I appreciate the efforts that many of you are making in working to comply with this new requirement that was dropped on everyone at the last minute. Although I believe it is important that we have a policy that clubs are responsible for verifying the accuracy of their members' dates of birth, I sincerely regret the lack of advance notice. However, your board of directors recognized the importance of sending a clear signal to USA Wrestling that we were serious about avoiding any future age fraud.

Although almost all of our members can be relied upon to be honest about their (or their child's) date of birth, there are exceptions. The best and least intrusive person to verify the accuracy of this information is the club director. Clubs should always recognize the sensitive nature of this information in determining how they are going to collect and, where applicable, retain this information.