To be the best you have to beat the best! Come on guys, I understand all the POLITICS on this issue but honestly what is the big issue here? My opinion is this; you have a parent or parents who are angry because their son or daughter is not moving on to DISTRICTS. Traveling, I have taken my son on many trips, Tulsa, Liberty, Monster Mash, oh Kansas Kids State in Topeka which is a 6 hour trip for us out in the Garden City area and I'm sure a bit longer for the Hugoton Club, i.e Guyman kids. So we know about traveling. I always tell my son that I really don't care if he wins a kids title because we are working towards big things and that is high school and beyond. He understands that and wants to compete against the best so if that means he has to beat some kid from Guymon Ok. then let him or her strap on that singlet!!!!!!!

well said preito

We have always lived in Picher ,OK and wrestled in Ks. We counldnt win any matches at state in OK, so we started coming up to KS where the the winning is much easier. My kids go to school in Picher, OK so they were granted a Presidential pardon for all the lead dust they have eatean over the years. They cant remember a lot. But they are looking forward to State in two weeks in Goodland,KS. They say thiers supposed to be hardly anyone there? Looks like another wall of thophies!

Deeohh and Ricky Bobby are brothers! You heard it here first!

District 1 has had exceptions made a few times on the residency requirement! But as Will described, if they attended school in Kansas they were allowed to wrestle.

Either/or ... seemed to be the "common law" when past boards were presented with these requests. Either they had to live or go to school in Kansas!

This was all OKed by George W. right before Tiger Woods took over as President.

Maybe we all need to move to Oklahoma, and this thread will die!!!!

whoa, whoa, whoa, pump up the brakes Spexy. Did you not read. I have the blessing of both George W.Bush and new president Tiger Woods! Besides ther aint no houses left in Picher,OK

... there all in Galena!

I have received a couple of calls on this thread, so let me respond to a few of the questions. They are definitely valid and all of the questions, concerns and sides of the issue are valid and worth considering.
A. Hugoton did not "recruit" these kids. Their coaches, due to their travel concerns, asked if they could participate in the Kansas Kids Qualifier series. They called someone in the state office and were told they would need to write a letter which would be brought before the executive council. They asked if the Hugoton club that, if approved, they could practice and wrestle with and for the Hugoton club (because that is how the exective board told them it would have to be.) We expected their request to be turned down. I, actually, was shocked that it was not turned down. Quite honestly, I would have turned it down. I do not even buy into the travel item, for years, the Hills, Lissolos, I, and a few others traveled 3 - 7 hours back east to get some mat time against tough competition.
B. Should we have asked for the variance? The Guymon club wrote the letter asking for the variance explaining their position and circumstances, we agreed that if, okayed by the executive
council, they could wrestle with us. The benefits to us were more practice partners for our kids and more coaches to help with practices. That has happened. After they received their variance from the executive council, they began to come to our practices.
1) How many OK kids wrestle for your club?
I entered 8 Guymon kids into the sub district tournament, 1 scratched. The other 7 were in the 8 & U division.
2) How long have they been wrestling for your club?
They began to wrestle for our club for the sub district tournament after receiving their variance.
3) Do you enter them into the tournaments your club goes to?
Our club alot of times goes to two different tournaments, a close one for the new kids (due to travel time and expenses and a second one 3 - 7 hours away for our more advanced kids who need more mat time or need to see the tougher competition. Even though the Guymon kids were at several of the tournaments our kids wrestled at, we did not enter them. I assume this is because they wanted the variance before making this commitment. I do not know this, I assume this since they began coming to our practices and checked out a team singlet after they received their variance.

C. Weston Maravilla is a Hugoton kid. His mom is a nurse in Hugoton and his parents own a house here in Hugoton. They moved to Hugoton from Liberal before Weston started preschool here. Even though Weston is not a second grader, he is in First Grade here at Hugoton Elementary. He is my grandson and has a great time wrestling with his Uncle Derek (a couple of nights ago they were practicing submission holds..too much UFC!)

D. Was it shady? The Guymon club went through the proper channels and were given the variance. They were told the only way they could wrestle in the Kansas Qualifier series was to wrestle under the Hugoton Club. Should Hugoton have turned them down? Maybe........I wouldn't have made that decision because of my bias, my thoughts went to exactly the same place, what if one of them took Derek's chances of competing at the state tournament away? It is a great thing to watch your child work hard and have that work rewarded by competing at the state level. I was glad the decision was left to the executive board who I felt would be less biased. If we do not like the ruling or trust the council's decision making and want more control over it, lets change the rule and make it more specific and restrictive so that there are no gray lines.

I think all the posts on this subject have been well thought out and deserve answers, so if you have other questions or thoughts you can post them here or email me and I will do my best to respond. I appreciate the respectfulness of all who have posted here.

I should say I am not posting this as an official club response, but I have been the Hugoton Wrestling Club secretary for a few years. They are a great group of people and coaches.

Thea Schnittker
ziprosel@hotmail.com or tschnitt@pld.com

Sounds like this is settled. Time to wrestle.

Well said and very eloquent as well. Strap up and get after it kids.

... and if I might add, I have always found the Hugoton to be a class organization! They definitely have the kids in the forefront of their thoughts!

For the record, this topic, from my perspective, has NEVER been an indictment on the Hugoton Wrestling Club. I don't even have a problem with these kids wrestling this year. I merely want to point out that our Kids Executive Board has set a precedent that is a mighty slippery slope. No one has done anything WRONG, per se, but way the issue has been handled opens up the door for many, many other situations and may cause the need for more rules and more clarification from this point forward. To me, that is the REAL ISSUE not 7 kids from Guymon, OK.

Just curious if these kids wrestled in Oklahoma during their season, finished there (went to qualifiers), then came to Kansas? Double dipping?

Not that I count, here is my opinion, If they live in Kansas they wrestle in Ks. "That is what a state tournament is about". Otherwise let's let every state in and call it a national tourney. "Is it the money they are after?" "Or the kid with a medal on his chest saying " I won the Kansas State Tourney>"

Good question. And the answer is ...................?

They are not double dipping, they were at every tournament that southwest kansas had, most were at Hays or at least some of the better ones. It's a first year club with alot of first year wrestlers that have only wrestled in Kansas.

Even better answer.

Take a look at the oklahoma wrestling web site (forums)- they think we are a joke for letting the oklahoma boys wrestle in our Kansas state tournie - they even go as for as saying they wouldn't let us wrestle in their state tournie. I don't want to exclude any kid from wrestling but a state championship is meant for state residents.