Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School JUNIOR HIGH COACHES-Season of Sport survey

The NCKL made the switch from after Christmas to before around nine years ago. I don't believe anyone is dissatisfied with the switch. We actually gained a week to our season by making the switch. Junior high football ends on a Thursday and we start practice the following Wednesday. We get 13 practices in before our first competition. Before the switch we had two tournaments, we are now able to attend four as a result. This also benefitted basketball tremendously. We have eight BB teams 7th grade through varsity and access to five gyms, which is more than most schools. Junior high teams were sharing time and practiced about an hour and fifteen minutes. Freshman teams were trading off practicing before school one week and after school the next. By changing the format, which is JH wrestling and JH girls BB before X-mas and JH boys after, this freed up gym space and they are now able to practice longer. The hardest sale in my opinion is the athletic directors. When the switch is made all new schedules have to be made, but this is a one-time thing and some tweaking can be done after the initial switch. I too believe that everyone should get on the same page, as we can't compete with the schools to the west of us, which would be the one negative. As near as I can tell because many have asked (NCAA, MCL, Dodge City, AVL) the coaches are in agreement and they want to switch. One last thing that has been brought to my attention is the fact that coaches are getting increasingly hard to find, especially in the junior high ranks. I have a friend who coaches both JH girls and then boys BB because he wants to, plus the school doesn't have to go searching for more coaches. These are my observations and if anyone has any questions feel free to contact me. I've been in Concordia for 28 years and most everyone knows where to find me.

Doug Moore