To me a few things don't really make sense. I get the feeling that many parents are upset becuase they don't run the consolations until late in the day. This cuases them to have to stay late in the day and if their son/daughter loses then they are out. That late in the day usually means they have to go ahead and spend the night in the hotel, and thats where the problem is. Now I agree that it is not fun to have to wait all day just to loses but to get upset over a hotel room is somewhat disturbing. I think as a caring parent your attitude should not be "lets get out of here as soon as possible" Second and more important to me is in fact the pre-finals junk. In high school it is neat to see the wrestlers lined up and introduced, however at Wichita there are only 42 weight classes to introduce (14*3) But at Kids State there are 104 weight classes total. Last year it took 45 minutes to get through all of that and the poor kids at 16U 275lbs about fell over dead from having to stand up that whole time. I think it would be better to not do this before the finals. It would be okay to march them all out there and have someone say "Ladies and Gentlemen, Here are your 2003 State Finalist!" and then maybe a short speech about dedication, honor, and all that good stuff. Perhaps someone agrees with me?