I don't think Oklahoma is the model to follow for the state tournament format, weights or age divisions. The inherent problems are the same as Kansas at this point. Nothing at all against Oklahoma. The example was great and appreciated but i think we need to do some outside of the box thinking here
i love watching the 6 and unders wrestle, lets face it, the majority of those kids are out only because of being placed there. There is no need to have them there.
I really think that we should think about a couple of things here, one--maximizing the time factor for everyone, shorter times in between, "slotted" vs a split format or current format. Example: 8 to 11, all the available mats are for age groups 10 u, 12 u, etc. Someone with the analytical ability of Mr Salyer could figure a proper length of time based on number of mats and matches.
Also as a former middle school and high school coach, i just think it is critical to have a kid come in to high school off a successfull year of middle school and kids wrestling. I lost a ton of kids who as decent 8th grade wrestlers got there butts handed to them in the kids division between 8th & 9th grade. A lot of the time it was the fragile ego of the parent that factored in but it cost me a lot of decent kids who may have let themselves develop in to good high schoolers. How many kids do u know do the yo-yo, have the good year on top of the age division and the not so good year on the bottom. I even had one family on my club team wrestle only on the on top year. It was crazy.
When i was in Nebraska, i was able to supplement my son's years on the bottom side with AAU tournaments that were based on grade level. So when he was a young 12 and under, he was on top in the 5th and 6th grade AAU division. It was nice and paved over some bumpy roads when the success was harder to come by. It worked wonders on his confidence level and by the end of the season, it really did not matter he was on the downside of the age group, and he had success.
