We can say there are a lot of problems with "inner city" wrestling programs especially in KCK but the problem is NOT the kids. The problem stems for the lack of a wrestling foundation and support. In smaller towns where everyone wrestles that is what you grow up expecting to do. I don’t have any kids but a lot of kids who wrestle wrestled because their fathers or brothers wrestled. In the "inner city" it’s simply cheaper to enroll your kid in little league basketball. Kids grow up playing basketball and they go to high school like the KCK schools that win high school basketball state championships year after year and send tons of kids on to college and NBA careers.

When I started my wrestling club in 1999 the cost of a kids tournament was $8-$9 and novice was even less. Now the cost of our fundraising efforts simply price some people out of it the same way that little league football and baseball are making a disappearing act as well.

When I coached at Coronado Middle in KCK I would easily get 40-50 kids out per year. It became part of our schools culture. But in middle school I also didn’t have to compete with other sports like basketball. The number of sports available to participate in is ever increasing in the last 10 years that I was as Schlagle we added Rugby, Soccer, Bowling, Tennis, Swimming and a few others. "Inner city" kids simply have more opportunity available to them.

No excuses I think the coaches in the inner city could do MORE but trust me no one wants to go to a wrestling tournament and watch their kids lose match after match. The coaches are tryin to recruit, they are trying to prepare their kids, they want badly to win. I speak from firsthand experience. I wrestled in the "inner city" and I coached kids club, middle school, and high school in the "inner city".