I do not like the idea of splitting up the state tournament into 2 different weekends. And why are you looking at cutting the wrestling season down by a month and a half. I do understand that wrestling is not a cheap sport with travel and entry expenses but if you cant afford it you don't have to go every weekend. I would hate to see the season get shortened that much. This must have been Cokeleys idea.
Thank you for giving me the credit for coming up with these ideas for improvement. It was actually a collaboration and we all understood that there would be a few that would be very opposed without really giving this any in depth thought.
Our Kids series runs into spring break conflicts, NCAA national tournament conflicts, and into spring sports. For the past several years we have hovered at 1/3 of our Kansas USA Wrestling members participating in the state series. Our greatest numbers are in the 6, 8, and 10 groups. We need to get the majority of these kids off the mat sooner and try to reach the 65% that have not been participating. If you are not trying ideas to grow then you are letting your sport down!
Ask yourself these questions:
Are these age groups getting better because we hold them hostage until late March or is there significant drop out because they grew tired of riding in the car and sitting in the gym? These are grade school kids...
How do you propose to add 6U to the current state format? There is NOT a USAWKS sponsored 6U state at this time...
We are just asking for everyone to state the facts and open this up to some other possible attempts to improve...
