Iam(Charles Knox)on a mission to stop a recent recurring epidemic that has been happening with our top wrestlers in FS/GR. In the past few years some of our top wrestlers are not competing at the National tournaments. Usally the majority of them are seniors. To stop this from happen it's going to take the entire wrestling community (parents, coaches, teammates,underclass men, fans, girlfriends,etc..)Iam going to get the ball a rolling.Seniors and/or Top wrestlers, Neil, Gracia, Deshazer,Strawn,Sutton,Furches,Cotton, Disney,and their are others that right now I can't think of,but maybe you who is reading this knows,I hope that you will represent the state,your club,your school, and your family at the National tournaments.
Wrestlers all I want is the the rest of the country to see what Kansas can do.
Once again to all that reads this, I know you are a wrestling nut like me, so come join me in my mission to "stop the epidemic" and ENCOURAGE OUR WRESTLERS TO COMPETE.

Perez,Altman

Nice post coach. You are exactly right on this. Last year's Junior dual team had to forfeit 275 and we were missing 2 or 3 others that would have helped the team. In spite of that, Kansas took 4th place in the nation! A fantastic showing that has not gone without notice across the country. This year, we again have the opportunity to bring an incredibly talented team to OKC. This event as well as the Cadet and Schoolboy duals are the ultimate in state vs. state competition. We have to do all that we can to fill our upper weights with the best that Kansas has to offer. There is no excuse to have an open weight class. I agree with the call to "Stop the epidemic" and join Coach Knox in ENCOURAGING OUR WRESTLERS TO COMPETE.

Eric Johnson

... and I agree. Last year at Enid was sweet but one had to imagine, "what could have been" if we didn't have one arm tied behind our back.

I've got to wonder, if 10 or 20 years down the road, if we won't have a few seniors take a look back, and say ... I wish I would of wrestled!

I think we may need to rethink our scheduling for freestyle and greco specifically for the high school aged kids. It would be great to start our international style season directly after high school state, we lose a lot of kids with the 3 week kids state folkstyle qualifying and series and also our seniors don't compete in that. We have our state freestyle and greco tourney almost a month past our neighbors and then scramble to get our teams together. There is no excuse for not having a loaded Kansas team at all level of the national duals.

I really hope that everyone reads this post. There are some that have made this point every year. There is no doubt that Kansas freestyle and greco wrestling suffers by extending the folkstyle season for High School wrestlers so that they can compete against 7th and 8th graders. How does that improve their skills again?

Eric Johnson

Klint is right. We end high school at the end of February. Then the older kids have to wait around until April to start FS/GR practice. Meanwhile, other states have started fs/gr practices the first week of March. The Junior series is practically over before KS has any practices.

Fargo isn't the only national tournament it is just the last one. FS/GR clubs in KS need to get organized to compete in the early tournaments if you want the kids to stay out.

I think another problem with this is lack of freestyle clubs. If a senior is out for track or golf in high school or has a JOB after school it is NOT feasible for them to travel an hour or more to another town for practice 2-3 nights not to mention the cost for the club fees. Some of them are also trying to juggle recruiting visits into the mix also. If every club in the state also had FS/GR and coaches who knew how to coach FS/GR I think the numbers would probably go up. There is also the money factor to figure into this mix. I am sure that there are some high school wrestlers who would love to do FS/GR if they could have a local practice. Funny how alot of kids get overlooked due to them NOT doing FS/GR. Maybe the FS/GR community needs to do some PR work and see why older kids are NOT participating. Perhaps looking outside your local clubs that have FS/GR at the present and seeing if any outsiders would be interested and maybe trying to modify practice times and fees accordingly. I think alot of talented wrestlers that would probably do well in FS/GR never get the opportunity due to TIME and MONEY. All state placers or champions do not come from areas that have FS/GR offered.

I just met with an individual for a lengthy time yesterday about better organization of the Wizzers, prior to season and immediately after the HS Season. There are a couple of factors that come into play when it comes to providing better and more opportunities for our HS wrestlers.

Realize that for Brute we had 148 wrestlers compete at all levels and all ages on the HS Level. A pretty good turnout and I know we had more Kansas wrestlers than that, just 148 in someway associated with the Wizzers. In our meeting yesterday we spoke specifically about goals and plans for the HS Wrestler in regards to the Wizzers, something to take the organization to the next level. I am looking forward to that but believe we need more of that from other regions of the state. There needs to be an organized effort to provide more opportunities for the High School wrestler.

