Southern Plains: Bob Phillips asked Jeff Sheets to bring up that all participants (Southern Plains Kids) in the Southern Plains Tournament be required to attend the camp held prior to Southern Plains. Charlie Knox and Barry Disney made the motion and seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.
Many of you may not care about this issue but I still feel it is worthy of discussion prior to this Sunday's meeting. I have been heavily involved in summer wrestling for the past four years and I have seen a steady decline since the Southern Plains tournament moved to New Mexico. Last year we had a little more than 30 kids participating. Summer wrestling produces the future Kansas stars who will wrestle in college. We need the number of wrestlers to grow not shrink. Last year our Schoolboy dual team was forced to forfeit five weights because we could not fill a team. There are many, many contributing reasons that we have seen a decline and no one is going to fix all of them. I do, however, feel like the mandate above has to be overturned by a vote this Sunday. MAKING kids attend a camp does not increase participation. Kids (and we are talking about 8 to 14 year olds specifically) should be allowed to make choices and explore opportunities. Until someone says "Hey, Kansas has way too many wrestlers at Southern Plains!" then the tournment should have NO REQUIREMENTS attached to it. I say that, however, I would support requiring participation at the Freestyle/Greco Roman state tournment as the kids numbers barely exceeded 100 wrestlers last summer. Last year, Schoolboy dual participants were forced to be away from home for nearly two weeks by this arrangment. Kids need a break and their bodies need time to recover. Maybe a prep camp isn't what each kid needs, let them choose. The camp is good and I have sent my kid there every year but it should not be mandated.
You will hear all sorts of lame discussion regarding dads coaching, kids not prepared, Kansas Coaches not knowing kids, etc. Disregard all of that as someone(s) trying to exert too much control over a sport that thrives on individualism. Let our kids play baseball, soccer, or whatever during the week before or attend the camp if wrestling is all that they want to do but let it be their CHOICE. VOTE SUNDAY TO OVERTURN THIS MANDATE!!!
I am anxious to hear your feedback.
