Fellow USAW members:
This past weekend we wrapped up another Kansas high school season and now we are less than two weeks from our flagship event, USAWKS Kids State. As we shift our focus to that I wanted to address a few things.
HIGH SCHOOL:
First off, congratulations to all of the KSHSAA State Champions and placers. It was a challenging season and making it to state became two weeks of elimination and qualifying matches instead of just one. A special congratulations to coaches Parker, Means, Eck, Harris, and Porsch. Coach Parker took home Washburn Rural’s first ever boys 6A Team State Title. His commitment and enthusiasm paid off as he won both the large school girls title and the 6A title. Brett Means walked away with his seventh championship in as many years. Goddard and the Young Guns have a strong feeder system that has given them a stranglehold on the 5A trophy. Coach Doug Eck, in his rookie campaign, took home a state championship trophy in an exciting team race that lasted almost to the end of the tournament. His freshman son Owen pulled off a big win in the finals over a senior to put them in position to jump over Chanute after the next to last match of the night. Coach Kit Harris garnered the small class girls team trophy with a team effort that included no state champions. That is winning a title the hard way! 321A was very anticlimactic as Coach Porsch’s Hoxie Indians RAN away with the title. I think they may have had it locked up before the end of the first round. CONGRATULATIONS to these coaches, their wrestlers and to their kids programs that are always instrumental in making winning a team state title happen. Lastly, a special shout out to Coach Mike Juby! He leveraged his free time away from USAWKS to crowning Buhler High’s first ever 2x State Champion, an undefeated state champion who has one more year to go! Good work Coach Juby!
KIDS STATE:
As we move ahead to March 12th I want to thank the board, all of the volunteers, and especially Richard Salyer for all of the hard work that has gone into making a Kids State Tournament possible. I have been reading the various social media sites where most of our members have been very, very grateful that we are having a state tournament and it makes the hard work feel worthwhile. We knew going into the start of the 2020-21 campaign it was going to be extremely challenging and there was going to be NO WAY to make 100% of our members happy yet we all did our best to come up with a plan we could make happen. Does it all make sense? NO! Is it the same as we have enjoyed for nearly 30 years? NO Should we be having team parties and large groups gathered to celebrate? NO! Should we weigh everyone in on Friday night? NO! So many NO answers this year and we do not want them to become the “new norm” but we made decisions to put USAWKS in the proper perception given the current political and medical climate. This doesn’t mean we agree or disagree but it means we want to do what we can to make sure we get to wrestle. I personally want to apologize to anyone who is upset with the way we had to change plans as I do strive to make 100% of you happy as members of this great organization. With all this in mind, let’s be very positive and focus on the fact that we are going to wrestle and compete, which was something we were NOT allowed to do last year.

Best of luck to all!