When i was coaching at a small 3A school i had lots of kids not make the transition from 8th grade to high school. Some kids with a lot of potential as kids wrestlers just did not make the jump to high school wrestling.

Looking back, most of them did really decent in middle school wrestlling and then come time for state they took a pounding from the high school kids coming back to wrestle kids in the 14 & under age group.

I have had the opportunity to coach and be exposed to how several other states operate. in most of those states they emphasize a "middle school" format. Either an open middle school championship or age group affiliation that cuts off at the 8th grade. Talking with coaches there, about 95 percent of the kids transition on to wrestling at the high school level. Also the tournaments are the split format tourneys, with very few long waits in between matches and no 12-14 hour days. There are also a lot of round robin formats where the kids get more mat time in a shorter day.

I think this keeps the parental influence positive as well. The sub district at Bonner was awesome, attitudes were much better, the day was shorter and the kids to me seemed fresher.


Just a couple of observation. Kansas wrestling is the best quality of kid wrestling that i have personally been exposed to. I truly think though that some thought should be given to shortening the tournaments through split formats. Perhaps adopting a "middle school" state championship of some sort to emaphsize and promote the middle school athlete.

Ditto Maize this year is a perfect example, my 12 year old was done by 1pm, I've seen kids wait 60 matches to wrestle again at other tourneys, kids come and go in this sport. You sure have to be a committed parent to keep your kid in wrestling.

I like the split tournament format also. We have enjoyed it at Districts. It makes for a faster paced and exciting day for wrestlers and the spectators. I think that is very good for the sport. Mike Juby has said in another topic that he is a proponent of the format. He stated that it can save approximately 80% of the people about 50% of their total time at the tournament. It is good to hear that others have seen it work well at other tournaments like Maize and Winfield.

Another good experience is a tournament that has full mats for everyone. Not many places can provide that. We have seen that at the Johnson County Classic and recently at the District 1 South Subs at Pittsburg State University. That is a great experience too.

There has been a lot of discussion about the 8th graders vs. 9th graders in another recent topic about whether high school wrestlers should be allowed to wrestle at Kids State. You might have to go back a page or two to get to it, but you might want to check that topic out.

With the 8th grade and 9th grade issue is where i think we lose some decent kids. When i was living and coaching in Nebraska it was amazing to see almost all the kid wrestlers make the transition to the high school programs in the state. Going through the high school state finals there, it was very obvious to me that there was a much better transition. We have the better quality wrestler here overall but the burnout rate is higher. There is no doubt it is from the shorter tournaments and ability to have some springboard success in to high school.