As a wrestling fan and a parent of 2 young wrestlers I have some concerns.
My first question…. Are we really trying to make it easier for everyone or are we just trying to move dates and make it easier for high school wrestlers to continue after their season. We will not get the elite high school wrestlers to join kids state after their season. The ones that are wanting to move to the next level (prepare for college wrestling) are moving on to prepare for summer wrestling and other national tournaments. They have nothing to prove by trying to repeat their performance at high school state two weeks later. It will not be a “Grand State.” We are better to drop the high school division completely. Encourage them to move on to bigger and better things, that is what will help them and Kansas Wrestling.
Next… If we move our dates up to me done in the middle of February instead of the end of March we add some new problems. Most clubs run tournaments as “Fund Raisers” (I would still like to know where most of that money goes). Fewer weeks to wrestle means one of three things, 1. Start tournaments dates sooner (good luck competing with football which does not end until beginning of November.) 2. More tournaments on the same weekend which will decrease the numbers at each tournament therefore making clubs raise prices to overcome smaller numbers (in the last 10 years to average cost of tournaments have doubled.) 3. Tournaments will continue after the state series. This also leads to smaller numbers as most kids end when state is over. (Which again raises the rates.)
Finally…. We don’t want to cheapen the state series by just making it another tournament that is hurried up and wrestled in one day. Most kids work towards state as their goal every year, we want it to be a big special tournament, not just another weekend. Not to mention you will be competing with Liberty National, I would like my kids to have the option to do both.
And a side note…. Volunteer coaches would have to make another trip with added expense to them to coach at both state tournaments. (Or I guess they could just go to one of the two state tournaments and have to choose which half of their club to coach.) Not to mention the parents that have wrestlers in both state tournaments, this adds expense to them. And we would need double the volunteers to run tables, set up mats, ect., ect.,….
What is our real goal….
Thanks,
Brad Beeson
All valid points. But I'll give my two cents worth......
I didn't hear anyone talk about making it easier on the HS kids to continue. I am one of the ones that is terribly disappointed in the lack of participation of the HS kids at kids' state since we changed it. I'll lay it on Chief Renegade again, him taking a lot of our best to Colorado put the brakes on that division taking off, in my opinion. As soon as we got a "grand state" type format put together, someone puts together an "All Star" team to go out of state, when all of us wanted to see who the baddest man in the state was......
You are correct, there would be less weekends for clubs to run tourneys. There are also opportunities for clubs to work tables at some of the larger tourneys, and get paid for that, without the hassle of running the tourneys from scratch. With the shorter season, there will be less to fund for the clubs. I'm not privy to how clubs spend their tourney profits, but our club self funds, so as far as club expenses that get paid from these profits, I couldn't comment. People go to Oklahoma to wrestle early as it is, and that won't change. We don't start until football is over either. What you need to ask yourself is this: if we started at the same time, will your kids be peaking at state in Feb, if we change it? Right now, I can give example after example of kids that peaked early, and were struggling to "survive" practice and wrestle well at state at the end of March. The kids that can handle this kind of grind, from Nov thru April, won't change a thing. But those that "get sick of it" will benefit from moving the state tourney up.
We won't compete with Liberty Nationals. It is same weekend as HS regionals. 6,8,10 state would be the week before. And Liberty Nationals is one of the most prestigious tourneys in the Midwest, and it is run in one day. Winning Liberty is more of an accomplishment than winning state, so running state in one day isn't a bad thing. We do it for 6u State now.
A lot of families have just one kid wrestling, a lot of families would have kids wrestling in both state tourneys, if it happens. So for sure we benefit the families with only one kid. Only one trip, only one night of hotels. You are correct, the families with kids in both tourneys would have the same amount of hotel that they do with our current 2 day tourney, AND they have an extra trip's worth of gas. But with splitting the tourneys, we have the option to move the tourneys around. Dodge City, Hays, Salina, Wichita, Topeka, Pittsburg, Emporia?, just shooting from the hip there. So there is a possibility that the tourney might be close enough to save the entire hotel room. Right now, only the Topeka area families benefit from having the state tourney in Topeka. I would look forward to sleeping in my own bed during the state tourney for a change. Not to mention the fact that we get HOSED big time on hotel rates in Topeka. With only 900 kids versus 1600 kids, the demand is way down, and the prices would not be so high.
Remember, Wichita and Topeka are the ONLY options for running our state tourney in its current format. Wichita was way high on their "bid", so Topeka is where we are stuck for now.......It's like going to the only car lot in town and they have two cars to choose from, one you struggle to afford, and the other you CAN'T afford. It is the lesser of two evils. With the split tourneys, you get OPTIONS.
Not to mention that the state tourney is a bear to coach the finals, as there are 15 matches (5 age divisions, 1st, 3rd, 5th place matches at same time) going on at the same time. It would be nice to be able to watch more than one of those matches at the same time. At least if we split, there would only be 9 matches going on at the same time. (3 age divisions, 1st, 3rd, 5th place matches at same time)
