D5 opts for UPJ

   On Wednesday, the District 5 committee voted to have this season's district wrestling tournament at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown's Sports Center.
   The second point of that is it will be held all in one day, on Saturday, February 20, 2016.
   As reported by Spring Into Sports earlier this month, there were two options in regards to the district tournament after longtime host Windber Area High School is unable to have it this year due to ongoing construction at its campus.
   1) - A two-day tournament at either Bedford, Chestnut Ridge, or North Star, wrestled on the normal dates as usual (districts-regionals-states over three consecutive weekends)
   or
   2) - A one-day tournament at UPJ
   District officials opted for the latter, with D5 vice chairman Jeff Batzel saying that overall polling among coaches, athletic directors, and principals from the district schools was in favor of the UPJ deal.
   The one-day tournament does carry a couple of major differences with it, though. PIAA rules state that wrestlers can only compete in five bouts per day as a maximum.
   So pigtail round losers will see their season end rather than have at least one consolation bout. Wrestlebacks will only be contested from the quarterfinals on.
   Secondly, the date of February 20 means there will be a two-week break between the district tournament and the Southwest Regional, which is set to take place on March 4 and 5. This is like District 6-AA has dealt with for years as D6 holds both of its tournaments at the Altoona Fieldhouse.
   While the vote passed, not all coaches are enamored with the idea, one being Chestnut Ridge's Greg Lazor.
   "I definitely don't like it," he said. "Even with them restructuring it to have pigtail losers out, to have the tournament the week before just isn't something I wanted to see happen. That week in between (districts and regionals) means more time without live competition than we are used to. Usually, we already had a whole week or more of practice anyway before the district tournament. Now, it will be the other way around with a lot of teams finishing up their dual seasons right before the tournament, which is only the second biggest tournament of the year."
   As Lazor points out in that last quote, late-season scheduling could be forced to change. Among local schedules, Bedford wrestles Everett on February 16, and Chestnut Ridge faces Tussey Mountain on February 17, just a few days before the new date.
   "It's a concern for sure," said Lazor. "I know the district was in a tough spot this year. Windber would usually have a half-day of school too, so we could start earlier on Friday. I know either us or probably Bedford or North Star didn't have that built in, so we would be back to a later start and maybe have to use three mats.
   "In the end, it is what it is. It's not ideal in my opinion, but it will be a good tournament as always, regardless."