Sportfan02: Are you referring to the Executive Board meeting on 9/19/04 that our Kids Divison section has an agenda that can be accessed? I did not see any minutes for that meeting but I did see that 6 & Under at Qualifying tournaments was going to be discussed. So if it was voted by the executive council to never to consider 6U at State again and not reported in any minutes, this is the first any of us heard of such a vote. Even if they voted this way, I would say this is just wishful thinking on their part. This topic is very popular with some and unpopular with others, but it is always discussed very year and I don't believe it is going away. I would think that they could erase such a vote just as quickly as they made it and could they really avoid it at a State Body meeting if the majority wanted to discuss it? It is not going away just because they made this vote.

I am not in favor of 6U at State. I am in favor of the 7U (2 grade & U), 9U (3rd & 4th), 11U (5th & 6th), 14U (7th & 8th) with no high school (9th grade & up) participation in this class. 14U instead of 13U for the last grade school class to give an opportunity to those 8th graders who started school late or were held back one year. This is similar to the one Mark Stanley described above with the exception that I believe he is proposing that his 9th,10th & 11th grade division still be held at the same time and place as the elementary Kids State tournament.

I would like to see a separate post season high school tournament sponspored by our Kids USA State organization and held at maybe at Salina that would be open to all high school classes freshmen thru Seniors. I don't think you would need qualifying tournaments for this high school tournament. If logistically possible, maybe you could include a JV divison at this post season high school tournament to reach those high schoolers who are new to wrestling or not yet competitive with the elite high school wrestlers. As an alternative this JV division could maybe be held with the Kids division tournament in Topeka but I would advocate as the KWCA did in 2002 for the Kids tourament to be held before the regular season high school tournament.

This was reported in the USAW Kansas Kids Wrestling State Body Minutes 11/03/02: "The KWCA had approached Mike and said that they would like to see the Kids wrestling season end earlier. They would like to see it end before High School State, take a couple of weeks break, and then start the summer freestyle-Greco-roman season. They honestly feel we are going too long!! A brief discussion followed, but it was decided to leave as is."