I need some info from the some of the other wrestling clubs out there. We had our annual meeting with the Maize athletic director today to do the usual stuff like request wrestling rooms for practices and schedule our tournament for the year. There were some issues that came up again that we are having a problem with.

1. Do most clubs have to pay to use the wrestling room at the high schools for practice? If so, what is the going rate? We have not had to pay in the past as long as we have a school employee present at practice. Not a big deal if you happen to coach a kid who's parent is a teacher or employee of the school.

2. Does any other club out there have to kick all Junior High wrestlers off your team during the Junior High season in order to force them to wrestle for the School. They are saying we are in direct competition with them. I'm sick of losing kids to other teams because of this rule. You can't force a kid or a parent to do something they don't want to do.

3. Does your school limit your team to only kids in the school district. They don't have to go to school at Maize but must live in the district. A lot of our kids that are Catholic go to Bishop Carrol for High School.

This is not meant to be a dig on our athletic director as he says these rules come from higher up the food chain. I am just trying to see if these are common practices around the state to see if I have any merit to dispute some of these rules to the school board. I always pay close attention to the forum (though I rarely post anything) and there is a lot of talk on here right now about rules so I thought I might be able to get some help on this one. Any info would be helpful.

Bryce Hughbanks
Maize Kids Wrestling Coach

Check your private messages.......

Bryce,

1) Ark City does not have to pay to use the school...we have a partnership. We prepare their future wrestlers.

2) We do not have to kick the Middle School wrestlers off of the team...we have a partnership. They support the Middle School during the Middle School Season.

3) The club only admits wrestlers that will wrestle for the High School....we have a partnership.

I do not mean for the partnership saying to be rude. We understand our role as a feeder program for the Middle School and High School. They understand our role as a feeder program. They scratch our back and we scratch theirs.

Chad

That is how it should be, but you are usually dealing with overeducated academia type administrators...............

Taking issues to the school board is a good idea, assuming they think logically.

I thought the great thing about club wrestling was that you could wrestle with kids outside of your school district. We would not have a place to wrestle with those rules. A lot of small schools would not. Considering that a wrestler is nothing more than the time he/she spends on the mat, having better partners, regardless of where they come from, should be the goal of every wrestler and their coaches!!! Those type of rules sound small minded and can only help to decrease participation in the sport.

What Beeson said! However, I'm not sure what either of you mean when you say "kick middle schoolers off the team during middle school season". If you mean, that middle schoolers have to wrestle for their middle school during those periods that the middle season is in progress, then yes our club has such a rule. We do not allow middle schoolers to wrestle with the club during the middle school season. I would hope that all clubs would follow suit and require your middle schoolers to wrestle with their classmates during that brief season. For the benefit of the team at all future levels it is worth it.
I hope that everyone understands that it is against the rules to wrestle both middle school and kids federation at the same time. Each year we see kids who we know are violating this rule and we try to work through the club coaches to inform them that the kid in question can lose eligibility at the high school level if it is brought to the attention of KSHAA.
In addition, we will not accept wrestlers from either middle school or high school who are academically ineligible or have quit or been kicked off the team, until their school season is over.

Chad,

No offense taken, but would like some more info if possible. Do You have to have a school employee present at your practices and do they give the club a key to get into the room & building. Also I am a huge fan of supporting each other between all three programs (I am a Maize grad and take a lot of pride in the program). I encourage our wrestlers to wrestle for the junior high for a few different reasons. First off it is the right thing to do for the "partnership". Second it allows them to wrestle for a different coach to learn some different techniques. Third that format of team wrestling helps to prepare them for what it will be like in high school. I also tell them it is a good chance to show off their skills in front of their classmates. The problem is that most top tier wrestlers (more the parents) know that it is a crap shoot on whether they will get a match or not and the competition is not quite the same. I can be the best salesman in the world and still not get anywhere because the parents have valid points. Do you make all your kids wrestle for the junior high?

P.S. - Doug, I'm still trying to figure out how to check my private messages?

