of schools included, 2 day entry for $25 even if child eliminated after 1st night. $15 for 1 day ridiculous.
Gymnasium was too hot but understand outside temp was sub-zero.

The tournament was very well organized from a match standpoint. Bigger projector for bout viewing would be very helpful. More strict policy on crowd control in such that people need to sit if viewing and only 2 coaches per wrestler on the mat. Unfortunately the garbage in the stands is very difficult to control, need to have a space for wrestlers to have all their gear instead of storing it in the stand. All the wrestlers need to be in one area. Spectators in another, with reinforcement.

Purchasing tickets in advance online was great. The event was great with the exception of seating as the wrestling teams took up over half of the available seating. You need to assign rooms or areas where teams can put all of their gear instead of taking up so much room in the stands as it is limited to begin with. Prices were extremely reasonable especially with senior discounts on the entrance fees.

Cool experience bringing all those teams together. However for $25 for two days the lack of seating for families and having no organization as far as wrestlers gear is pretty ridiculous. You always want people to clear the mat so everyone can see but had the wrestlers fill the stands with their things. Also not being able to bring in outside and serving warm soda and minimal food was pretty sad. Offer better quality food and options if you aren't allowing outside food. Warm pop is pretty gross.

Overall, it was a good experience, but a few suggestions.

1. More Signage
It was unclear where mats 5-8 were and how to get to them. It was only after an hour of being there I saw the one sign above the one set of gym doors. Perhaps more signs, or communicating it with teams, so they could inform their parents.

2. Seating
Seating was difficult to find, all of the teams had their bags scattered across the bleachers.
Green Schools holds a tournament similar to this one, and they made one side dedicated to the wrestlers and their belongings, and the other side was for spectators. It worked well, and there was plenty of space for everyone, even when moving between gyms.

3. Parent Conduct
Let me begin with realizing it’s impossible to catch or correct every parent who shows poor sportsmanship. Saturday afternoon a parent was screaming at the top of his lungs, at the referees about points he perceived his son should be receiving and instructing his son how to wrestle and what moves he should be making.

As a parent, we should be there just to cheer and support our athletes. This guy was way out of line. If he’s an expert then he should be a referee or a coach, but he’s neither. To make it more inappropriate and awkward, he was behaving this way in front of the parents of the wrestler his son was competing against.

I wish the referees could either stop the match to issue warnings to people who behave like this, or even deduct points from the wrestlers they are “representing”. This is an epidemic among sports, and we all have to do better at not allowing people to get away with this behavior.