Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion Kids Folkstyle Middle School - Pioneer League Wrestling

The way the seasons are scheduled in this league put wrestling at a huge disadvantage in trying to recruit kids to our sport. Basketball starts in early November and runs through the first week of February. Wrestling starts in early January and runs to the first week of March. Kids start basketball then are told to finish that season before they start wrestling or at best have to split time until basketball is over. By then kids that have not wrestled before are starting in the middle of season and get 4 weeks to improve enough to want to do it again the next year.

Football season is 8-9 weeks, wrestling is 8-9 weeks, track is 8-9 weeks and basketball is 13 weeks and overlaps the wrestling season by 4 weeks.

In other leagues the seasons are built so they don't overlap which allows everyone to try both which seems to me to be the most healthy way to do it. What can be done to help the way the seasons are scheduled in the pioneer league?

Been there done that, agree with your point and probably several more items that impact the sport that you didn't mention.

There was alot of work done several years ago with almost no traction gained.

By traction I mean not many school officials bout into change the season to align with the other parts of the state.

I know there could be some isolated incidents of abuse but with the way wrestling is set-up in this part of the state I can not understand why the rules can not be changed to allow them to wrestle a tournament with the club on weekends where there is not a conflict with a middle school tournament.

There are many weeks when a wrestler only wrestles one match (because of open weights) in a given week.

This seems to a reoccurring theme. Every year something is brought up about middle school wrestling. I am a middle school coach, and there are many issues that should be changed. Like Purple_Freak stated...It would be great if KSHSAA would allow athletes to do kids and middle school wrestling at the same time. It would also be great if ALL middle schools in Kansas wrestled their season at the same time...whether it be October-December or January-March. I would just appreciate the consistency.

Teamroper - do you know what was done a few years ago? Would it take several schools deciding to form their own league? The pioneer league is pretty big - about 25 schools in 4 divisions. Maybe the bigger schools don't have trouble getting enough kids out but are the ones that get to make the decisions?

First thing would be to get all the coaches (wrestling) to agree on when would be a good season. Next would be to convince administration to take it to the league to discuss. This is by far the hardest part. Equity is not their concern.

We have about 25 teams divided into 5 divisions so even contacting all 25 coaches will be a challenge but I think you are right to get the coaches on first then ADs then take it to the league.

When are the season's for other leagues? Does it make the most sense to wrestle for middle school Nov-Dec then do club wrestling Jan-March?

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