By KEVIN EVANS, Executive Sports Editor
That big smile walking around the floor of the UNI-Dome Saturday?
It belonged to Justin Sell, the Northern Iowa assistant athletic director who is the tournament director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association National Duals tournament.
“This is absolutely what we hoped for,” said Sell during the opening session Saturday. “I am very happy. Tomorrow we hope it is a packed house for the championships. That is the ultimate goal.”
That probably won’t happen, but there isn’t any reason not to expect a record crowd for the semifinals and finals of the biggest dual wrestling tournament in the country. After all, the first day of competition drew a little more than 7,600.
“This is a huge undertaking, bringing this many people to town,” said Sell.
It takes about 300 volunteers to pull off an event like this, and Sell could not say enough nice things about that group of wrestling boosters.
“They have to have some wrestling expertise,” he said. “They have been the nicest volunteers I have ever worked with. They are very accommodating. We are very, very lucky.”
Mike Moyer, the Executive Director of the sponsoring NWCA, went into the stands Saturday.
He likes to hear it from the fans.
It is a good thing he wasn’t looking for a reason to dislike the Dome, because he would have been disappointed.
“I have been climbing around in the stands asking people what they thought,” said Moyer. “Everyone was saying the same thing, that it was just great.”
What it is, actually, is a perfect fit.
Northern Iowa has the Dome, the Cedar Valley has the volunteers, and the state of Iowa has the fans.
Moyer knew from past experiences things here would be special. He was a member of the NCAA Wrestling Committee when that group brought the NCAA Division I Championships here in 1997.
“That just reinforced things in our minds,” said Moyer. “That was one of the best NCAA championships ever.”
The bottom line, though, for this or any other event is fan support. It all comes down to dollars and cents.
“When we showed up here this morning we were very, very encouraged by the spectator turnout,” said Moyer. “We knew there was a lot of high school competition in the area and around the state. We thought if we were going to get a good turnout, it would be tomorrow.”
Not having any of Iowa’s three Division I schools still in the running for a title no doubt will hurt, but surpassing the attendance figures in recent years in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, should be no problem.
In fact, the way the Cedar Valley embraced the event it is hard to imagine these Duals ever calling another place home.
“The board of directors will review bids from different sites,” said Moyer. “But again, there are not many places that have a dome like this that can put all of these (16) mats out at the same time. And there are not a whole lot of places, if any, that have a better spectator base than Iowa has. So there are a lot of positives here.”
Staying here is far from a done deal, but it seems likely, if the event ever leaves the Dome, it will be back soon. There is always a chance UNI could end up in a rotation with one or two others sites on a permanent basis.
That is, until comparisons are made.
“We knew the local committee here, wrestling people and the media covers wrestling as well as anywhere in the country,” said Moyer.
“There really isn’t a reason not to be here. I can’t think of anything negative.
“It works for a lot of reasons.”
Stand up Cedar Valley, you’ve done it again.
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