I support the concept and agree that we need to make this change, however, words mean things. You of all people understand that.
If we adpot this as written, we are excluding a group of kids. It may be very small but it will exclude them. Here's an example based on the following quote of the proposal.....
"Any current high school athlete that has competed at the high school level, whare it was Varsity or JV would need to wrestle in this division at the qualifying tournaments this upcoming season."
Based on that sentence we will have kids that are not included. Is a freshman who did not wrestle JV or Varsity allowed to compete? According to this, NO.
Is a kid who does not have a chance to wrestle in high school because the school doesn't have wrestling have a chance to compete? According to this NO.
These are just 2 examples of where this proposal would exclude kids from wrestling. One can argue that this effected population would be very minimal. You can also argue that we can change it once we pass it and have it go into affect next year.....well that is the same argument some are using to get us to pass this now.....if we don't pass it we are eliminating an opportunity for a group of kids this year. I submit, that if we pass it as written we still have a population that we are eliminating....just a different group.
Also, more theoretical argument.....
1. If we don't allow 14U the choice to wrestle 14U I think we will see the numbers drop. I think more kids will choose not to wrestle when they are freshmen 14U than what we will gain by having Juniors and Seniors wrestle. Heck, I talked to about 4 or 5 high school kids last year at the Kids State tournament that were eligible to wrestle 16U and they did not compete. They did not see the value in doing so. Now we can argue all day whether that is the right attitude or not but the kids I was talking to were kids that placed at Fargo, won high school state as freshmen and sophomores, etc.
2. Personal opinion......I am afraid that without an amendment to give the choice to 14u to compete in 14u then we will ultimately lose more kids than we will gain. I know in our club, we have a lot of relatively inexperienced kids that fit that category. They wrestle kids club after high school because they get a chance to have some success and continue to work as they mature as a wrestler. The kids that are already Juniors or Seniors have already made up their minds. Most of them are tired of wrestling and want a break or they are focused on National level tournaments, freestyle and greco. What is the incentive for them to do the Kids series? In order to grow the sport we can't leave out the younger kids that are just learning or are not the elite.
Bottomline: I like the idea and will support it. I want to see us amend it so the 14u can have a choice. If that means waiting a year to get it fine tuned(although I think it is crazy we have to) then I am willing to do that.
I personally know both you and James and consider you both friends, I know that there was never any intent to exclude anyone. In fact, the two of you spend more time than most expanding opportunities for kids and helping kids. Please don't take this as a personal difference it is nothing but a philisophical difference that can be settled with a simple amendment.
