One thing I always thought was interesting, and could possibly hurt participation numbers, is that there are no "rec leagues or tournaments" in Kansas.

I am defiantly not bashing on USA Wrestling, in any sense of the word, as they do what they have to do for their regulations and do great things for many kids. The things they do for the kids and what they do with Team Kansas are awesome. A lot of states don't have anything like Team Kansas and the opportunities for our kids that participate in Team Kansas stuff are extremely valuable.

However, all tournaments in our state seem to be USA Wrestling Sanctioned Tournaments. I'm mainly talking about your novice type tournaments. Thus parents have to register their kid in advance, weigh in the day before to make a weight, be placed in a weight division, buy a USA card, etc.. I know in Iowa, where I grew up, there are a lot of tournaments that aren't sanctioned by a governing body (AAU there). You would just show up the day of, register, weigh in, and then would be grouped in a 4 man round robin with whoever weighed around your weight. There were no weight classes or anything needed to do ahead of time. I know now there are many tournaments available like this still.

In Iow, If you are a good wrestler or wanted to take things more seriously, you would get an AAU card and attend the AAU sanctioned tournaments. I know we have novice tournaments in KS but those parents still have to do quite a bit of front work to get in to those. I am truly not bashing USA tournaments, as they are good for many kids, but I think that may be a part of the lower retention rates at our younger age groups. I know retention rate is a nation wide problem but you do have to make a decent commitment to compete in our current system, regardless of experience level. The commitment I'm talking about isn't for the kids but rather the commitment the parents have to make. I'm really not saying I have an answer or this is what we need to do, but rather just noticing a difference in systems. Many of my friends growing up wrestled in a couple small local tournaments a year while putting in a month of practice. In middle school those friends decided to get AAU cards because they wanted to be more serious and ended up being High State Placers in high school. I guess my question is - has there ever been these local non-sanctioned tournaments before in Kansas or has it always been only sanctioned tournaments? I am not looking for a debate - I'm just fairly new to Kansas and really just educating myself on our State's history and youth setup- as I'm sure there is a good reason why it's setup the way it is.