To ALL USAWKS Members & Supporters:

During the 2022 State Body meeting this past fall we had a significant response in the form of discussion and suggestions during the election for the 2022-23 Olympic Styles Director position. This feedback was very constructive and we, the USAWKS Board Members, wanted to get a response out early rather than waiting until the Spring or end of Folkstyle season. We wanted our membership to know that we heard you and we are acting upon your requests!

Director James Bilby has been working hard behind the scenes to encourage collaboration and more participation to assist him in managing the many events, camps, traning opportunities, and practice rooms across the state. EVERYONE is invited to get involved and he has been evangelizing across the state on phone calls and via emails.

He organized a call to include those who want to get their foot in the door early and only twelve coaches participated on this call. I want to help James and all of the USAWKS athletes by getting more communication out to the masses.

Below you will find a letter from Director Bilby outlining HOW TO GET INVOLVED. Please read, print, post, hand out and communicate to all of those who want spring and summer mat time to help them reach their quest to become winter champions!



Kansas Wrestling Community,



Hope winter is going well as the folkstyle season is just getting underway.



Since our 2022 State Body Meeting in October we have tried to prep the upcoming season in advance so that wrestlers, coaches, and parents can plan accordingly. This is the first time we have taken a proactive look this far in advance in a number of years if not ever. Of course when spring weather comes so does baseball and soccer yet we would love to see more Kansas wrestlers compete in our Olympic styles of Freestyle and Greco. More mat time will always help in the making of winter champions.



We will be sending out a master schedule at this time that illustrates camps, events in state, and also out of state through the end of July. As this list grows and changes we will update it as regularly as we can. We also will be adding some framework on the immense amount of duties/things that have to take place within our Men's and Women's programs through the course of the next few months.



This season we will take a strong look at our regional training sites across the state to one add continuity and secondly to ensure the same technique is being taught at these locations on a weekly basis. Our team has also worked on creating a YouTube Channel "Kansas Wrestling (Handle: kansaswrestling) in which we will add videos to compliment what is being taught at our RTCs for those that can't make it or also want to work on their own outside of practice. Additionally, we will be using Microsoft Teams to further help collaborate, store files, and communicatie in our dial in calls. Yet the biggest task we ask is this takes an all hands on deck approach across our state. So if you would like to get involved with coaching or have wrestlers looking to get on the mat more outside of the Kids and High School season please send me an email at kansasfreco@gmail.com or give me a call 316-650-9338.



At this time we are asking for volunteers to help on our various trips this spring and summer. If that includes you please send me a note no later than Dec 30th so we can further refine our list and POCs and Team Leaders.



Yours in Wrestling,

James Bilby



Please feel free to reach out to ANY USAWKS board member if you are interested or have questions.

Happy Holidays!

Will Cokeley

USAWKS State Chairman

willcokeley@gmail.com

708 267 6615 Cell