The Kids Executive Council met on Sunday, January 19th in Salina. Just a few highlights from the meeting:

The Kids Division has approximately $110,000 in checking and savings. Mike Juby asked about purchasing 10 additional track wrestling score clocks for $25,000. This would give USAW-Kansas a total of 54 clocks. The board approved the purchase of the 10 additional clocks. Richard Salyer is the scheduler of the clocks and the clocks are located in three locations around the state.

Keith Ashpole made a report on officials. We have 26 new Kids registered officials this year. He is working with Joe Knect to get a photo of each registered official so that coaches can have more information when they are selecting officials for the State series. Keith and Joe are also working on a post tournament form to be sent in following all sanctioned tournaments. This will also help track officials performance.

The re-districting process was referred to a committee consisting of the Asst. State Director and the four District Directors. No action was taken on re-districting.

The Borderline Bandits will be allowed a variance to participate in District 1 instead of District 3.

Matt Treaster
Kids Ex. Director

Who has a say in the final decsion with regards to redistricting? Just those 5 or will the state body get a say in it as it potentially impacts everyone?

Any change in district boundaries will be presented to the State Body for approval.

Last years membership numbers were:
District 1 - 3,431
District 2 - 1,792
District 3 - 2,030
District 4 - 1,738
Total - 8,991

Average - 2,248

Over/(Under) Average
District 1 - 1,183
District 2 - (456)
District 3 - (218)
District 4 - (510)

With the continued growth of the Kansas City metropolitan area the disparity will to continue to grow which is the driver for the need to address the issue.

Of these numbers is there anyway to track how many kids are 1st year USA WKS members? For instance - I know my son had a card for 12 years straight. I do not know for sure - but like any sport the attrition rate is higher at a younger age.


But for last year or this year's numbers how many are first year members (Novice) by age group?

Last years membership numbers were:
District 1 - 3,431
District 2 - 1,792
District 3 - 2,030
District 4 - 1,738
Total - 8,991

Is there anyway we can get an average number of wrestlers who enter the qualifying series. It has been a topic numerous times that some districts dont bring 4 wrestlers to state, and this leaves an empty spot sometimes on state bracket. This may be a better way to decide how to re-district, rather than just number of entries. I know our club has around 100 kids in our club, but maybe half of them enter the qualifying series for multiple reasons. (6U, Novice, done after 6U state, burnt out, etc....)

That is a real good question, maybe drive this by numbers entered into sub-district.

Maybe 1,200 of those kids are 6U that didn't enter and that squares it up alot closer.

I wouldn't mind seeing the subs entries for all districts the last 3-4 years to see what that looks like.

I am sure somone has that at their finger tips and can get it faster than me hunting for it.

Grand Total
2013 3604
2012 3702

2013 Sub District Numbers

D1N 567
D1S 551
TOTAL 1118

D2N 446
D2S 375
TOTAL 821

D3E 503
D3W 422
TOTAL 925

D4N 307
D4S 433
TOTAL 740

2012 Sub District Numbers

D1N 554
D1S 562
TOTAL 1116

D2N 428
D2S 418
TOTAL 846

D3E 485
D3W 434
TOTAL 919

D4N 369
D4S 452
TOTAL 821

Numbers by age for 2013 Sub District tournaments

8U
D1 258
D2 184
D3 248
D4 219

10U
D1 233
D2 172
D3 210
D4 162

12U
D1 220
D2 170
D3 183
D4 144

14U
D1 247
D2 181
D3 188
D4 137

HS
D1 160
D2 114
D3 96
D4 78

So Sub's break Down average last 2 years

D1 1117

D2 833 (-284)

D3 922 (-195)

D4 780 (-337)

The only reason to change district is for State series right?

These are the real number that should be used and not memeberships.

I also think these numbers will change with the High School purchasing cards at a discount. That was some of the issue getting the HS kids to stay out, $37 for maybe 1 tournament or maybe 3. Now they have it and more may stay out.

I understand part of the conversation being some kids from D4 are getting a free pass to state so I was curious as to where the top 15 teams in state came from. Does this imply D2 needs to split some teams out? I would assume there are some really good kids getting left out in that area. May not be a factor in the big picture but here it is.

2013
D1 had 3, 3rd, 10th and 13th
D2 had 6, 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th and 14th
D3 had 5, 6th, 8th, 11th and 15th
D4 had 2, 9th and 12th

2012
D1 had 1, 1st
D2 had 8, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th and 15th
D3 had 4, 5th, 10th, 13th and 14th
D4 had 2, 6th and 12th

We all know that District 4 will never have the numbers that the Kansas City area has. It will not matter because the population is shifting east. With that being said, the kids in district 4 should NOT be punished because of where they live. I have been watching this conversation for a while now and have seen some pretty terrible ideas. One idea is to take qualifying spots away from a district based on population. How is that fair to the kids? I thought this is about the kids and for the kids? What about the team title? Should we change how that is scored? Will it ever be possible for an average size club to win it anymore? Or do we only care about the big super clubs? Kids state is the closest thing this state has to a Grand State. If we were to venture down this road, lets do it correctly. Lets make it fair for the kids. Lets put in place a system to where there is an opening, we have a system setup to where it gets filled. I would say go by the record of the 5th place kids.

I am not real familiar with the eastern kansas territory but here is an idea. The numbers for the districts without high schools goes as follows

D1-958
D2-707
D3-829
D4-662

So if we go by geographic location only (since i do not know the population of these counties) I would bring the suggest of this to the board: Move Woodson, Allen, Bourbon, Neosho, Crawford, Labette, and Cherokee from District 1 and move to District 2. Take Smith, Osborne, Russell, Jewel, Mitchell, Lincoln, Ellsworth, Rice, and Reno from district 3 and move to District 4.
I do not know how much of an impact this would make to the numbers but geographically speaking, it would be the easiest