This proposal approved by the board has our meet tentatively being scheduled for UNO 5 times and UNK 3 times over the next 8 years. The board wanted to rotate the State Meet between Kearney and Omaha and have it on the first weekend in April as long as its not Palm Sunday. UNK traditionally hosts a huge state wide debate contest the first Saturday in April that already fills the motels in Kearney. Because of that event, we are limited to when we can go to Kearney. All five UNO dates are being planned for the first weekend in April with none of them on Easter Weekend. All three Kearney Huskerlands are planned for Easter Weekend with the 2007 meet the first weekend in April and going the second weekend in April for 2004 & 2009 to avoid Palm Sunday. That will put Huskerland on it's traditional date 6 out of the next 8 years. Note that 13 of the 16 Huskerlands were on the first Saturday in April. The board also considered UNK site for March 29-30, 2002 but doesn't want to have anymore March Huskerland State Meets if at all possible. By going in March with the State Meet we take away a date that a number of Huskerland clubs use to host a tournament.

Both Cushing Coliseum and Sapp Field House will allow for approximately the same 10 mat layout. This will be helpful for parents, wrestlers, and coaches that we have the same setup every year.  Also rotating Huskerland between Kearney and Omaha is a better travel deal for western clubs than having it like we used to do by having it in Lincoln every year. Example: For some one from Lexington making Omaha trip of 240 miles one year and the Kearney trip of 30 miles the next year is better than making the 180 mile Lincoln trip every year. For the round trip that works out to a savings of 180 miles every two years. We feel that point needs to be expressed to those unhappy about having Huskerland in Omaha. Provided we end up being able to contract the schedule above, 5 of the 11 Huskerland State Meets from 1999 to 2009 will be Kearney Huskerlands.

We know many of you would like us to return to the Devaney Sports Center but that does not appear will happen again. The UNL Athletic Facilities Manager, Butch Hug, has told us that the track coach does not want the indoor track rented out the first two weeks in April. The board realizes going to Devaney was a real neat deal for the kids and was an important factor for making Huskerland into a huge event. However, both Sapp Field House and Cushing Coliseum have served as excellent venues for large wrestling events in the past and we feel will bring back most of the luster that Devaney gave to our event.

The two day format was a big success and just don't see us going back to the long one day meet again. We found the 2001 schedule would have allowed us to run four brackets per mat for each of the six sessions. In fact we felt the three brackets per mat went too fast and didn't allow ample recovery time. We know we can run 4 brackets per mat and still have ample break time for our officials and workers. We are planning to flip flop the schedule so our long day will be on Saturday. The Saturday schedule will have Grades 7-8 go at 8:30 am and 1:30 pm. Grades 5-6 light half will start at 6:30 pm and finish around 9:30 pm. On Sunday we will have Grades 5-6 heavy half start at 8:30 am. Grades 3-4 go at 12:30 pm and 4:00 pm with a finish around 7:00 pm. When we go back to Kearney we will use the same schedule we used at Omaha for Huskerland 16.