At our District meeting yesterday, one of the topics that was discussed was that the corporate board would like the kids season to end in February. Please someone tell me that I misunderstood. If we end our kids series in February, then ALL middle school wrestlers that start their wrestling season in late January, and end mid March will be denied the opportunity to wrestle in the State series. Out of curiosity we asked how many clubs started early and how many started late. It seemed like it was 50/50. First get KSHSAA to get all middle school seasons across the state on the same page, then make some changes.

I agree with that. Give the middle school wrestlers the same season they give basketball teams. Then we can talk about that kind of change. What is described above means HS would be out as well.

I have mentioned before (a few times) that having middle school start in the fall and ending by mid December was great. The season was around seven weeks long, and the Kids' Fed season tournaments were just getting going for the most part. All middle schools should get on board with this schedule. Good luck to all the middle school wrestlers this season.

The focus on a February ending would be the 6,8, and 10 under age groups. This would NOT impact middle school wrestlers. If you want a uniform ms season you need to speak to your local AD to get a proposal submitted to KSHSAA or your ms or hs coach to get the KWCA to propose this. I would like to suggest that the ms leagues that finish after the hs season ends adjust their season now. It would help us coordinate a proposal to have two weeks of USA state for 12, 14, cadets and juniors.

"If" we ever break the tournament into two parts we better have an alternate revenue stream in place to pay our bills. Other than card fees (which USAWA-KS only gets a portion of the proceeds from), the revenue from the USAWA-KS Kids Folkstyle State Tourney in its current grand format is what pays for the other loss leader and revenue neutral parts of our budget.

This would be a great move for the kids.

Thumbs down on ending the season early. If Parents would like the season to end early than they can pull the child out early. The 6 and under to 10 and under kids deserve the same opportunity as everybody else. Some clubs do not start up until January which would make it a two month season. With all the clubs that want to host tournaments a long season is required to make that happen.

Why?

This is a very complicated issue…I would like to point out the original post of this thread was a little misleading. I am not sure how it was presented to D4 at your meeting, but the Kids Executive Board does not have a unified position on this issue. If I had to guess, I would say that the opinions of those on the board vary on this issue at about a 50/50 ratio at best. If a vote would have been taken by the board (which it wasn't) I doubt there would have been enough support for this change to pass. Here are a few of the problems that I see with it;

1- Jr. High season conflicts

2- Some clubs have made a decision not to start their season until after football and the year-end Holiday’s…this would have a negative impact on those clubs.

3- Our Folkstyle State Tournament is the one time a year when everyone comes together to participate…ending the season early and/or splitting up the Folkstyle State tournament would have a negative impact on the since of family we currantly share within USAWA-KS.

4- As our organization is now structured, the USAWA-KS Folkstyle State Tournament serves as the largest revenue producing part of our budget. Much of this revenue comes in the form of grants that pay it out because of the size of our group. If we split the season our group numbers will be smaller and this revenue stream will go away.

5- What we have now works, why not work on the edges to improve it instead of scrapping it and going to something else?

I am one board member that would need to have a lot more data before ever voting to make this drastic of a change!

Mark

All very good points as well.

There is some benefit to having our young wrestlers interacting with our older wrestlers in the practice rooms and at tournaments, young boys need to be around older boys and vice versa. I have observed this as a coach for over 20 years coaching both youth and high schoolers. I also would hope that we wouldn't be sending more of our wrestlers to the basketball courts if we end our season early. March madness seems to be a great marketing plan and at least we have some of our kids thinking about wrestling and not having round balls shoved down their throats. If they get done in February they might start playing basketball for an extra month.

I actually like how the schedule is this year with 6 and under state championships before the other ages start District. Several of the kids last year wrestled 8 and under districts on Saturday than drove all the way to Ottawa on Sunday for the 6 and under championships. It did not affect my boy because he wrestled 37 pounds (weighing 35) so I didn't enter him in the 8 and the under 40. This year he is wrestling 40 so he will compete in 6 and under state and then 8 and under on to sub's, district, and hopefully state.

I do wish the 6 and under could be apart of the big state tournament but do understand why that has not been feasible. The 6 and under state in Ottawa was great last year and my son loved to be able to stand on the podium and go through the march of champions.