Anyone miss anything in Anne Arundel County this weekend -- like the Arundel Duals, a two decade-old wrestling tournament that isn't happening this year?

Some teams normally competing at that tournament will take part in the Harford Tech Duals, a tournament hurriedly put together over the past few months when Harford Tech coach Gary Siler learned there wouldn't be a tournament at Arundel this year.

"Arundel decided not to hold the tournament and I thought I'd save it," said Siler. "Some teams jumped ship, some new ones have signed up and one team, from Tabb, Va., that was scheduled for Arundel and didn't get the message that the tournament wasn't going to happen until last week when it called down there for tournament information, asked to come to this tournament late last week, so we let them in.

"I'm kind of sad Arundel isn't doing it. Last year was our first year in it and we liked all the competition. They said they had a scheduling conflict. But the strangest thing is, when I told them they could have the tournament back next year, they said they didn't want it."

The schedule conflict was a meet with Old Mill this weekend.

While Arundel athletic director Lee Rogers says the loss of the tournament wasn't his doing and coach Jim Rubush said he did everything he could to save it, Greg LeGrand, the Anne Arundel County public schools coordinator of athletics, said he believes miscommunication among the school's two relatively new officials and then stubbornness caused the huge problem.

LeGrand said Arundel never asked for a date for the tournament.

"They said 'This is when we have it.' But they never had it on any schedule they submitted to us," LeGrand said. "It was just in their minds. We made the schedule December a year ago and I made it very clear that it would be set in stone in February. If anyone wanted to make a change, they should do it before February because after that it would go to the printer.

"The situation concerning the wrestling schedule in the county had gotten out of hand. In years past so many changes were being made -- changing dates with other counties, or other schools. Changing things to their advantage. We were getting really far away from the schedules we were publishing."

So February was and is the drop-dead month for schedule changes. And yet LeGrand did have a discussion with the Arundel and Old Mill athletic directors in May about what they could do to save the tournament. He told them to change the date and find a way to do it that would be within county regulations and not hurt another team's schedule.

"They said they couldn't move the date," said LeGrand, then heard nothing until August. "I said move the tournament to a different week. No, they couldn't change it. Instead of moving the date in May or August they tried to wait it out, thinking it would just happen. But we said no, we can't do it. I taught at Arundel for seven years. I get lambasted every time I wear green, because people think I favor them. But Arundel's inflexibility caused a huge problem."

The whole thing seems strange, though. Wouldn't you think a tournament that had been going on at the same school around the same time for years would be among the dates the school submitted for scheduling?

"I can assure you it had nothing to do with me," said Rubush. "I made every effort I could to get it scheduled and Old Mill's coach [Dan Youngblood] was more than cooperative. We worked out a scenario that could have worked. I would have had to rearrange one of my out-of-county matches. But the county made a decision that there would be no changes in the schedule (that hurt another team's schedule)."

Arundel athletic director Lee Rogers also said it was a scheduling conflict and suggested talking to LeGrand.

"It wasn't me," Rogers said when asked if he had decided he didn't want to host the event. "The county makes the schedule and then we fill in out of state matches and tournaments around them. We had a scheduling conflict and there just wasn't a space for it."

As for not having it next year, Rubush said that while he wanted it and fought for it, once it was canceled he decided to let it go for at least another year.

"John Miller ran our Christmas tournament and our duals tournament for years," said Rubush. "But his job changed and he could no longer do it. I ran the holiday tournament. I'm a varsity wrestling coach. It's very difficult to run a tournament, which is a lot of work -- almost a full time job -- and coach a wrestling team.

"Once a year, I can do it. But twice? To be honest with you, it's a wonderful tournament and a huge money maker for our team. But I think at this point, I'm probably not going to entertain it for next year. The year after, we'll see. If we do have it, I'm going to downsize it. We reduced the number of teams in the holiday tournament and it was much better because it ran more smoothly and was more comfortable for the participants and everyone else."

In the meantime, Siler is expecting 11 teams to begin competing at 3:30 this afternoon. The tournament will begin again Saturday at 9:30 a.m. Competing will be No. 5 Archbishop Curley, Calvert Hall, DeMatha, No. 9 Hereford, Havre de Grace, Lansdowne, Rising Sun, Tabb (Va.), Washington (W.Va.), Wooten (D.C.) and Harford Tech.

"It is a lot of work," said Siler. "My wife is doing most of it. Our computer class at school will be running the scoreboards. The teachers in that program will be tracking the records. The food preparation class students will be handling hospitality. The art class is making posters."

It's like a school project, but Siler thinks its worth it.

"I'm still shocked Arundel isn't having it," said Siler. "But it will be a big money raiser for us."