Took my son out to Southern Plains camp yesterday and have a few thoughts on the camp and summer wrestling in general...

First, looked like a great staff assembled for coaches at the camp, and with Kenny Monday coming it should be top notch instruction. That is a major positive. The numbers seemed way down though. Almost no schoolboy kids since they were just returning from SB duals. As a side note numbers around KS seems way down in summer wrestling in general. We have to figure out a way to better manage the schedules and promote summer wrestling in our state. This is how we get passed as a state in wresting. We wrestle extensively in both MO and KS. I can honestly tell you when we go to MO the FS participation is up 50% at the kids level, when we go in KS it's down the same amount. For those of us who believe this is the key to outstanding future wrestlers, this does not look good for our state.

The Schoolboy team had to almost beg to get a team together. Many of the top youth kids are not wrestling except during kids season. This will hurt us in the long run. The Cadet and JR level seems to have a core group committed to year round wrestling. At the SB age down however there are only a handful. What can we do to get more participation from our SB age and down?

Final note the dorms at FHSU were one of the big selling points last year for having moved Southern Plains camp. They were great. This year the kids were moved to the old dorms and quite honestly there are a dirty dump!!!! I have talked to my son and he does think he is getting alot out of the camp, he loves the workout room and the cafeteria, just hates the rooms.

Just some various ramblings. We have a great state and leadership, but I am fearful we are going to be left behind in the years to come.

Thanks for listening,

24/7