Some look at it as an opportunity to see where a wrestler ranks amongst league peers. For others, it's as useful as a screen door on a submarine.

Much like baseball, softball and soccer, the Tri-Nine awards its wrestling conference championship to the team with the best league record. Those sports don't have an end-of-year tournament.

Wrestling still does.

And some coaches find it to be more of a hassle than a true championship event.

Green Hope coach Chip Bunn said he didn't put any stock into where his team finishes in it. With his team often preparing for the state team playoffs that next week, and several wrestlers preparing for the individual tournament the following week, Bunn said he'd save some of his key wrestlers to avoid injury.

"I don't like it because it's at the end of the year when we're preparing for regionals, so I kind of put some kids in and some kids not," Bunn said. "The kids I put in, we're there to wrestle and I'm not caring about where we finish."

Injuries are a real consequence in wrestling, where body parts are bending in ways they weren't meant to.

"It's another chance for our kids to get injured right before the big tournament and the duals," Holly Springs coach Greg Tuttle said.

He added: "It doesn't help us in the standings at all. All it does is give kids a few more wins on their record before going to regionals."

Other coaches said the conference tournament was somewhat redundant. "We're going to have to wrestle Green Hope, Panther Creek [in a] dual-meet, conference tournament, state duals [and] regionals," Cary coach Jerry Winterton said. "So I feel bad for the kids ... that have to wrestle each other four or five times during the regular season. I don't like that at all."

Winterton said he'd be OK with whatever conference coaches wanted to do with the tournament's future.

"Whatever the guys want to do, I'll vote with them."

Apex coach Russ Duncan said he was a "60-40" lean against the tournament.

"If I weren't in the [state dual-team] tournament, I'd set up a dual [match] that weekend," Duncan said. "Let's say one of my kids has beaten somebody three times - it's hard to beat somebody that many times. Eventually the percentages catch you and do you want those percentages to catch you at regionals?"

Out of five league coaches contacted, only Panther Creek's Jon Armfield supported keeping the conference tournament. He acknowledged the risk of injury, but sees it as an opportunity. "What I really do like about it is it's another match for the JV's. A lot of younger guys can get in there, and you don't have to wrestle the guys that are milking injuries," Armfield said.

Perhaps the one thing still keeping this tournament alive is the attitude several wrestlers have towards it.

"I've seen some of my kids come away with a conference championship and they think that's a big deal. Maybe I've been coaching so long maybe I've been desensitized to that part of how much it means to them," Duncan said. "I'd probably lean towards not but understand that the kids really love it."