NOTE: I am NOT a board member for USA Wrestling Utah so look at this as a guest editorial or article. My opinions voiced (mostly at the end of this piece) are MINE, and not representative of USA Wrestling Utah, the UHSAA, UWCA or the Ross Brunson All-Star Dual Selection Committee. With that said, I hope you enjoy some history of the event and where I think the event could or should go in the future. 

As I read through the comment boards the other night, it struck me that the All-Star Dual, while not perfect, has came a long ways in its growth and interest. 

I wrestled in the All-Star Dual in 1984. Back then it was just two teams and limited to seniors. And it was in a high school gym where the crowd consisted mostly of family members of competing wrestlers.

My participation in it was purely by accident. I guess I was bored on a Saturday night and drove up to watch the event which had a few of my friends in it. I grabbed my dinner consisting of some popcorn and a Coke and took my seat. But as fate would have it, one of the wrestlers, the guy who beat me for third place at state, was a no-show. Russ Paulsen, head coach at Bingham at the time and one of the event organizers, spotted me in the stands and asked me to fill in. I wrestled a state champion from Delta HS who had probably brought the most fans, and I actually won my match.

I bring up my story not so much to brag about my big accomplishment, but to just show you how far the All-Star Dual has come.  Wrestlers really want to be in this event. Yeah, there were some studs in the 1984 incarnation, but there were a lot of guys that turned down the invite leaving the event organizers to make a lot of phone calls to find replacements, or literally pull a willing competitor right from the stands. 

This version of the All-Star Duals lasted maybe one or two more years but lack of crowd and interest ultimately did it in. It was a post-season meet much like the Atlas All-Star Showdown. But it didn't quite have the promotion behind it that USA Wrestling Utah has brought to that event to get the best wrestlers possible. (I really love the team captain "draft" aspect of it and the prizes that go to the winners!). 

But in these early versions of the All-Star Dual, there was some flexibility in weight classes. You might want see the 112 pound 4A champion take on the 2A champion at 119 pounds. If the committee or whatever it was back then could get the two wrestlers to agree, then it was game on! 

After that event died out, in 1990 Chris Brown, then the Payson head coach, organized a post-season tournament called "The Masters." It had a great concept and the event was held at the Salt Palace Convention Center like the Rumble was held last season. But any state placer had a standing invite. Wrestlers could go up or down a weight class if they could make weight. My brother Scott wrestled in this event and had fun.  

It probably had the feel of the Super State meets held several years ago where if you placed at state, you could come and wrestle one last time. There were some good matches at each, but a lot of top wrestlers skipped the event and crowd support wasn't the greatest. So The Masters and Super State eventually died out.

SUU and Dr. Richard Lunt, a great man and visionary of sorts. then put together a little post-season event. I got to be a coach in this event in 1998.  At that time in Utah, there were five classifications but only four wrestlers per weight were invited. I'm not sure what or why one classification got the axe versus another, but the five divisions had pretty much equal number of wrestlers.  Only the state champions of each classification could take part, but I think a few alternates had to be used. 

What was cool about this event were two things.

One was just how the competitors and coaches were treated. We all got a really cool medal for participating and fed a nice meal when it was all over. Dr. Lunt and his group of future coaching interns really went out of their way to make everyone involved, including parents, feel special. 

The other unique thing about this all-star event was that the competitors had no idea who they were going to wrestle. The four wrestlers actually showed up in the middle of one of the two mats and you simply drew out your opponent from one of the four. Then the winners took on the winners and the losers took on the losers and a team score was kept. So basically it was a two round mini-tournament.

2A actually won it and 4A, the team I coached, placed second. I had three state champions that year at Provo HS, believe it or not, but I could only talk two of them into competing. I made sure the two that went made sure to make the other wrestler feel bad (ha ha).  

But that event, much like the first version of the all-star dual and The Masters and later Super State just suffered from lack of attendance. I really felt bad for Dr. Lunt, who probably spent thousands of dollars for all of this, that only a small group of parents attended. So after one, or maybe two years, the event died out.

Then in 2001, we had what we would call, the All-Star Dual. At the time, the Utah Amateur Wrestling Foundation was trying to raise 150K to start the Utah Valley wrestling program. The first All-Star Dual was actually held at Jordan High School. But what made this one different was that it was in-season. And doing it in-season really was important because it brought the crowd. It was standing room only at Jordan High School.

