Missouri DOES NOT allow HS wrestlers to compete in their Kids State tournament regardless of their age. We are in the process of evaluating all of the kids state tournaments to get more data. We could eliminate this problem if we would move Kids state during high and create a middle school state. Even so at some point age and grade are going to collide and cause a splitting issue.

I will argue until the cows come home that HS wrestlers have a clear advantage over 8th graders. Five day a week practices, full time professional coach, competing against much older competition all year, etc. Of course there are always exceptions like Levi Eck, Ryne, and other successful 8th graders. I would vote to allow them the freedom to move up. I clearly think the some kids who have just gotten introduced to wrestling in MS or JH might take on the Kids Series if they didn't have to wrestle high school wrestlers. If nothing else it will give them an opportunity to qualify for state as the spots will be open.

The solution would be to have Cadets and Juniors so you would basically have 8th, 9th, and 10th in one class and 11th and 12th in the other. We will then have to align with the date of birth being January 1 instead of Sept 1. Of course this will be unpopular for one year as those who are negatively impacted will not like that either.

Chad,
I do agree with your statement about being able to amend it but at this past weekend's meeting I was told we COULD NOT amend it. I think we might have set precedence last year and I hope you are right. If a little tweaking can make it work then lets do it. One thing we CANNOT do is add more wrestlers to the state tournament which this plan does not do.