Probably about time for me to add my two cents worth. I will respond to as many of the previous posts on this subject as possible in this one post as I have seen some of the suggestions with which I agree and some that I don't.
First, I can agree with all of Coach Church's recommendations in his first post. However, I have to take exception to his suggestion that Fargo is cheap. If that was the only cost these wrestlers were incurring during the summer season that would be true. But let's remember, they have people wanting them to go to Dual Nationals and Southern Plains not to mention a national tournament or two along with maybe folkstyle team or individual camps. You add even a portion of the rest into the cost of Fargo and we're talking real money here. I think our inability to field a cadet dual team speaks directly to that. I am of the belief that we can't ask our folkstyle participants to subsidize the FS/GR any more than they already are so I don't know where the money is going to come from. Some have suggested FS/GR tournaments as fundraisers but with so few competitors it's not a money-maker anyway.
As to the folkstyle season being too long. Has the Kansas folkstyle season changed in the past 20 years? Do we have more or less FS/GR competitors percentage-wise than we have had in the past? I go to several FS/GR tournaments a year as time allows and I see basically the same numbers, and people for that matter, as I did years ago. What has happened IMO, is that we have seen an encroachment of national folkstyle tournaments on both ends of the summer FS/GR season. I don't know if that has had an impact but I think that trend will continue to get even worse.
The fact is, folkstyle is our national style of choice for the over-whelming majority of wrestling fans. I don't see that changing any time soon, nor do I think that it should. For my money, as long as kids are spending time on the mat during the spring and summer I don't care what style they are participating in.