Now let's talk about the disadvantage this puts some families at if we split the Kids State Tournament. How about the families that have a younger kid(6,8 or 10) and older kids also(12,14 & 16)? You are telling these families in a time of hard times anyway, that now you will have to go to 3 different state tournaments in 3-4 weeks time. Here we are trying to figure out how to keep families from leaving our wrestling ranks, but we offer up an idea that in the long run is just going to cost more money. Truthfully, I like having the Kids State Tournament the way it is. It doesn't interfere with my high school age childs state tournament, and it gives my high school/middle school kids a chance to participate in a format that is similar to qualifying for the high school state tournament, which is needed so our younger participants that are serious about the sport are going to have to get used to. Maybe we as parents should entertain the idea of not allowing our child to participate in tournaments except for ones scheduled in January, February and March. This would keep the tournament participation down to 3 months time, with maybe 2 weeks to 1 month of practice before hand.
As far as high schoolers being allowed in, if it wasn't for our Kids program allowing them the opportunity to wrestle in this type of tournament, we may not have any of the serious sticking it out and maybe advancing on to college.
This may get alot of response, but as everyone says, "Everyone has an opinion." I respect everyone elses opinion on this matter, and this is mine.
