Middle School.... When does your season start?

Does your Middle school offer wrestling? If so, please share if your program starts early or late, where you're from, and what kids district you belong to....


Late - Pratt - D4


Thanks,
Greg Pelland

Both Garden City Middle Schools offer wrestling, both have the early season Late October until Mid December.

Other Western Schools with the early season (teams GC wrestled last yr)
Dodge City
Ulysses
Liberal x 2 schools
Scott City
Hays
Hugoton
Great Bend
Holcomb
McPherson
Salina x 2 schools
Colby

The Leavenworth and Lansing area schools start around the last week of Oct and end before Christmas break. Almost all of the schools in this area have that same season. The list of schools that I know are on this schedule follows.....

Lansing
Leavenworth
Pleasant Ridge
Bonner Springs
Patton Middle School
Tonganoxie
Desoto
Patton (Ft Leavenworth Middle School)

All of the Kaw Valley League schools that have middle school wrestling. The end dates for each school may vary by a week or so but all end before Christmas break.

Here in the Manhattan area. The Middle School season for wrestling starts on Monday Oct. 17th. with the first practice sessions. The first meet of the year is Saturday, Nov. 5th The Tenth Annual Little Apple Grapple with over 400 entrys and teams from Hays-Felten MS to Lawrence South MS all long the I-70 Interstate. MS team from Concordia, Clay Center and Topeka schools. It is a good meet to start the MS season. RMG

Not sure of "official" start date for Wichita area...but I do know they end 1 or 2 weeks before kids sub-districts...

Paul....
Looks like Western Kansas larger towns for the most part have gone to the early season. That's awesome. Looks like you guys have a great thing going out there. Lots of good competition. Do you guys have a tournament like they do up in Manhattan?

Mr. Budke....
Not knowing the eastern half of the state that well,...is it safe to say that the majority of the schools in your area have gone to the early season? If so, would you care to guess what the percentage of schools that wrestle early is compared to the schools that start their season after the first of the year? On another thread you mentioned that wrestling early allowed your H.S. coach to be significantly involved in the development of his soon to be H.S. kids. That's awesome!!

Mr. Gonzales....
10th Annual hugh? WoW. Your reply gave me goose bumps. 400 Middle Schoolers banging in Manhattan representing I-70 East of Hays and West of Lawrence. I'd love to come up and watch, or even help if you have the need. Is this a dual tournament? If not, wouldn't it be cool to have a two day event. It seems the October thru December season has really started to snowball, I just wish the entire State would follow your lead.

Spexy....
I was under the impression that there weren't very many middle schools in the wichita area with wrestling. Am I wrong? It won't be the first that's for sure.

What are the 3-2-1A schools doing in western Kansas? What are schools like Hoisington, Russell, Ellsworth, Chapparal, Columbus, Wellington, Ark City, Winfield, Haysville....etc doing? Have schools that start wrestling after the first of the year become the minority? If we aren't yet, it certainly appears we will be soon......thank GOD!

Would it be a bad thing if all the schools who offer wrestling were to have their season from Oct. - Dec.? In my opinion,the sky would be the limit. Not to compete with the Middle School Championships that happen during the kids season, but what about a team duals championships? Just a thought!!

Greg

Greg,

I do not know of any schools in the great Kansas City area, Leavenworth/Lansing area, Lawrence, etc that have a middle school season in Jan. Everyone has their season from the end of OCT to Christmas break.

This is ok (IMO) because it allows the kids to wrestle with the school and then still participate in the bulk of the kids club season. Another advantage is that it allows 7th and 8th graders to do both wrestling and basketball for their schools. As much as it pains me to say this, I think that is good for the kids because it allows kids to try b-ball, realize they are not one of the "chosen 10" and then make an informed decision when they are freshmen in hs. I have seen wrestling teams pick up some very good athletes because of this. Again, these are not the future 3-4 time state champs or the Fargo all-americans....they are the kids that are going to work hard, score some points for your team and potentially qualify for state and maybe place. That is the kind of depth you need to finish top 3 as a team at state. To be honest....I am not sure what I would do personally if the middle school season was in the Jan-Feb time frame.

In Lansing, Coach Averill coaches the middle school kids. He is also the high school coach. I think this helps him build depth or numbers in the high school program because he and his staff establish relationships with the kids early on. Does it affect the kids that are year round wrestlers/committed....no but it seems to really help getting those athletes that aren't committed to a winter sport. I know that Jay Johnston (Leavenworth coach) is also going to start coaching his middle school team this year too.

Shawn

I think the timing issue is bigger for me than the lack of good competition.

If our area would be in the early fall I think we would do it. There would still be time afterwards to get in alot of good matches before the state run begins.

It sounds bad and maybe it is the coaching, but I have seen kids come out of MS wrestling worse than they went in. I have (I sure like the alot of you) also seen a kids undefeated in middle schold and not make it out of subs.

We have early season and I think it is a great experience. It is a great place to start for the beginners. Since we start early, our more experienced kids still have plenty of opportunity to get 50+ matches against quality competition in kids. They get the best of both worlds. An athlete with athletic ability can improve to make significant contributions by the time they reach the high school level.

Salina

Council Grove middle school wrestling starts in February and goes to the first week of March!

Newton starts in Jan, and ends in the first week of march. I have pushed our AD to try and get the league to move it to Oct. Nov. and Dec. and run it at the same time as Girls Basketball and then run boys basketball after Christmas break. We want split seasons back so that kids can try both sports.

Many of the NW Kansas small schools stayed with the after Christmas schedule. Goodland and Colby are the exception. The differing seasons up there have weakened the tournaments a bit. I have heard that next season they may all go early. That could be a rumor. Also, here in the western part of the state, we saw a lot of Colorado schools after Christmas. We don't anymore because they are after Christmas. I will say this much. There is a reason that the good high school teams stay good. Goodland, Colby and Scott City have strong teams again this year. Hugoton is getting much better. Holcomb has a few good kids.
Rick
Ulysses

The Atchison County Jr. High School (Effingham) has their first meet next Tuesday at Horton. We go until November 28th. Hunter took a season off from wrestling last year and came home from the first practice fired up!! (Which leads me to believe that not pushing him was a smart decision on my part.) All the schools in the Delaware Valley League run the same schedule.