Tonight we start practice for the Kansas Wizzers at Derby High School. The Wizzers, as many have noticed in the past is a different kind of club. We have a USA Kansas Club Charter and are officially a Kansas Wrestling Club. We have a different kind of focus though which I will mention here.
It is our objective to produce and provide as many opportunities as possible for Kansas Junior High, and Kansas High School aged wresters. We are a strong supporter of the various kids programs and will continue to do so. However, our objective is to work within the rules and guidelines of USA Wrestling and the KSHSAA. For that reason, our emphasis is specific to Junior High or Middle School, and High School aged wrestlers. In fact we encourage the Middle School or Junior High program wrestlers to wrestle with Kids Programs if there are no kids programs available in their community or school district.
We start practice tonight and have worked to insure that we do not duplicate practice days with Wichita North West and Coach Ed. In fact we encourage HS aged Wrestlers, and Middle School aged wrestlers to practice at one of the other locations on the nights we don’t have practice. We have issue with so many times during off HS season there seems to be competition between clubs. We believe this to be a detriment because it thins out the rooms and number of practice partners. Our desire is to work with all of the clubs in the area during the HS off season to provide the best opportunities possible.
One of the things we have done, and will continue to do, is seek out tournaments and promote the Kansas HS Wrestler to the best of our ability in order to provide the best opportunity possible for them. It is our belief, that on a HS level, we promote team Kansas as opposed to Team “whatever you want to insert here.” We will be looking at some dual format tournaments, and hopefully those will include both in state and out of state teams. As a part of this we will focus on aggressive, physical wrestling where needed, learning various styles, and having various clinicians come into the room to instruct. We will also work at promoting the wrestler to the next level by putting them into contact with various college programs. We have referred wrestlers to various programs around the country, as many HS wrestlers, coaches, parents and colleges are familiar with. We also have individuals working with the Wizzers who are active in the national ranking services for HS Wrestlers. We will focus on individual wrestlers strengths, and will practice all three styles of wrestling year round, when the club holds practices.
Currently practices are at Derby HS from 6:30- 8:30 Mondays and Wednesdays until the Kids program there starts. Once the kids program starts, we will readjust our practice times and days. We will start practice tonight, 9/27/06. Practice starts at 6:30, we expect at this level, wrestlers be ready to practice at this time.
There will be sign up information available for The Wizzers tonight, we do welcome all wrestlers whether with the Wizzers or not within these age groups to practice with the team. A USA Membership card is required to practice with the team, and we will have information available to sign up for a USA Card at each practice.
One of the attributes of the program is a strong emphasis on basics, identifying your wrestling style, and getting stronger at that, finding your optimal wrestling weight, and conditioning. There is a lot of live situational wrestling in the room, with minimal instruction on technique. Don’t get this wrong, there are clinical and practice sessions where technique will be focused on, but on a HS level, with the level of wrestlers who have been in the room in the past, we believe a greater focus has to be given to toughness, conditioning, and live situations. We will work with a lot of old school techniques, that are legal, and within the rules, but not always pleasant.
For more information or updates you can email me at mike@furches.org or call me at 316-258-3952 Sign up information and team guidelines will be available tonight.
