There were many reasons for this rule...it is primarily to allow kids in boarder communities an opportunity to petition the Board for participation. It also is an avenue for parents with divided residency...where the custodial parent lives out of sate a chance to petition the board to allow an exception. One issue with a rule that is not "black in white", is the uncertainty that it brings. New members of the Board are elected each year...viewpoints on this issue are wide ranging. Those on the board last year and this year were troubled by letting in the Guymon folks...not because there was something wrong with them. I believe they are good people. They just do not reside in KS and they do not attend school here. Last year the vote was very close…with several of those voting in favor (including myself) ultimately saying that last year would be the last year we would vote in favor of letting this group wrestle the State series….the thought was let them finish the year and then that was it; now it is a year later and many are using the same arguments. Last summer, a member who was not on the board petitioned the board to change the bylaws to only allow participation if the wrestlers were residents of the state of KS or attend school here...the change would have basically stripped the board of the authority to allow the exception in any case. The Board voted to send this petition on to the State Body with a recommendation that the bylaws be changed. The State Body voted to leave things as they were. In which case, any individual that wanted to wrestle in the State series who was not a resident of KS or did not attend school here would have to petition the board for a waiver. They Guymon wrestlers did provide the Board with a petition and in January at the Boards winter meeting a vote was taken to not allow participation of the wrestles in question.

Two points of emphasis should be, if the Body would have voted to change the bylaws as requested there would have been clarity of this issue. Second, the Board sent many signals that the politics of this issue were changing prior to our winter meeting. The very close vote in 2010 and the Board recomendation that the bilaws be changed are two very powerfull clues into how the vote in January would go.

I want to make one important point. No one is saying the Guymon club can’t associate with a club in KS. No one is saying they can’t buy USA cards in KS. NO one is saying they can’t practice with KS Clubs or attend KS tournaments. All we are saying by our decision is that they are not eligible to participate in the KANSAS State tournament (at least not this year). In fact, while I cannot speak for the rest of the Board, I personally hope these kids continue to wrestle and I hope their parents bring them to Kansas to wrestle as often as they want…just not at the 2011 State tournament.