I heard through the rumor mill that our state executive board has redrawn the districts. I understand that the club I am involved in was affected by the change but it seems that no one has bothered to communicate these changes to the clubs who were affected, let alone get our feelings or input on the change! Does anyone else feel this way and does anyone have a map they would like to share cause the USAWKS website does not reflect the changes?

Heard the same. Don't have a map for you. From what I understand D1 lost Brown, Doniphan, Jackson, Osage and Coffey county to D3 and Woodson, Allen and Bourton then everything south of those counties to D2. Rice Reno, Kingman and Harper went to D4. Smith, Osborne and Russell also went D4. That is from memory and looking a State map to recall counties.

I would like to think that something that changes the dynamic of the State would get the majority paying members opinion also.

More changes talked about, get rid of HS division or move to own "special" series, no sub district for some, bring 6U into State tournament, combine bylaws into 1 corporation.

Well.....Its been fun District 1. You will be missed....:)

Whoa now what happen to district 5 Jamy?

The re-alignment of districts has been talked about for years and if you hadn't heard about it I'm not sure where you've been. Props to the Executive Council for taking on several controversial issues in this most recent meeting.

The Kids Executive Council met this past Sunday to consider a number of possible changes dealing with the Kids Division, but also with potential changes to our organization as a whole.

The most important topic of discussion was the consolidation of the Corporate Board and the Kids Executive Council. Currently the two boards, and many of the individuals on those two boards, have overlapping responsibilities. Mike Juby has prepared a document, a new set of By-Laws, to bring our statewide organization under one governing body. The Kids Executive Council voted unanimously to implement the consolidation of the two boards through the new By-Laws. In order for this consolidation to become final, the consolidation must be approved by the Corporate Board, and be approved by a 2/3 majority of our membership at the State Body Meeting in the Fall. Mike will provide further explanation and the new By-Laws by separate correspondence.

One change approved by the Kids Executive Council, which will take effect immediately, was a vote to change the District boundaries. This topic has been discussed a number of times by the Council over the last four years. The Council worked to balance the desire to equalize the membership in each District with the desire to change the District assignments as little as possible. The past district structure had the following statewide membership percentages: District 1 – 39%, District 2 – 20%, District 3 – 22%, and District 4 – 19%. A number of different options were reviewed. The final product does not completely even the number of members in each district, but does bring the membership numbers closer to an equal amount in each district. The new district structure has the following statewide membership percentages: District 1 – 28%, District 2 – 25%, District 3 – 24%, and District 4 – 23%.

The following counties were moved from their current District:
From District 1 to District 3 – Doniphan, Brown, Jackson, Osage, Coffey.
From District 1 to District 2 – Woodson, Allen, Bourbon, Neosho, Crawford, Labette, and Cherokee.
From District 3 to District 4 – Smith, Osborne, Russell, Rice, and Reno.
From District 2 to District 4 – Kingman and Harper.

Although no others decisions were made, the Council did discuss several other topics:
* The need for Sub-District Tournaments.
* Holding a high school only division state tournament the week after high school state.
* Moving the high school division out of the Kids state tournament and brining in the 6U division.
* Moving the Kids state tournament to an earlier date and starting the Olympic styles earlier.
* Requirement to have membership cards prior to entry into any tournament or prior to any seeding meeting.
* Altering entry deadlines for Sub-District or District Tournament
* Elimination of the state series waiver form.

Matt Treaster
Kids Director

So basicaly 1/2 the area of the state is now district 4 while the rest comprise the other 3. This will reduce participation in the sport! Great thinking.

Even though I understand that from a numbers aspect this looks like a good idea. But over the past few years we have been trying to promote the sport by running split formats to save time and doing things to save money for our families. So we can grow our numbers across the state. Now in district 4 there is possibilities that a family may have to travel around 360 miles for districts and then turn around the next week and drive another 380 miles to state if they make it. I don't feel this is keeping our families in mind when it comes to promoting the sport and saving time and money. But this is just my opinion and I would like to welcome the new teams to district 4.

Lance Geyer

Long time coming with re-districting. District 4 had to travel a bit but had very little competition to qualify for the state tournament while many good wrestlers in other districts were left at home. How this will "reduce the participation in the sport", according to Revolution, is pretty shallow. What, now you won't wrestle because you have to earn your way to state? Please. Nice job Executive Council. Needed to be done. Now let the whiners whine away.

Exactly! True western Kansaners understand that before long, if not already, they will be driving an hour to school/practice and accept it as a way of life.

Bryan...Sorry my friend. With budget cuts and the next pending El Nino approaching we have scrapped the idea of District 5. We are also leery that the remaining districts may have to offer up 2 wrestlers yearly to appease the Executive Council....Or was that the movie "The Hunger Games"? haha...

With the idea of holding the State tournament earlier, will the season start earlier as well or just be shortened? I like the idea of starting the season a little earlier to give the kids some mat time before some of them head to Tulsa or Iowa.

I envision a time when there are 8 districts and all the wrestlers hug each other following a match.

Whoaa...Easy now!! That's a little creepy!!

So every year the Executive Council could shuffle or re-shuffle the districts?

Considering the last time the districts were redrawn was early 90's?, I don't think that should be a concern.

I don't believe this will have any change with participation in the sport but I do wonder if anything was accomplished with the issue of D4 and little competition. If I read the numbers correctly we only added about 454 kids to D4 and not sure how many of those participate in the qualifying series. While I will acknowledge that there are great wrestlers in D4 the numbers therefore overall quality just won't match the other districts. It's not their fault it's just the way western KS is and I understand that as I grew up there.

Getting rid of Sub Districts wouldn't have much impact on D4 but could have a major impact on other districts. Could easily see 32 man brackets with a seeding meeting that takes hours to do correctly.

Has anyone worked up a break - down of what clubs are now in which district?

To reply to Ram: Our club qualified in D2 before, I think they earned every trip! (Still think D2 has most medals won at state?) My point is we usualy do not have to cross but one county or go to the boarder county to go to districts or Sub tournament. Now we may have to travel 700 miles to Sub, 600 miles to Distrits and 300+ miles to State. Our Club will still wrestle in the "Local" tournaments, so D4 will not benefit from our numbers until qualifiers - if they go. So D4 will still have low participation at District tournaments as most of the "also rans" will stay home, while only the truly committed and contender type kids will participate in those tournaments. Parents will not travel that far and purchase motel rooms if they were used to doing the process in an afternoon so to speak.

Yes, and the information will be available at the District meetings.