As a wrestling fan and a parent of 2 young wrestlers I have some concerns.

My first question�. Are we really trying to make it easier for everyone or are we just trying to move dates and make it easier for high school wrestlers to continue after their season. We will not get the elite high school wrestlers to join kids state after their season. The ones that are wanting to move to the next level (prepare for college wrestling) are moving on to prepare for summer wrestling and other national tournaments. They have nothing to prove by trying to repeat their performance at high school state two weeks later. It will not be a �Grand State.� We are better to drop the high school division completely. Encourage them to move on to bigger and better things, that is what will help them and Kansas Wrestling.

Next� If we move our dates up to me done in the middle of February instead of the end of March we add some new problems. Most clubs run tournaments as �Fund Raisers� (I would still like to know where most of that money goes). Fewer weeks to wrestle means one of three things, 1. Start tournaments dates sooner (good luck competing with football which does not end until beginning of November.) 2. More tournaments on the same weekend which will decrease the numbers at each tournament therefore making clubs raise prices to overcome smaller numbers (in the last 10 years to average cost of tournaments have doubled.) 3. Tournaments will continue after the state series. This also leads to smaller numbers as most kids end when state is over. (Which again raises the rates.)

Finally�. We don�t want to cheapen the state series by just making it another tournament that is hurried up and wrestled in one day. Most kids work towards state as their goal every year, we want it to be a big special tournament, not just another weekend. Not to mention you will be competing with Liberty National, I would like my kids to have the option to do both.

And a side note�. Volunteer coaches would have to make another trip with added expense to them to coach at both state tournaments. (Or I guess they could just go to one of the two state tournaments and have to choose which half of their club to coach.) Not to mention the parents that have wrestlers in both state tournaments, this adds expense to them. And we would need double the volunteers to run tables, set up mats, ect., ect.,�.

What is our real goal�.

Thanks,
Brad Beeson