I think it is clear that everyone here wants to support wrestling.
To make the tournament a USA sanctioned tournament is not a large cost if it is sanctioned by Kansas Kids. The High School wrestlers will have to obtain their USA wrestling card to participate in the Kansas Kids state Championship, so what would be the reason for not being Sanctioned? The only non-sanctioned tournaments I have attended, charged horrible prices with no regard to coaches or exhibitors. As coaches(most if not all) we donate our time, money for gas, food, hotel, etc. If you have a son or daughter that wrestles and you can coach then it may not seem so bad, but what about those coaches without their own children in wrestling. It is hard to recruit 'childless' coaches when they have to pay $20-50 for a tournament.
With regard to qualifying, to go to USA Kids Nationals the wrestler has to wrestle at Districts,a simple qualification. Personally, until last year, I thought they had to qualify for the State CH. It would not be hard to come up with qualifications, though it could in turn limit the number of wrestlers.
As I see it, part of the reason for not having a bigger participation in the older ages, is the lack of wrestling season. Why should they pay $30 for their USA card for 1 reg. season tournament then 4 tournaments (yes they lead to state and nationals).
I do not know about other clubs, but our club can only have access to our local High School wrestling room after they get access to it. So having a preseason tournament could hurt some clubs that share facilities. It is easier to get access after wrestling season is over then before it starts.

Because you possibly do not know our club, we will ask that you consider putting a girls division in the tournament.
As a Central location we have the unique opportunity to draw in wrestlers from mutiple states will give all the wrestlers some good competition.

We look forward to opportunities to wrestle.

Prairie Fire Wrestling
http://www.prairiefirewrestling.com