Last night I had one of the most fun times I have had at a high school dual or meet. Do you know why? The two kids clubs and Derby High School and Ark City High School teams agreed to something that more high schools and clubs should agree to. Prior to the Derby / Ark City Dual there were 7 or 8 kid wrestlers from each club that dualed prior to the high school match. It was great seeing the kids coach from Derby, and the kids coach from Ark City there coaching their kids, giving them high fives, congrats and so forth no matter what they did. You know what else was great, was seeing the wrestlers from both of the high school teams pull the wrestlers in to their circle after the match and give them a congrats.

We talk about ways to build this sport, let me tell you this will do it. Imagine the extra parents, grandparents, family members in the stands to watch the little kids. Imagine the kids and how they felt on the big mat, with their respective high school wrestlers cheering them on. It was great!

Thanks to both Derby and Ark City for a wonderful night, both the high schools and kids clubs worked together to do something for the kids. Not only did it do it for the kids though, it did something for the fans in the stands. I hope to see more of this in the future, as far as I can tell, it is nothing but a win, win situation.

Manhattan and Clay Center did something similar to this last week at their dual. It's a good idea.

Yes it was neat to see! It brought back memories of when Seth got to do that when he was 6 years old...@ a High School dual with Winfield. It really pumps those kids up. He still remembers that to this day and was talking about it last night. The dual last night was an exciting one...CONGRATS to both teams!

Ken, yes it was a great dual, I think the rivalry is what made it even more fun. Ark City is a tough tough team and Coach Silvis and Elliot have done a great job with the wrestlers. Coach Ross, and the rest of his staff also had the Derby boys ready. Of course I was really glad that it ended up the way it did. The last match of the heavys was great and the fans, on both sides were into it. Congrats to Derby on the win, but also Ark City which is a class team with class fans.

That reminds me of Junior Nationals at Cedar Falls Ia. in the early 90s' when the World Greco guys had their finals at the same location as the kids. It was surreal to see Randy (The Natural) Couture and Michael Foy going at it at the same tourney as the junior nationals. It was very cool for the kids as well as everyone that was there.

Sounds like i missed a great evening. Congrats to all!!