Several of us (myself included) have suggested that all of us have the ability to lessen our level of participation and still have our child benefit from their participation. This is true, there is no doubt about that. But I believe we would all have to admit that if we are limiting the wrestlers' participation to just practices or a few meets a year that they are not getting the same experience as a wrestler who gets to compete in a full schedule of meets (especially the top ones that often require overnight travel expenses). When this happens, a sport does become more of a sport for wealthier families(I have heard this said about golf and other high expense sports).

I think that this is the challenge of this question. Are we providing an affordable enough situation for most people that they are able to send their kids to a challenging enough set of meets that they can grow to be the best wrestler that they can be. It is affordable enough for my family and I believe for most of the families in my club. It probably is for the majority of families that do participate.

But costs are inching up and it has probably made many cut back in their participation. I just think it is something we need to keep in mind. There are many families that have either lost a job or have had to take new jobs at reduced levels of income in the last several years. If there are small ways that we can try to hold the line on some tournament fees and other expenses that are associated with them, I think it should be done. Some of you might have some ideas on how that could be done.

I will offer one example. Manhattan is having a tournament this weekend. The last weigh-in time for Saturday is 7:30 AM. We would have to leave about 5 AM in the morning to make it and have to get up about 4:30 AM. To me I believe 4:30 is too early to wake up a wrestler who has to wrestle that day. This makes it very difficult for people in the Kansas City area to leave on Saturday and make it there by that deadline. Several families from my club have decided to go up and spend the night at a hotel. This is an extra night of travel expenses that maybe could be avoided if we were given an extra 45 minutes for the weigh in deadline. This is a small example but maybe a bunch of small things could add up.