Topmiller, I understand your frustration on returning home about midnight. I would have hated that too. Last year my family had different but a similiar frustrating experience at the State tournament. My son qualified by finishing fourth in his first year at ten and under. His qualifying was a pleasant surprise to us. At State, he was pinned early in the first period in his first match by the No. 1 seed who went on to finish 1st. We then had to wait to about noon to find out that we would not wrestle again until the next morning. The winners went on to wrestle three matches that day before the first round losers could wrestle their second match. We traveled back to KC and he lost his second match the next day. This happened to 4 wrestlers in many brackets. This too was very frustrating to my family and I'm sure to other families.

Your post has brought this back into my mind now that the State tournament is a week away. I registered my complaints to tournament directors and officials last year and one of the reasons given was to shorten the last day for the finalists, the tournament workers and the families that would have to travel back so far that day. They asked me if I had any suggestions to shorten the tournament. It was only my son's second time at State and he has never won a match there so I did not have a lot of insight. About the only thing I could think of was to limit the qualifers to the first three from district, or to utilize the Washburn gym for the older kids.

Another issue this brings up in my mind now though especially after reading your post is are we trying to do to much with this competition by bring the high school kids into it. I mean especially once you get past the 14 and unders. I can see where that age group still makes some sense since you still have the 8th graders who are in that group and most freshman probably did not participate in the high school state tournament. My son is in the 5th grade but projecting I'm not sure we see him participating in Kids once he is past the 9th grade. I'm not sure how good it is to mix 16 and 17 years old in a practice facility with 6 to 12 years old kids either. I know they can probably learn some from watching them but there is also some greater potential for a dangerous accident on the mat. I mean they are bigger and faster. When the olders kids wrestle they take up more room and can fall fast and hard on to younger kids. I think it can also stretch coaching resources for most clubs.

I know the 16 and unders have probably been participating this way for years but what do you think? Are we trying to do too much by having this age group and the 6 and unders at District?
Would a separate tournament for the 6 and unders make more sense? I do not have a lot of experience with this since I only have one wrestler, but it seems to me we are maybe trying to do too much. What do you think?