This past weekend I drove up to Council Bluffs, IA (which took about an hour more than usual as i29 is closed due to some issues with the recent flooding) and watched the 12 teams wrestling for Kansas. It was awesome to see that we were represented by six teams in both elementary and the middle school division. This is largely due to the efforts of James Cook and Dal Eck with a host of other volunteers supporting the feeding, transportation, gear and other facets of this enormous undertaking. I would like to think everyone is as grateful as I am for people like Dal and James. A big thanks to them!

The topic, Representing your state, has a bit of a dark side to it. When this event first started it was a prestigious accomplishment to be on TEAM ONE representing the best Kansas has to offer at a particular age and weight class. This weekend I was privy to many conversations where I discovered that some wrestlers and even some clubs don't support the Team Kansas effort. I am quite puzzled by this. I even heard that some wrestlers felt the competition was "beneath them". Now I know we aren't PA or OH but we have some darn good kids in our state and this is largely due to the competition within the state and the coaching and support of USAWKS.

So I have two questions:

If you are the best in the state why would you come earn a spot and then not go to the national event?

If you are the best in Kansas why wouldn't you want to help show how great Kansas wrestling is by competing for Team Kansas?


No let it fly!!