No. If there is a Jr. High team in ur area the kid doesn not have to wrestle for them. In fact I wouldn't let them wrestle Jr. High, for the reason of, I have seen a lot of awsome wreslters slip through the cracks a little bit and become worse than when they started. I didn't wreslte middle school even though the head coach kept asking me to. I stayed in kids and am very thankful of it. I got more mat time, more experience, I got to see what my opponents would be like come subs through state, and it really helped keep me where I needed to be as far as not slippin through the cracks.