Participants in U.S. HS Male - Female 2009-2016

USA and State Wrestling Leaders need to address some of the why is this happening and they know some of the reasons -

https://www.statista.com/statistics/268028/participation-in-us-high-school-wrestling/

Number of participants in U.S. high school wrestling from 2009/10 to 2016/17
Boys 272,890 – 2009/2010
Boys 244,804 – 2016/2017

Girls – 6,134 – 2009/2010
Girls – 14,587 – 2016/2017

It is worth noting that Wisconsin has 2X the Kansas Population
with only 3 divisions.


Wisconsin-WIAA Regional Entry Information from the 2007 - 2008 Season
42 full D1 teams out of 127 at Individual Regionals, 33% full teams
23 full D2 teams out of 109 at Individual Regionals , 21% full teams
16 full D3 teams out of 108 at Individual regionals. 15 % full teams
That is - all divisions 81 out of 344 which is approximately 24 %.

2007-2008 Regional Entries
In D1 - 275 out of 1778 possible entries were not used / forfeits - 15%
In D2 - 274 out of 1526 possible entries were not used/ forfeits - 18%
In D3 - 436 out of 1512 possible entries were not used/ forfeits. - 29%

All divisions: 985 out of 4816 possible entries were not used/ forfeits. That is 20 %


Wisconsin-WIAA Regional Entry Information from the 2017 - 2018 Season
31 full D1 teams out of 127 at Individual Regionals, 24% full teams
21 full D2 teams out of 104 at Individual Regionals , 20% full teams
15 full D3 teams out of 103 at Individual regionals. 15 % full teams
That is - all divisions 67 out of 334 which is approximately 20 %.
Note: 3 teams - 2 in D1 and 1 in D3 had 0 enteries at Regionals.

Wisconsin - WIAA Regional Full Bracket Information from the 2017 - 2018 Season
D1 statewide Out of 224 weight classes 37 had a full bracket. That is 16% full.
D2 statewide out of the 224 weight classes 28 had a full bracket. That is 13 % full.
D3 statewide out of the 224 weight classes 15 had a full bracket.That is 7% full
Note: In D3, there were 22 brackets out of 224 - 10% that had 1 or 2 wrestlers in it.

Wisconsin- 2017-2018 Regional Entries
In D1 - 354 out of 1774 possible entries were not used / forfeits - 20%
In D2 - 360 out of 1456 possible entries were not used/ forfeits - 25%
In D3 - 506 out of 1442 possible entries were not used/ forfeits. - 35%

All divisions: 1220 out of 4672 possible entries were not used/ forfeits. That is 26%

Smoky Cabin,

Indiana community also keeps track of its forfeit % per entries into the Indiana state tournament series. Data would be comparable to yours. Also on that note, Indiana also has 2x the population of KS but one class for the state series. Im showing forfeits into the first round of the state series or sectionals.

Indiana forfeit %
Year Teams Sec/Forfeits ____ Forfeit % Forfeits per team
2018 ___ 312 ___ 981 ____ 22.45% ___ 3.14
2017 ___ 308 ___ 845 ____ 19.59% ___ 2.73
2016 ___ 307 ___ 860 ____ 20.00% ___ 2.79
2015 ___ 308 ___ 713 ____ 16.53% ___ 2.31

Forfeit percentages by regional 2018


teams___ potential___ Wrestlers___ Forfeits___ for %
321a
Goodland _____ 24___ 336___ 179___ 157___ 46.7%
Silver Lake___ 23___ 322___ 180___ 142___ 44.1%
Hoisington___ 22___ 308___ 138___ 170___ 55.2%
Eureka ____ 22___ 308___ 143___ 165___ 53.6%

4A
Holton ___15___ 210___ 126___ 84___ 40.0%
Ark City ___15___ 210___ 166___ 44___ 21.0%
Burlington___16_ 224___ 149___ 75___ 33.5%
Abilene ___15___ 210___ 167___ 43___ 20.5%
5a
Valley Center___ 16___ 224___ 198___ 26___ 11.6%
Turner ___ 16___ 224___ 183___ 41___ 18.3%

6a
Lawrence ___ 16 ___ 224 ___ 179 ___ 45___20.1%
Wichita south___ 16 ___ 224 ___ 203___ 21___9.4%

Total _ 216 ___ 3024 ___ 2011___ 1013___33.5%

Having trouble formatting my post from spreadsheet.
But conclusion is that over a third of weight classes this year are not being filled in Kansas.

2016 Kansas forfeit data

Size ______Forf _schools _per team _for %
265 ______569 _89 _6.39 _45.7%
264-760 ______249 _63 _3.95 _28.23%
760 ______122 _64 _1.91 _7.14%
Total ______940 _216 _4.35 _31.08%

Forfeit percentage in 2018 was 33.5% vs 31.08% in 2016. The new two piece outfits aren't helping much.