By KEVIN EVANS, Executive Sports Editor<\/p>\n
That big smile walking around the floor of the UNI-Dome Saturday?<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“This is absolutely what we hoped for,”\u009d 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.”\u009d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“This is a huge undertaking, bringing this many people to town,”\u009d said Sell.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“They have to have some wrestling expertise,”\u009d he said. “They have been the nicest volunteers I have ever worked with. They are very accommodating. We are very, very lucky.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Mike Moyer, the Executive Director of the sponsoring NWCA, went into the stands Saturday.<\/p>\n
He likes to hear it from the fans.<\/p>\n
It is a good thing he wasn’t looking for a reason to dislike the Dome, because he would have been disappointed.<\/p>\n
“I have been climbing around in the stands asking people what they thought,”\u009d said Moyer. “Everyone was saying the same thing, that it was just great.”\u009d<\/p>\n
What it is, actually, is a perfect fit.<\/p>\n
Northern Iowa has the Dome, the Cedar Valley has the volunteers, and the state of Iowa has the fans.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“That just reinforced things in our minds,”\u009d said Moyer. “That was one of the best NCAA championships ever.”\u009d<\/p>\n
The bottom line, though, for this or any other event is fan support. It all comes down to dollars and cents.<\/p>\n
“When we showed up here this morning we were very, very encouraged by the spectator turnout,”\u009d 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.”\u009d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In fact, the way the Cedar Valley embraced the event it is hard to imagine these Duals ever calling another place home.<\/p>\n
“The board of directors will review bids from different sites,”\u009d 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.”\u009d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
That is, until comparisons are made.<\/p>\n
“We knew the local committee here, wrestling people and the media covers wrestling as well as anywhere in the country,”\u009d said Moyer.<\/p>\n
“There really isn’t a reason not to be here. I can’t think of anything negative.<\/p>\n
“It works for a lot of reasons.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Stand up Cedar Valley, you’ve done it again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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