Who benefits from HS freshman wrestling in kids state in the 14U division? The high schoolers? The eighth graders that get their district brackets filled with kids they haven't seen all year? To me this, and the push to include 6U in the state series are the best arguments to change the state cutoff date so that...14u is mainly 7th and 8th grade
12u 5th and 6th
10u 3rd and 4th
and 8u 1st and 2nd
This way HS division is ALL HS and there really isn't a need to have a pre-K/kindergarten division in the state series (6U)

I agree to an extent, some freshman are way lighter than the 106lb high school division though. We had an either grader who had a high school freshman in his bracket that wrestled varsity and was like 40-4 in 4A. I thought that was ridiculous.

On the other hand......at least the high school kid is wrestling in the state series at a time when it seems few others do.

They can still wrestle .... in a division that makes sense for them to be in. High schoolers have been practicing 5 days a week since November...it's apples and oranges

Yes there are a few studs mixed in...but most of these freshman are JV kids and many of them who did wrestle varsity got their tales handed to them all year.

Bottom line they are still wrestling their age.

If you switch the date to Jan01 you still have freshman eligible to wrestle the division and you push more of the 7th graders in with 5th/6th graders. The only true fix is to move it to the next calendar Aug31; which gets us further from the USAW date.

I've studied it some. I agree that there are problems "for some" with the current date. What I haven't found is a date to move it to where we are not just creating problems for "others".

Every Year someone has to boo hoo and cry over this. Suck it up Buttercup, they are wrestling their age division. We welcomed it when Jake was an 8th grader. And had he felt the need to wrestle his freshman year, he would have wrestled 14U. Look at it asachance to get tougher.

Missouri uses the USA date and doesn't allow high schoolers to wrestle 14U seems to work out alright. Someone complains about it every year because it's asinine. No one is boo hoo'ing or crying just pointing out another stupid thing we do in this state. Who would give a crap about a few 7th graders in with 5/6th graders?? I know that this is a complete mystery to some but the reason we are not progressing as a wrestling state is the way that change is received and derided (I'll wait while you look it up) here. Like the ones who came before me who complained about this issue I won't give a crap about it next year because my kid will be in high school and won't have any desire to come off of varsity to wrestle JV in a manner of speaking, but in the mean time year after year we will continue to allow a situation to play out where kids who practice 5 days a week against tougher competition get to come have a field day at a bunch of other kids expense. Then we will sit around and wonder why all the middle schoolers quit.

100% agree with Chad!! Cough, cough. Lol.
But, if your kid is gonna wrestle in HS, then why not welcome the challenge? If I'm mistaken, you're all the same age? So what's the big deal? Are you medal hunting, or looking for competition? High school coaches don't medal hunt, they go where the competition is. Only medal hunting they look at is HS STATE.

And yes, Will welcomed it his 8th grade year, same as Jake.

Go look where they are now as High Schoolers.
It's what it takes.

If your 7th grader is 14, then there's a problem. It's age not grade.

Go to Missouri then....Bye Felicia! I'll wait for you to look it up.

I was responding to this, read the whole thread....and my kid feels the same way about the competition element, I feel differently not because I want to lower the competitive level but because I don't think high schoolers belong in a kids division nor do I think there is any reason for a high school division at all at kids state but that is a topic for another thread. (probably feel that way because I grew up in our backwoods neighbor state Missouri, bunch of hillbillies over there think that their top 10 NCAA Div 1 program makes them special)

I'll make it simple for you. They can wrestle together at 6U, 8U, 10U, and 12U, but at 14U it's just too unfair. I know, doesn't make any sense when you simplify it does it?

From the 1995 film "Friday" didn't have to look it up but this is the exact "we do everything perfect already" attitude I was referring to that's holding KS back

I'll make it simple for you at 14U it's not the same because

1) we don't get to wrestle the freshman until just before districts at the earliest that doesn't happen in any other age group

2) the freshman practice 5 days a week, with better partners that span a 4 year time frame in age (think I already said that one) also doesn't happen for any other age group

the 14U phenomena is a byproduct of another instance where KS does something the states surrounding them don't do and then we sit back and say why is everyone around us better?

your whole counterpoint is predicated ......*whistling*......on the idea that they ARE the same when they are clearly not and this is the only age group where this disparity...........exists. Maybe we should have two state tournaments for everybody to attend like the high schoolers have...now how would somebody go about doing that I wonder?

You're beating a dead horse.
Are you mad your kid got beat out?
Don't know you, with no name attached.
I know for a fact lots of freshman got beat out by 8th graders. Look at the track brackets.
You say, holding Kansas back, I say, those freshman are pushing, the younger ones.
Wrestle, no matter who's in front of you.
And 5 days of practice, has nothing to do with it. Unless you're in a CLUB, that is small and no partners, my suggestion would be move clubs then.

I agree with Chad, move east and quit whining Mr blue.

Kansas if the comments in this thread are representative of our state's common sense, discernment, sense of humor and/or debate skills (my apologies Mr Stanley, Mr Taylor), I'm afraid the road to positive change for the state series will be long and fraught with peril

and because I can't let this slide my last freakin' name is in my GD postscript and I am the only Mr Bluel in the entire state of Kansas, I thought that would narrow it down enough, I'm too lazy to post a picture

club is there too we're pretty big