I think this is about trying to improve our retention rate. In other words, what do we do to stop kids from dropping out. I do not think adding 6U to state and moving 16U to somewhere else will do that. The main part of the question being addressed is the season too long. I have mixed opinions on this. Is it too long. If you want to compete in national tournaments they start in November and end in April (USA Nationals). Even if you end the season earlier, a lot of kids and clubs will continue to practice to compete in these tournaments. You see the posts asking about Brute practices. And, Oklahoma which is noted in other posts starts earlier than us. But, the season is long. However, my daughter played competitive soft ball and it went from January thur October. But, there were breaks. So how do we in Kansas keep our kids competitive, but solve the question at hand. Maybe we should look at separating kids differently. Should we use the same age groups as the USA Nationals tournament and then have a Kids state for the kids that would basically be 9U or maybe 7U earlier than the rest of the kids. Maybe like a novice championship held right after Salina???

I believe the junior high kids get a lot out of practicing with the high school kids. Go to one of the rooms and watch this time of year. I also believe Randy was right, alot of burn out is due to not coaching the basics/drilling. Cokeley is obviously right, something needs to be done, but I think this question requires us to think past just shortening the season.

I would like a 2 week break for HS Regionals and State. That would give the kids 2 weeks off and let them watch the high schoolers.

And, Patrick is right, why did we lose a month on the freestyle season??

I am not trying to argue with anyone, I believe we really need to so something. The more ideas we get the better.