mom4 you may be right, my perspective is from my own experience having grown up in Derby and being a Derby Alumni, I have always been in the larger school scenario. I have pondered the effects of moving kids from a larger school to a smaller school system to better improve a child's involvement in the varsity athletics. I believe this to be a farce. If a child is driven by a successful outcome and not by personal development in the sport, then the parent has failed that child. In my opinion, I believe this tactic to be similar to taking a state placer to a novice tournament so as to get some easy matches in order to work on his/her moves and collect some hardware. The drive in that instance would be motivated not for personal development but out of wanting to be the biggest fish in a sea of minnows.

I believe that all kids should have the opportunity to be in athletics to whatever degree they wish. I always make a pact with my own kids when we start a sports season, that once they start they won't quit and if the sport is not for them after a couple of seasons we will determine, as a family, the personal developments which came out of the experience. My oldest son is where we have had to do this with most often because he has yet to discover his inner drive for sports (which I can see because he has the exact same personality traits as myself). This is one of the reasons that I have a very hard time coaching him in any sport. My youngest, we don't have to make that pact with very often. This shows that my own kids develop at different rates and I understand this. I have taught my kids that if they want anything in life, they must put all their effort into it and they will succeed, win or lose the effort given rewards success.

However, this is not on topic with the original post.

At first, I was for the issue of having 6 and Unders at the State tournament, and I am still mixed in my feelings on this issue. I agree that ALL kids should be given the opportunity to compete. This is why I support a good Novice program feeding into an even better Advanced program for kids wrestling. Maybe this is the avenue that Kansas needs to address more for the 6 and Unders than anything. 6 and Unders are just beginning to learn the sport and are developing into better wrestlers as they learn over the years. Those that are exceptional talents at 6 and Under make it to state at the 8 and Under level. Therefore, maybe 6 and Unders should still be considered as "Novice" and left out of the State tournament as an age group, however anyone under the age of 8 can still qualify for the tournament just like it has been in the past.

I feel that USAW-Kansas needs to focus on those age groups which are feeders into the high schools. However, there are only a limited number of roster spots on any given high school wrestling team. To try to combat this drop in sheer numbers (because of mere lack of roster spots) maybe USAW-Kansas needs to add a High School division with High School weights to allow for more opportunities at the high school level. This would allow for those kids that didn't quite make the high school team (be it to being a Junior losing a spot on the team to a Senior or what not). This might encourage kids to stick with it even if they are unable to make their local high school team.

My suggestion, drop the 16 Under age group and make it High School Age group with High School weights. You may have instances where you have a 15 year old wrestling a 17 year old, but that's what you would have in the high schools anyhow, so there is no real difference. You could even have the High School division State tournament before the KSHSAA Tournament, set your USAW-Kansas team and coordinate with the KSHSAA to enter this USAW-Kansas team as an entry into the KSHSAA State tournament somehow.