The match-up everyone wanted to see was Robb Maxwell vs. Judd Sweat. I'm not sure if this was the All-Star Dual that had Tyler Teeples vs. Ben Kjar, or the next one, but it was a big event.  

But incredibly, it  still didn't attract all the best wrestlers because some schools (or coaches) didn't want their wrestlers in it. They weren't sure what it exactly was figuring it might be like one I wrestled at in 1984. But when word got out how cool it was, with a special guest appearance from Olympic champion Rulon Gardner and pretty much all the other best wrestlers in it, there was total buy-in. Let's just say there were some upset parents that let their coaches know about it. 

There were just two teams back then, the small schools (1A-3A) vs. the large schools (4A-5A). There were often three to four wildcard matches. I remember when we had our first two wrestlers in the event from Provo HS, the Holt brothers, and the feature match that year was between Nathaniel Holt and Josh Wilson of Morgan, both of which would finish second and third in the high school nationals in Pittsburgh respectively, both losing to eventual champion Bubba Jenkins--you may have heard of him, he beat David Taylor once for a NCAA title.  But with 18 matches one year on one mat, the event could become a bit long. With super elite wrestlers, most of the matches went the distance ,and to be honest, many often were low-scoring tactical affairs.

Around a decade or so, the All-Star committee decided to expand the teams from two to four with 1A combing with 2A and 3A, 4A, and 5A having their own teams. And do the competition on three mats so if there was a "boring" match on the center mat, one could just watch one of the side mats because most likely one of them had a great match going.  Then there were other permutations adding a wildcard team when 6A was created. Sometimes 1A had its own team but most often was combined with 2A. Then an undercard of junior high matches and a few girl matches were included. When the UHSAA fully sanctioned girls wrestling, then a full slate of girls teams were created.  And so you know, I support that fully!

There were concerns that the event  last year with junior high matches and a high volume of both boys and girls matches  was too long, so the event in 2023 is a bit streamlined from six teams to four teams with the 1A/2A, 3A/4A and 5A/6A combining to make three teams and then a team of wildcard wrestlers. So the number of matches in 2023 versus 2022 will be less. And I think most, but not all, will welcome that. 

There has been over recent years, but pretty much since 2001, some consternation on who gets chosen and who doesn't.  There is a committee, and I've been on it most years. But the committee itself is far from monolithic, meaning we don't exactly think alike and there are stark differences of opinions.

I sort of see myself as an advocate for the lesser known wrestlers and teams (being that I coached at Provo HS which has never been known as a blue blood program). But I guess I'm there to remind others on the committee that there are some pretty darn good wrestlers that might not have started wrestling out of the womb or competed on some national team in seventh grade.  

But I will say, we  ALL want to do it right. And we've been willing to change things up. And we do involve coaches through their classification reps. And I will admit that I probably don't follow the sport as well as I used to, and certainly not as much as Ben Gasser or a Travis Blevins. But I am the one that sometimes stirs the pot or asks the tough questions.  And if I'm wrong on any supposition, I gladly will take responsibility for my mistakes. But again, I have to say we are trying to do right by the sport. 

I will also say this. And it's what I said to others on the committee. I think we need to totally reimagine this event going forward. We do have some great minds and through the feedback we get through the forum we are listening to your ideas and concerns--at least I am. 

But this old dog has some ideas and I'm sure others have some great ideas as well. But we want to make this event better or cooler or whatever. And one suggestion for next year is that we have TWO events, one for boys and one for girls. Girls wrestling is in good shape in Utah, so I just think it's time.  And I would like to see a bit more exclusivity with it--I'm not saying just having two teams but maybe a bit more exclusivity on who participates going forward.

But for now, I ask you to support the 2023 Ross Brunson All-Star Dual. Support these boy and girl junior high and high school wrestlers!  There will be plenty of great wrestling. Utah is unique because it is one of the rare states (and who knows might be the only state) that has an in-season event like this. 

And my last message is for the parents, coaches and wrestlers that didn't get chosen for this but might have a good argument. It doesn't mean you can't take state. Long ago, as a coach, I thought I had a wrestler that should have been an all-star dual wrestler. We just used the "snub" to fuel a state title run. Ultimately, it's an in-season invitational event, but don't let not being there derail one's dreams of being on the top step of the podium. I mean, it was great wresting in the 1984 All-Star Dual as a (very) late replacement, but I'd rather have taken state!