Rossville Wrestling Club dropped their 14&under age division due to money. They are more worried about making money than giving kids mat time. Every year at the state body meeting the emphasis is keeping kids in the sport and giving them more mat time. About 5 years ago the emphasis was to use round robins vs brackets for more mat time. I've been to tournaments where there were 15 14&under wrestlers and the division was never cancelled. This is a quote from their club "The 14 and under age group - we didn't have enough to justify the mat time". Since when do we have to justify mat time to any kid at any age? Wrestling is about the kids, not making money.

I would strongly disagree with your interpretation. I had a wrestler at 205 and nobody within 3 weight classes of him, also had a couple others that you would have had to combine 3 weight classes with 1 wrestler in each class and guess what they would have been wrestling teammates.

I appreciate their attempt to make it work but when they realized it wouldn't they let everyone know in advance. It was early enough in the week that I spoke with all my parents and had them come with us to JOCO today where there was plenty of 14U.

The email I have said: Good morning coaches
In looking at the matrix still this morning, we just don't feel like the 14 and Under will work. We have only 13 in the entire age group. Please let us know how to return the $15.00 entry fee. Very sorry, but hopefully you understand our decision. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or our head coach.

Letting everyone know in advance how? By this forum? Instead of using the email addresses that you have from track, by putting if you received reply back. If no reply you call a club director. That information is known to everyone running a club. Common courtesy. You make a phone call. In my 10 yrs of coaching never have I seen an age group dropped. You make it work.

In your registration matrix registering 14&U you had high school weights so how did you know you only had 1 205 pounder. I had a 205 pounder but had to enter him at 220. Maybe if your registration wasn't messed up and willingness to give kids mat time, you would still have that division.

And in our by-laws it state's that in the 14&U age group that they can wrestle up to 30lbs difference.

I am not with nor represent Rossville, I received an email from them and it was to several coaches/directors. Not sure if you or they was "messed" up but I had no issues entering my 14U kid at 205.

Dude you are obviously bitter and not going to stop bashing the club, have it if you like. I'm not encouraging a new 14U wrestler to to wrestle up 30lbs either, can't see how that would work out very well.

Well I'm sorry for going off on you, but when the word of "your interpretation" is used it's a little irritating. I'm just stating facts of the situation. I have numerous families spending money on hotels that won't be reimbursed for because of a lack of effort to make it work. 1 match is better than none. And the lack of effort to inform clubs of the situation.

Guess we are just on 2 different sheets...I have email from Wednesday where they very clearly communicated the issue. Take care.

That's great. But as an organization there are ways to make sure that everyone gets the email. And those steps were not taken, but my entry fee sure was!

I understand you frustration Swoop...but as of Wednesday, it is my understanding, there were less than 20 kids signed up for the entire 14U division. The tournament had a choice to make. From my understanding "money" had nothing to do with the decision they made; if so they would have just let the kids show up and bracket them "best scenario" where they would wrestle kids way outside their weight classification. Instead they canceled the division and notified the clubs affected through email and by posting on this forum. Personally I was happy they went the direction they did, because I was able to let my wrestlers affected by the decision know in advance and they didn't waist the drive on Sunday. I have seen entire tournaments canceled do to numbers. I have had wrestlers show up at tournaments and not had anyone to wrestle...or been asked to wrestle kids 25-50# heavier/lighter than them.

I do not think Rossville was out of line to cancel the 14U division given the circumstances; especially since they offered a full refund to the wrestlers who were affected. I have attended this tournament for 20 years and they have always done their best to make the experience a pleasant one.

Well Mark I guess just the fortunate ones were notified. If you would have read up on my posts not all of the necessary avenues of communication were utilized. But from now on if my club goes to a tournament near Topeka I will make sure that I check the forum every day instead of my email that is listed in one's event flyer as the way of communication. Might as well tell Kathy Juby to quit listing emails and phone numbers on our club directory if that is the case.

