My 7yr. old started wrestling this yr. in another state, not Kansas. He started in Nov. and by Feb. he won the state Novice championship. 2 weeks before this our head coach asked me why he wasn't trying open, we are new to wrestling and were doing what the "signup" coach suggested. The signup coach has a 7 yr old same weight as my son in open. We were told my son a rookie, could wrestle open but he would have to move up in weight . so we did, but I'm bothered by this. Is it common in wrestling? My son wrestled 1 tournament in the open class with the coaches son and won. A big blowup followed for a week before we were told we couldn't wrestle in that wt. bracket. Please educate me on this, again we are rookies.
Thanks,
wrestling mom

There are so many clubs out there but, I don't know of many that will tell you where your kid HAS to wrestle. It should be by the weight of the child. We have 78 kids in our club and several are in the same weight brackets. It stinks to have to wrestle one of your own team mates but, that is the way it goes. I am sure you have seen many times that this has occurred with the different clubs.

You move up or down a weight to help your Middle School Team or your High School Team. You don't worry about it in jr. league until maybe Sub's? Then you look at it and try to separate them but most of the time it can't be helped?

We have kids in the same weight class all the time and there is nothing you can do about it?

It sounds to me like that coach doesn't want to lose to a kid from his own team? To bad? His kid needs to improve or move up or down himself?

Agree 100% with CoachJT. If your 1st year wrestler can beat a more experienced "open" wrestler on his team, tough cookies! He/she should wrestle their age/weight and if they face a teammate, best of luck to both. It always does stink to have teammates wrestle, but in our club it happens often especailly with the little guys! Our coaches sit mat-side and cheer but have the wrestlers basically wrestle on their own, thus no favoritism is shown! Granted, when it gets to the district level, the wrestlers should be separated into different weights according to who has the best opportunity for success at the given weight class, BUT during the season, let them wrestle in their class. Sounds like the coach did not want his kid racking up losses to a teammate...that is unfortunate!