Does anyone have any info on a rule by kshaa that states an athlete must have been part of the team for the majority of the season in order for that athlete to be eligible to participate at regionals - state ? this wrestler has been informed by khsaa that he will not be allowed to participate at regionals because he was only part of the team for 1/2 of the tournaments/duals not the majority. In this day of declining wrestling programs at the high school and college level shouldnt the governing bodies of wrestling programs do everything possible to encourage participation in wrestling? Should we place restrictions on how many tournaments or duals a wrestler must participate in order to compete at the state level? just throwing a few questions out there.I believe that keeping a wrestler out of a tournament most people only dream about is wrong. would someone care to clarify this for me?

Well im not sure about the rule in your current situation. But I don know of the certification rules which says half of a wrestlers weigh ins must be at their certified weight in order to not break said certification thus not allowing him to wrestle down at regionals. Perhaps the rule you were stating is somehow tied to this rule. Im not sure how true what you said is. I know for a fact that we had a kid (Josh Elliot) who joined our team my freshman year, like a week after the Beliot tournament which is on the 3rd week of January almost every year. This is certianly past the half way post of the season. And yet Josh joined only wrestled 4 matches before regionals and placed at regionals and went to state. So im not sure if that is something they just implemented or not.

Rules are rules. I think that someone who got hurt for the majority of the season should be able to participate in regionals, but I am NOT in favor of someone joining a team late. If you don't join within two weeks of the first tournament, you may as well forget it, in my humble opinion. Joining a team late like that is saying you are only in it for yourself, not your team. And while wrestling is an individual sport, there are TEAM trophies to be earned at all tournaments. A kid who goes out there and gets pinned every match but tries is doing more for your team than someone who joins a week or two before regionals, I think. With all the talk about the individual accomplishments (and that is what wrestling is mostly about), we lose track of the team aspect of the sport.

Declining participation or not, I think that it is a good rule.

Nigel is right. The only participation/eligibility rule in question here is the one which states that half of a kid's weigh-ins over the course of a season must be at the kid's Regional weight. Otherwise, no; if a kid's been out because of injury, illness or some other reason, they can still participate, provided they are eligible academicly.

lets air it out! KSHSAA has AGAIN kept a good wrestler out of state competition! look at 4A 145 bracket everyone knows about grater , how about the other wrestler? does anyone know who should have been in his place? not taking anything away from eisenhower, hes a great wrestler. and any thing can and does happen at state. however those who have been paying attention know who would have won andales regional @ 145 and would now be in the state finals. So tell me is this rule fair?
KSHSAA HAS TOO MUCH POWER ! something needs to be done to prevent this from happening again.

sounds like your coach was asleep at the wheel on this one. the 50% came in when the National Federation liberalized the certification rules and making it allowable for a wrestler to weigh in and wrestle one weight class above his certified weight. The question then became how to seed a wrestler at regionals if he had certified at one weight but wrestled most of the year at another weight. The 50-50 rule was instituted; notice it does not say how many matches must be wrestled, only what percentage must be wrestled at the wrestler's certified weight. Feel bad for the kid you are talking about, but you can't have your cake and eat it too.

are you sure that is the real reason the your kid was notwrestling at regionals and state? This is not sounding like the same story we heard. So what is the truth.