My family had been part of a community team for the past 8 years. This year we parted ways due to "politics" and came to the
Young Guns family and were welcomed with open arms. Our son, while not winning state, did have his highest placement at state to date. Another member of said community club also came to the Young Gun family this year also had his highest placement to date by taking the State Championship! The the community club that we left this year boasted one of it's highest sign up numbers of 80+ kids. Yet this club/team failed to place any kids at state for the first time in more than a decade. From this personal experience I believe coaches' have more of an impact than numbers! But yes, to finish in the top 5-10 teams at State you will have to have top 10 sign up numbers.

Wow, thats alot of clubs!! Congrats!!!

Maintain the same scoring that we are using now for the tournament so the Big 3 can battle it out for the overall crown but allow the following format to score so every team can participate in a fair and equal tournament as well. Burlington uses this format and we used it at Eudora this year and had success with it.

Prior to the start of the State Tournament each club turns in 2 scoring representatives from each age group.

8U -2
10U - 2
12U - 2
14U - 2
HS - 2

These 10 kids score points for their respective clubs. Criteria will be the big point of making this system work. I will put this out there to get some response.
Criteria for tie breakers:
1.) Most Individual Champions
2.) Most Pins
3.) Most Wins
4.) Fewest Losses
5.) Quickest Pin

Any restriction of the number of wrestlers who can compete for your club may cause some hard feelings.

Either that, OR, we could quit worrying about team scores and/or who might be winning the team race? Besides, as we all know, "wrestling is not a team sport"!

Our club has wrestled the Burlington Open/Novice tournament for last 5 or 6 years. Burlington runs a a scoring system similar to the one stated by Stoudman. It works pretty good. The scoring is only open to the Open wrestlers. We have a small club and it gives us a chance to compete with the big clubs. Our club only has 20 to 25 kids out. 10 to 15 of those kids are Novice wrestlers. I like the idea of this scoring system. Last year Trail Hands Wrestling Club won the team title at Burlington. If wrestling is not a team sport then why did Penn State win its 3rd national team title this year? Looks like a team sport too me.

Josh Parker
Mission Valley

penn state must have had the most wrestlers.

I don't see a problem. It was fine and dandy when District 1 was compliling an All-Star Team and Winning. Why does it need to change now that District 2 is doing it?

Congratulations to the State Champion Team YOUNG GUNS.

We dont change it Chad. We are just poposing adding to it so the smaller clubs can compete as well. All USAWKS needs to do is buy another trophy. The "Club Champion" is the overall winner just like today. The "Team Champion" is the award for the format outlined above. I say we dedicate the trophy to the Elvin family. I would have the clubs let the kids vote for who represents the club for the team championship with the coaches emphasizing sportsmanship, character, attitude and the quality of the athletes. Much similar to how they vote for a student council at school. This would alleviate the points Will makes in his earlier post.

I think the team/club championship is fine the way it is. The biggest team usually wins but not always. I like that bonus and advancement points were kept. The Superclubs will always be the only ones truly competing for USAWKS Club Championship. Thats how it is set up, the club with the most placers is gonna win, if they happen to have the most at subs then so be it, that is the best club in Kansas that year.
The rest of us will just have to wait and see how we can fare when it is KSHSAA handing out the goods.

That's True...Ark City and Derby will never win a Kids State Championship, but they consistently place in the top 10. When it comes to KSHSAA they usually don't do too bad.

Big Props to the Kansas Young Guns for winning Kid's State!
Obviously they have great leadership to successfully coordinate this rise to the top in such short time. I realize they have great kids, but it still takes leadership to put them together and pull this off.
Also great job at the Folkstyle Nationals.
Congratulations to the Kansas Young Guns wrestlers, their parents and families, their coaches and the club directors!

You've got to be kidding me!! Cokeley, Aren't you the one always complaining that KSHSAA has too many wrestling classes? Now you want to divide up the championship for kids state? This is like the pot calling the kettle black. You make the argument all the time that we should combine high school state into one class. Kids State is a perfect example of what would happen. The only way to be able to win a one-class state would be to Recruit an all star team.

I don't think you understand what Will was saying. Also, i'm really not understanding anything you said. Could you please elaborate?