I have made a proposal to my JH activities director to look into changing the season of junior high wrestling to begin after football season instead of as it is currently, beginning after Christmas break. He asked me to gauge support for my proposal, and if there was ample support he would bring it to the new league when they meet. I would even consider chairing a committee to standardize JH season of sport through KSHSAA as is done in high school, but I don't feel a lot of support for that. I understand that those in Eastern Kansas already wrestle before Christmas in most cases. We are in the process of developing a new JH league and this would be an ideal time for consideration. Currently, most schools in western Kansas have boys basketball after football, with girls basketball after Christmas. This allows, in theory, 7th and 8th grade boys to "try" both sports. We begin JH wrestling after Christmas Break and end it in the middle of March.

I would like to see the season of sport for BOYS basketball moved to January through mid March, GIRLS basketball to mid October through December, and wrestling to mid October through December for the following reasons.

1) I feel it would increase wrestling participation on the Junior High level without hurting basketball participation. We would no longer be in conflict with most of the major kids tournaments after Christmas. It would allow our talented wrestlers to have a longer, more competitive season if they desired without making the decision to choose "kids" wrestling OR JH wrestling. Mandating kids to choose between larger tournaments OR the team building aspects of school wrestling is a huge issue, in my opinion.

2) It will still allow those interested in basketball to participate after Christmas, yet permit them to participate in "kids" tournaments if their school allowed since wrestling is not their season of sport.

I know that this has been under consideration for years, and with the current development of several new leagues in western Kansas it would be an ideal time for implementation. I am only speaking for myself, but in my community it has the support of the kids coaches as well as the vast majority of parents. If you have any additional thoughts on this please let me know, both pro and con. We need to move very quickly. I will also be conducting informal polls at every meet and tournament for the rest of our school season.

email me at rcue@ulysses.org

Rick Cue
Ulysses

Rick,

I personally am in favor of such an arrangement as you describe and for the reasons you state. We have had discussions in our JH League but, obviously, there has not been a change. I think it is a better arrangment for both Wrestling vis-a-vis KIDS tournaments and and also basketball vis-a-vis the spring/summer MAYB seasons getting underway.

Greg Mann
Norton, KS

That is the format seasons run in the Frontier and Pioneer Leagues in East Central Kansas,

Coach Cue-

I am really in favor of your proposal. I have always thought having the middle school season right after football makes the most sense and tried to push for it in the NWKL when I coached middle school 8 years ago. Most of the NWKL coaches were in favor of it, but it got shot down by the administrators. Hopefully, our new league will put the middle school season where you suggest!

I would love to have jh wrestling right after football, but it could kill our program. We are the only team in our league to have wrestling and the other schools wouldn't change the current set-up to accommodate us. That would put us in a position where we are going head to head with jh basketball. In a 1A there just aren't that many boys to spread out. I would love for KSHSAA to assign jh seasons!

Coach I Think this would be a great Idea and it has been brought up before amongst our coaches. This would benefit everyone. Thank you

Brian Means
Goddard junior high Wrestling coach

I agree with the proposal. It is a good idea and will help some coaches that are both high school and jr. high coaches.
Andy Kenney
Head JR high wrestling
Assistant high school wrestling
Phillipsburg

Rick,
As you know I tried to get that going when I was in Ulysses and we did get an extention but not in competition dates. I agree that with the creation of the new league that things will hopefully change. From the feedback you have gotten we know that this is a topic that needs to be addressed. Hopefully all AD's will not drag their feet on this and get something done without all the old excuses of old.....

That is a great point that I had not considered. Most of the JH competition would not conflict with the high school competitive season.

We start right after Football and go to through the first week of the high school season, which in my opinion is very short, but it does allow some of us to coach both the middle and high school levels.

Basketball starts the day after wrestling is over and they go into March. Not really fair, but hopefully they get burned out on basketball!

And the practices and competitions really interfere if you happen to coach HS Football too!

would this allow for a jr high state. that would be nice.

I would love to see it changed for the same reasons I have lost kids to MAYB, it would give more athletes the opportunity to try both sports. And it would allow us to try and invite teams or to attend tournaments with teams from central and eastern KS that we see in high school competitions. With the changes that are going to take place in the next couple of years in western ks with the leagues hopefully we can get something like this through.

We also start fight after football, it allows kids to do both sports. I for one am also high school coach so i only overlap one week. It is a short fast moving season, but it can get more kids exposed to wrestling. You can get kids who want to try it without giving up basketball if it doesnt work out.


Jared Bammes
Oskaloosa

Rick,

Get this going with the ADs, Colby's wrestling club has always wanted this. It would allow our JR. High kids to compete at the kids Salina tournament, as well as others. It sounds like alot of other schools out west are in favor of this also.

It seems that most of the feedback is positive. We dualed Dodge City tonight and they are also in favor. I don't see any potential issues other than it changes the status quo. I truly believe that it is in the best interest of wrestling in Kansas.

I agree with this proposal. Take it another step. Since JH kids rarely wrestle on weekends free them from not being able to go to open tournaments. There are several events in October, November and December that these kids should be allowed to attend if it doesn't conflict with their JH schedule.

Am not a coach, but know a change is definitely needed that would allow the middle school wrestling season to be consistent state wide.

Our middle school season started December 8th and will end the first weekend of March with the Pioneer League meet. Currently our middle school season does not allow for wrestling club tournaments except for subs, district and state. (We can maybe get an early Oklahoma tournament in but that is about all.)

As has been stated before, we strongly support our middle school program! However, by implementing this change it would allow for wrestling tournaments after Christmas.

Also agree with Cokeley that if there is not a middle school tournament on a weekend there is a big tournament (USJOC), a wrestler should be able to attend it. However, when you are out for middle school wrestling, that would take precedence over any club tournament. Just believe our wrestlers should be able to attend club tournaments as long as it does not conflict with the middle school schedule.

This change in the season would also let kids that just started wrestling in middle school to wrestle club for longer than subs, district and state. I don't know of too many wrestlers that just started in middle school who are interested in club when there are approximately three weeks left. Most of them would probably be eliminated at the subdistrict level anyway. However, with this change many of them would benefit from the additional coaching kids club has to offer.

It sure would be nice to see these changes asap. Would like to be able to go to USJOC next year!!!

I see many coaches saying that they lose participation to roundball. Can we convice KSHSAA to ban roundball altogether, as it is a disease isn't it? Maybe we can get the CDC involved. (Will, that is the Center for Disease Control)

I think that it is important to understand that if you request too much, you will get nothing. I believe that the season of sport change in western Kansas is possible. I personally do not oppose allowing JH kids to wrestle in kids tournaments if they are open, but it will never pass because it opens too many other doors. This will never pass if it does not have administrative support. To gain that, it is imperative that you discuss this with your administration. It simply makes sense to have all of Kansas on a similar wrestling schedule for junior high age kids. It's good for our sport, and it does not hurt basketball. Keep in mind that administrators have to look at the big picture, and it would be easier for them to leave things as they are.