Willis began the tournament in 1995. It was called the Hoggard Duals until 2001, when it was renamed to honor the late Terry Bache, who was an assistant coach at both Hoggard and New Hanover in the 1990s.

Willis resigned at Hoggard in 2004, but the tournament continued at both New Hanover and Ashley. This year, Willis took it back and decided to make it bigger and better.

“With me getting out of coaching and my assistant Jeremy Lewis getting out of coaching, me and him and (Topsail coach) Jake Pence were able to bring it back with our business Port City Sports Performance,” Willis said.

“We can pretty much focus on bringing teams in and the tournament and not have to worry about coaching.”

The biggest name at the 16-team event was three-time defending 3A champion Parkland, who on Thursday broke the state record for consecutive dual wins with 141.

“I came because of Dan Willis, period,” Parkland coach Maurice Atwood said. “I have a lot of respect for him – as a person and as a coach.

“He told me he was going to be working with this tournament and encouraged me to look at it and some of the teams he had coming, and I think arguably this is the toughest tournament offered this weekend. “

Altogether there were four defending state champions and two runner-ups at the event. Topsail and Parkland won the 1A and 4A dual team state titles last season.

“We gave the state championship teams free entry fee, so Parkland and Topsail didn’t pay anything and then we gave Parkland five free hotel rooms,” Willis said.

The two individual awards were named after former Hoggard wrestlers, John Whitehead and Rob Marshall, who both passed away recently.

Whitehead was a three-time state place winner, including the championship in 2001. The most outstanding wrestler award was named in his honor.

Marshall was a state qualifier as a senior in 2003. The fastest pin award was named after him.

“A lot of people around town knew who Whitehead was, knew Rob Marshall and a lot were coached by Terry Bache, so we want to keep their memories alive for years to come.”

Willis hopes to entice other top teams from around the state to participate in the tournament next year. He is thinking about making it two days next year, with an individual tournament one day and a team tournament the next.

“No matter what, we are going to keep the local teams from New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties and then try to invite other competitive teams in,” Willis said.