Laurel Highlands Tournament Controversy

  Bedford coach Brian Creps was expecting Thursday to be like most days during the wrestling season - teach class and then get ready for a match.
  But yesterday turned out to be more than that, as with less than 48 hours notice, the first-annual Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference Tournament scheduled for Saturday was cancelled.
  The reasoning? The District 6 committee was said to have never approved the event, but Creps vehemently argues that.
  "This goes back to April, when myself, Bruce Lightner, and Dan Baker started putting this together," he said, referring to the help from his fellow Bedford personnel. Lightner stepped down as Bedford's athletic director after the spring, and Baker has assumed that role beginning with this school year. "We got word it was approved by District 6, and we were kind of surprised actually given some of the cutbacks. But it was and we figured 'Ok, here we go'."
  According to the minutes from the District 5 committee meeting on May 9, 2012, Bedford and Somerset, who are the only LHAC members in District 5, asked their committee to consider the wrestling tournament. No action was taken, saying that District 6, where the other seven LHAC wrestling schools are housed, needed to discuss.
  There is no mention of any LHAC Tournament approval on any of the District 6 minutes since that time. For the record, the next District 6 meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 8.
  Which brings us back to Thursday. According to Creps, Penn Cambria coach Todd Niebauer asked his principal, Bill Marshall (a member of the District 6 committee) about the event because questions had arose surrounding the points system and whether they were used in the LHAC Tournament.  Niebauer wanted to ensure his own schedule as he had the right to. A conference tournament does not take points away from a team's schedule.
  Marshall said that he wasn't aware that any such tournament had ever been approved, which started the snowball going down the hill to the event being cancelled.
  So it would appear that District 6 likely omitted the item from its committee meetings and/or minutes at some point since the summer, while most of the team's in the league had the event on their schedules on the District 6 wrestling website.
  With the tournament being so close to happening, Creps estimated that Bedford could lose around or above $1,000 for the event, which includes paying tournament officials and other workers on site. Food has already been bought and awards were purchased, too. Bedford does host the Thomas Subaru Tournament at the end of the month, and the hope now is that some of the non-perishable food can be saved and most likely sold at the Thomas to recoup a portion of the money.
  As to blame, Creps points his finger at District 6.
  "District 6 approves conference championships in baseball, basketball, and other sports, but not wrestling," he said. "This time, we were told it was a go. Bruce, Dan and I were happy about it, I remember the day. The three of us probably put about 20 hours into planning this and making sure of all the little things you need to think of. That's what really bothers me.
  "When I was at Tri-Valley, we were in District 11. We had our conference championship, and Shamokin was in District 4 and Halifax was in District 3. Everyone came, so that means they're all approving of it. I know District 7 approves wrestling events. But for some reason, District 6 won't or in this case is saying they didn't know about it or remember to put it the records.
   "And it's really only hurting the kids at the end of day, for all of the teams. Somebody needs to step up and say something about the way District 6 does some things. I'm not upset at anyone in the Laurel Highlands. As a conference, I am pretty upset, but I'm really upset with District 6."
He said various phone calls to District 6 members, including retired member Ray Wotkowski, were not returned.
  "To them, there's no repercussions. It's all on us."
  Creps also pointed out that the Mountain Conference Junior High Tournament goes off with the District 5 teams not counting it for points, but the District 6 teams in the event do which he added doesn't seem right.
  The cancellation also forced Creps to find a suitable alternative. Luckily for the Bisons, Everett is hosting its own Bloody Run Duals on Saturday and graciously allowed Bedford to enter on very short notice. That event costs points, but Bedford had points left over from last week when it did not attend the Boiling Springs Tournament due to bad weather in the area.