I don't think it's a good idea to close your practices to only kids in your school district. Some of the best clubs open their doors to whoever wants to wrestle. My son is goes to Lansing high school and practices at East Kansas and Bonner springs when the High school season is over. I think you are doing your kids a disservice by not allowing good wrestlers from other schools to work out with your team. It is my opinion that you are only as good as the level of your practice partners, If you have high quality wrestlers in your room everyone will get better.

sportsfan02 -
What program do you wrestle for? I agree with your points. Junior High wrestling would be alot better if every school had the same rules. The problem is the parents or kids don't want to wrestle junior high and know we have to kick them out of the room during junior high season so they simply sign up with a different team at the beginning of the season.

Just to clarify, we do allow other clubs and wrestlers to come to our practices. We also allow our wrestlers to go practice with another club from time to time. We do not allow wrestlers from other districts who are not going to wrestle for Ark City to be club members. I am a big fan of open rooms.

Most of us have a limited amount of room space available. Should we deprive one of our own school district kids in order to make room for a kid from another?
Plus, it has always been my opinion that if we supply a program for neighboring towns/districts it diminishes the incentive for them to have a club of their own. Long term that makes the programs at the middle school and high school levels expendable if there is no youth organization in those towns.

Bryce,

Yes we do make all of our kids wrestle Middle School. They can not wrestle with the club during Middle School season. If they get kicked off or become ineligable they still can not wrestle for the club.

We try to make that an easier decision for the parents by, as I said, not offering wrestling to middle schoolers during their season. We have an agreement with our middle school coaches that if a kid is wrestling federation they do not have to report to the team as early in the season as those kids who are not wrestling federation. This affords those kids wrestling federation an oppportunity to get in a few more tournaments before reporting to the middle school team. The middle school season runs approximately a month and a half. Even if you have the worst middle school coaching in the world I doubt that amount of time away from the sport is going to retard anyone's progress. We find given the choice, our kids over-whelmingly want to be with their classmates during the middle school season and we do anything and everything to encourage that.

Sportsfan,

You are one close minded individual. My son has practiced with several clubs and has always been greeted with open arms. I have always allowed any kid that wants to practice and work to come into our room. It's thinking like yours that is killing our sport.

I would hope that the middle and highscool coaches would get more involved in the kids club. like someone said you are building the highschool program for them. I would hope you would have an open relationship with the highschool coach and he would be able to help you out and stand behind you. charging a club that builds your team is not a good idea. thats when they start leaving and going to other schools.

This sounds like a big city problem to me, but I would like to thank all of the clubs who allowed my son to come to their practices through the years in preparation for and during the state kids wrestle offs. Shoot one of the clubs even let us have one of their motel rooms in Topeka! He would not have had anyone to practice with if they had shut their doors to him.

This is what some people will not understand, this isn't MY policy, it is a CLUB policy. One which I happen to fully support. If someone doesn't like a club's rules or policies there are plenty of other clubs out there to join. I didn't know our sport was dying or even on life support! Should I buy flowers?

Our school does not have a middle school program and a weak high school program. The reason probably is one in the same. That's too bad. So we travel 11 miles each way to be with a kids program that has an open door policy. Because of this policy & great relationship with the club we will probably switch schools when middle school comes around. It is hard to find mat time for a middle school kid during kids club season. My older sons had to wrestle kids club during MS season because our school did not have that program.
BTW...
A school is paid for by the tax payers and if you are a member of that school district you should be allowed to request the use of any school facility for the use of a community program at NO COST. They can require you to pay if you leave it messy & a janitor has to clean up after you.

This illustrates my point right here. Not to pick on you BLT but the high school program of the school district you currently live in will likely be cut at some point in the future. Instead of going next door to wrestle with another club you and others within your community should band together and make a strong club which feeds your high school program. I admit it can be difficult getting started but the benefits far out-weigh the possibility of losing a high school program.

Or, you should do whats best for your kid & go to a more competitive club. 11 miles is a very short drive to get to practice & the years for kids club eligibility go by too fast.