Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School 7th & 8th Graders on Varsity

While sitting at home thinking about the futures of my boys, Walker and Texas Ranger, the thought occurred to me that it would be exciting to see them participate at the varsity level for a few more years.

How cool would it be for a wrestler from Kansas to hoist six state championships? Mark Hall of Apple Valley, Minnesota, is a perfect example of a wrestler chasing the title of "six timer."

Hall started his career out in Kentucky where he finished 2nd at 119 in the 7th grade. Then he moved to Apple Valley where he was held back because of his age. He has since finished as a state champion in Minnesota the past two seasons. This is now his freshman year and he is the top ranked 152 pounder in the nation.

Held back because of his age...?

That's the reasoning anyways behind him being held back, but it was to get another chance at winning six state titles. Either way Hall has a bright future ahead of him.

Hold the phone here for Walker and Texas Ranger Mark Hall did not start out in Kentuck he actually started out I belive in Michigan then family chasing the dream moved to Kentuck then back to Michigan to re-establish his grade or some trick who knows then to Minnesota.
There has been a few trying to go after this.

Jerry, you are correct. MI does not allow 7th graders to compete so his dad took him to KY. I still like the idea of letting the JR high kids compete. Lincoln McElravy was a 6 timer in SD and a rare NCAA champ as a true freshman at Iowa. Let them compete.

Lincoln McIlravy was a 5x I believe

Dale, you are correct. He won one state title in Jr High.

In 2009 Brian Whitt became Virginias first 5 time state champion

I agree if your good enough to compete! My question is should your age should match your grade? I don't think a 14 year old 7th grader or 15 year old 8th grader should have 4 to 5 more years to compete? How old is Mark Hall today? IMO

Mark Hall will be 16 in January. His birthdate is 1/11/1997 according to his bio on TheMat.com. Which means he'll turn 19 during the middle of his senior season.

South Dakota has produced two 6 time state champs, Kirk Walman and Logan Storley.

Below are the current rankings for South Dakota's two classes. Take a look at how the Jr. high kids increase participation especially in the smaller "B" class. It would do wonders for Kansas wrestling rooms!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AslzhUW5ZMVhdG9NU2pnS3VGTDBaeWJwRnVtMWxQUGc#gid=1
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AslzhUW5ZMVhdHIzaDRXNGpfSS01SU5zNWd5M29kTVE#gid=0

Looks Like Logan Storley of Minnesota
is in finals at s.scuffle 174

Big test for him in the finals!

Hope I am not stomping on your thread Ricky..

In addition to Jr. high participation there are a few other things that SD does that I think would be beneficial to KS.

1. A two class system. Four is way to many.

2. Regional qualifications. In SD you have conference, district and regional tourneys leading up to state. You must qualify for state by placing at regions and you must qualify for regions by placing at districts. Therefore, less competitive wrestlers can switch to kids wrestling earlier and coaches can concentrate on preparing their top wrestlers for the State tourney. Makes qualifying for state that much more special.

2. At tournaments.. proper warm-up areas for wrestlers with mats for stretching, sparring, instruction and for wrestlers to relax rather than clogging up the bleachers. Wrestlers weight classes are paged to report to the warm-up area rather than the mat, Runners (usually attractive girls) take the bout sheet from the head table to the warm-up area to retrieve the wrestlers and escort them to the correct mat. This gets rid of all the congestion mat-side and gives the wrestlers a place to focus and prepare!

2 classes for SD, that would make 1 class for every 450,000 (or less) people in that state. How many classes would we need in Kansas to have that same ratio?

Kansas population: 2,871,238 - Jul 2011 Source: U.S. Census Bureau

If my math is correct, 6 classes in kansas would be around the same ratio as SD.

South Dakota would have more total HS wrestlers when you consider that 7th and 8th graders are eligible.

We only have 4 wrestling classifications. 720,000 per class, roughly.

Minnesota 5,345,000 population and three wrestling classifications. 1,781,000 per class, roughly.

I think population of state doesn't matter as much as enrollment in school. KS may have 2 million people, but I'm willing to bet that KS has less than 75,000 Kids enrolled into all the high schools in the state. And if less than 8% of a schools population wrestles, you are looking at about 6,000 or less wrestlers in the state, with the majority wrestling in 4-6A schools. Divide that by 4 class and you have 1500 per class, well we have 14 weight class so if it was spread out evenly that's 107 kids per weight, divided by 4 regionals, 26.75 kids in a region, and since most regionals don't have more than 20 schools, my math must be off.....long story short, sorry for wasting your time....Let the JR HIGH KIDS WRESTLE!!