I have seen lots of discussions about Novice on this board and was also looking at some past results and wanted to ask what (if any) is the process to validate that the kids in this tournament are truly 1st year only? I agree it should be the coaches/directors but I don't think that always works.
In a small sampling I saw kids wrestling in this tournament last year that show previous season entries and results in track.
Another example of the Novice debate I found was a kid that won this tournament last year is still wrestling Novice this year, I feel if you win this tournament it's time to move on to open class.
I don't expect the tournament director to research all this but maybe if the entries are posted early like the Salina guys did last week coaches, directors and those "over protective" parents could do the investigative work.
Novice is a tricky topic, but I think for tournaments like this it can be enforced and monitored that everyone is a 1st year wrestler. After that the coaches/directors/parents of those kids that are truly trying or capable to succeed in the sport will move on, the others will choose to stay in the minors and wrestle for years and for some kids that is OK as not all of them are capable of winning a match in legit open tournament but still enjoy the sport.
