I hope everyone had a productive summer but it's time to get your teams organized if you have not already. I just want to say thanks to all those people who spend hours upon hours to get these team up and running. It's the effort of these people who will advance our sport.
The SW Conference Open is less than 2 1/2 months away. It's time to get your paperwork into the national office and start planning out your season. I hope the talk of Washburn & Pitt fielding sanctioned teams this season comes to pass. By no means is it easy but just think if because of your efforts your school ends up sponsoring a varsity team down the road your efforts are well worth it. It has happend at few schools, Belmount Abbey and Newberry most recently both D2 schools.
If you haven't noticed I'm from Texas and you probably wonder why I promote the NCWA and college wrestling on your forums. It's rather simple without Kansas NCWA teams who would Texas teams compete with? If KU or KSU adds wrestling that will make the Texas Big XII schools have to look at adding wrestling as well. This year Newman joined the Heritage Conference and hopefully Texas colleges in the Heritage Conference will take note of Newman wrestling squad and will add one too. I believe to growth of college wrestling in Kansas and Texas are intertwined.

Please see below for the 2006 SWC Open. This is from Dennis McGrane:

We hope the tournament will be even bigger than last
year with your participation. We hope you will be able to attend. This year the NWCA All-Star Duals will be held in Dallas on Monday Nov. 20th. We have been able to arrange for any teams that would like to stay and attend the duals will be able to purchase discounted tickets for the duals and the host hotel will extend the discounted room rates thru the weekend. Please let me know if you are interested in staying for the duals, as I need a ticket count for the organizers. If you have any questions, please let me know. Hope to see you in November.


2006 SWC Open
Wrestling Tournament

2006 Tournament: UTA Wrestling SWC Open

Place: Student Activity Center, The University of Texas-Arlington

Date: Saturday, November 18, 2006

Weigh in and All entries must be submitted by 4:00 p.m. Thursday November 16th. Fax your
Verification: entries to us at (817)-858-0036, between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on
November 16th. Call to confirm your entries at (817)-858-0870.

Weigh-ins will be conducted on Saturday, November 18th at 8:00 a.m. by
weight classes at each scale. If a wrestler fails to make the weight he is
entered at, there will be a $20.00 charge to move up to the next
weight. Skin checks will be immediately before weigh-ins.

Weight Classes: NCWA weights will be used: 125, 133, 141, 149, 157, 165, 174, 184, 197, 235, 285

Seeding: Outstanding individuals will be seeded based on information submitted with
faxed entries.

Sessions: 10:00 a.m. 1st round. The tournament will be run straight through to the finals.

Awards: Medals awarded for 1st through 4th.


Eligibility: Open to all wrestlers currently competing for recognized NCAA, NAIA or NCWA programs.


Rules: NCAA rules with the following exceptions:
1. Singlets acceptable as uniform
2. Six minute matches - Championship and consolation matches
3. No riding time
4. Headgear required

Entry fee: $20.00 per entry faxed in(Checks made out to the UTA Wrestling Booster Club or Cash only). Entry fee must be paid at check-in, before weighing
in. Check-in will be from 6:00 to 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 18th.
Entries not faxed by November 17th will be $30.00, no exceptions!


Lodging: Hilton Arlington Hotel 2401 E. Lamar Blvd Arlington, TX 76006Phone: 817-640-4715Fax: 817-652-0243Email: Cory.Ruelas@ihrco.comContact: Cory Ruelas- Director Sales$69.00 team rate (plus 15% and $.90 assessment fee…$80.25 per room, per night) $79.00 parents/fan rate (plus 15% and $.90 assessment fee…$91.75 per room, per night)

Questions: Contact Dennis McGrane, UTA Wrestling Asst. Coach
(817) 913-6832

When are the schools going to start practicing? I haven't heard anything yet about KU.

KU is regrouping due to a recent change in club status with the school. It is our sincere hope to build a "phoenix out the of the fire" so to speak, and come out with better organization, increased participation and an active advisory group from the Kansas wrestling community.

What was the change in status? Let me guess, less money?

Since the NCWA is an open tournament, does that mean that
individual wrestlers not affiliated with teams can enter?
I ask because I know a Kansas wrestler who competed in high
school in Texas last year and is thinking about returning to Texas to wrestle collegiately, though he hasn't yet
decided where to enroll. So, is it possible for someone in his
position to "go solo" to the tournament?

Also, are there any schools in the Dallas area besides UTD
and UTA that have wrestling clubs?

Thanks for any info you can provide.

In the DFW area we have 3 NCWA teams UTD, UTA & TCU. Last year one of the community colleges (TCC)formed a team but it doesn't look as though they compete this year. In order to compete in the SW Conference Open you must be part of a NCAA, NJCAA, NAIA or NCWA wrestling team. UTA would be the best wrestling opportunity of the three, but in any case please feel free to contact me to discuss further.

jeffmmccall@aol.com

So is there anything going on at KU or is it dead?

You need to check with Josh on that question. KU requires the students to control the administration of the team. Klint Deere coached and helped with the club administration last year but a non-student is only allowed to do a limited amount at KU. It is important for as many of students as possible to participate and to be actively involved in its administration to keep the Club active. I believe there were only one or two still wrestling actively at the end of last year and KU may have put the Club on an inactive status. A group of interested wrestlers like yourself need to get together with Josh to reactivate the club status and operation. I believe there could be some interested freshmen too. Bottom line though is that the KU wrestling students need to meet and work together to make this happen. My suggestion is for you and anyone else interested to contact Josh to see what if anything is being done right now to get the club active again and offer to help him reactivate the club status at KU. Recruiting interested and committed wrestlers would be an important first step. If you need help contacting Josh, Klint Deere can help.

I talked with NCWA last week, their suggestion is to get a club registered for KU irregardless of the status with the university.

I think we are at a point where we as a wrestling community need to chip in and get all of this resolved. Perhaps the solution is the establishment of a club team for KU outside of the campus club system.

Klint:

If it is possible to establish a KU wrestling club outside of the university administration that might very well be the best way to operate it going forward especially if we can get develop support from the wrestling community as you suggested. I think this approach could help give the KU club the stability it needs for long term success. Perhaps we need to meet on this along with some current interested KU student wrestlers. I would like to hear the NCWA suggestions on how to make this happen outside of university administration.