Secondly you said you have attended this tournament for the last 20 years, but this is their first year with new leadership. I'm not trying to put the blame on that but would like for them to own up to their mistake. Not just relying on a refund policy that not only affects kids who don't get to wrestle but families budgets for such things as hotel fees and travel.

Thirdly in all my years of being around track wrestling I've never seen a club post their user id and password on the forum, and I've been a member since 2002.

Swoop so you saw the use id and password but are just now finding out there was no 14U division? Thankfully my son doesn't have to deal with the low numbers in a weight class or division. But there is no way I would be on this forum complaining about mat time when you could have looked at the matrix and saw there was going to be one or two matches. One or two matches is not mat time. I would have signed up for a different tournament at that point and found mat time. Too many parents out there looking to buy a trophy or medal in my opinion. I'm not a head coach and my son is in 8U but I still knew the 14U division was cancelled early in the week.

Chris Stivers

Ok, not looking to buy trophies. Found out after repeated emails today that they had posted the user id and password, so that's after the fact. The matrix has been messed up all week long, for instance only two kids listed at 8&U 110 before I entered my kids, after I entered my kids it still showed two kids entered. Yet again someone chiming in not understanding the concept at hand. The chain of communication and care for letting a club know was not there. And yes I would rather have a kid get one match compared to none. Mat time doesn't mean automatically placing.

Secondly Chris Stivers you have already posted your soap box once on this forum. No need to do it again on my post. Besides like you said you son is in 8&U and at a weight you don't have to worry about.

For the record - we never dropped the age group for "money". PLEASE get you facts straight Mr. Dunn or AKA Swoop. If you would rather bring you 14 and under kid(s) and have them get a gold - go ahead and bring them - we will have a medal waiting for them. We were trying to help - but apparently that wasn't good enough - so please bring them tomorrow and we will take your $15.00 entry fee and give your wrestlers a gold medal if that's what you would like.

If you would like to bash our club - I'm sorry for you. I sent (or tried to send, I'm learning) an e-mail via track, I also sent a personal e-mail to the e-mail addresses on record on USAWKS.org and added a comment on the kids forum - but I'm sorry if that wasn't enough - I'm learning the entire track thing and I was hoping for some understanding.

Shari Gentry
Rossville Wrestling Club..


Call if you have questions - but apparently you have already text me and called our head coach.

And we offered to refund the entry fee for the 14 and under age group that was directly effected.

Shari, I can understand Mr. Dunn AKA Swoop has ruffled your feathers a bit, I'll try and take a different approach. Just as you were hoping for some understanding, we too would like some! Apparently technology failed everyone and our club got no notification that the 14u division was cancelled. Mr. Dunn happened to stumble upon the talk forum and found this out yesterday about 4ish PM. Now here's where a little understanding on your part would have been great, the canceling of the 14u division didn't just impact those 14u wrestlers. Of our 6 14u wrestlers 3 of them had younger siblings and those families didn't want to make the drive to Rossville if both of their kids wouldn't be wrestling. 2 more of our wrestlers were relying on rides from 14u kids' families. Yes a refund was offered for the 14u kids but can't you have some understanding where the 14u kids weren't the only ones impacted?

Mr. Stivers the matrix has been a tricky thing this season. Unfortunately both of my boys are in the same age group this year AND happen to be in the same weight class. They're in a bigger weight class for their age (8u-110) so getting them matches is hit and miss. Before we signed up for the Rossville tournament there were 2 wrestlers showing on the matrix for 8u-110. A couple days after we signed up there were still only 2 wrestlers showing, giving us the impression that our boys never showed up on the matrix. I'm not a track expert so I don't know if it needed updated periodically or if it does it on its own, but there were other weights listed with 0 wrestlers entered and our club did in fact register kids at those weights.

Our wrestling club is a very small club that has quite a few beginner wrestlers and we decided to go to a smaller tournament because of our high number of novice wrestlers and our coaches have a very good friend that is starting out in the Rossville Wrestling Club so we wanted to support them, those are the reasons Our coaches chose Rossville over Johnson County.