On this issue there seems to almost be a concern about pushing the concept of college wrestling for some kids. I disagree with that, for some of our youth, this is a dream and a real possibility. I personally know from youtube and other venues college coaches are wanting to watch and see Kansas Wrestlers. It is up to us as fans, coaches, parents, and yes, even wrestlers, to see to it that our wrestlers are seen and then be there to help assist in getting our wrestlers to the next level. The bottom line is that, for whatever reason, a lot of coaches watch kids summer wrestle, and especially Fargo.

Next: I have personally been told that one of the reasons many don't wrestle is due to the expense. There are other concerns regarding those costs, that I won't touch at this point. I will say, and will go into detail for those that ask privately. How bad is it, we are considering Nathan not wrestling on the Kansas dual team this summer. The bottom line is, that there has to be value for what it costs, but even with value, one has to be able to afford it. When you pay for something, and don't get it, or get no response to concerns, it causes one to loose confidence in the system. If I know that those concerns exist for my family, I know they exist for others.

While we all want the best for our children, and our wrestlers, the bottom line is, with the costs associated with it and other concerns, you will continue to see good wrestlers sit out the summer.

The cost is PART of the issue. The other part is not having FS/GR offered locally or coaches who know about these styles. I know Topeka, KC, and Wichita (not sure about western KS) have several FS/GR clubs, but there are alot of very talented wrestlers in other areas of the state who NEVER get exposed to summer wrestling due to the drive time and schedule juggling of all memebers of the family it would involve just to go practice. I realize that most college coaches use summer wrestling to look at future prospects. I also think alot of college coaches miss out on some extremely talented wrestlers by doing so. This is where I feel the problem lies. It is drilled into wrestlers heads that if they don't do summer wrestling, then they probably won't get recruited, no matter what your career record, how many times you placed at state, or championships you won seems to matter as much as what you did in the summer. Therefore, alot of our high school wrestlers do not participate because they did not participate when they were younger due to many reasons that range from availabilty to cost and feelings like they maybe have missed the boat even though they may have went to some FS/GR camps but never competed in Fargo (and that cost I won't mention). Fund raisers you say? Most of these rural communities have been asked by every school and community organization to assist in some way for a fund raiser all school year long. Most folks in these communities are tapped out or recovering for the next big ticket item which will be the county fair. In larger populated areas this probably isn't as big a problem as it is in communities with less than 5,000 population. That is where some of the talent gets shuffled and lost.

Personally,I am in the same boat as Mike in many ways. My family foregoes vacations, volunteers to work tournaments, and raises monies in many different ways. We cut many corners to make sure my son and group home kids that wish can participate in the offseason activities. My wife and I are blessed that we have convinced the people we work for and with of the great lessons that can be gleaned from the sport. That could turn on a dime anytime and there would be no way i could even think about affording participation. My wife is going to learn to be a pairing official to help out our efforts. I have never had to tell my son or group home kids NO-We can't think about participating because of the costs, but we are mighty close at this point.

I think we should get creative in perhaps hosting a true fundraising tournament for our national teams--Our costs now are very reasonable compared to many states, but still they can be a great deterrant to participation.


I think we need to think about a fundamental change that needs to take place. At this point in time we emphasize folkstyle in our USAW efforts. We have great numbers, great wrestlers, great parents. We need to see if we can carry that over to the international styles.

Having personally seen, coached and parented in Nebraska and California where the USA program emphasizes Freestyle and Greco, it can work. If our kids get acquainted with the styles early then they can enhance folkstyle as well. We do need to emphasize educating coaches in how to coach freestyle and greco, the southern plains camp idea is a great one, but not an option for a lot of dads and potential coaches just due to time and cost.

Timing is horrible for planning. We have our state FS/GR tournament the weekend after Memorial Weekend (makes it very difficult to find a final tune up event) and the weekend before we have to leave for Schoolboy duals (makes it difficult to get your recruiting for the duals done.) Missouri has their state tournament in mid May. Why can't we?

Why doesn't USA wrestling pay for your national dual teams? I know some states do this. What do they do with the money they make? Please don't take this as dig on your USA program I am just asking the question.

folkstyle.