Some other thoughts on what has been discussed so far:
1. Exhibition hall for an age group: Whoever you put there in my opinion is eventually going to feel that they are not getting treated equal with the groups wrestling in the more attractive main arena setting, so if you are wanting to add younger wrestlers you are probably going to have to either add another day to the tournament or eliminate an age group.
2. I too think the age as of August 31st birthday is good because it keeps the majority of kids wrestling every year with the kids in their own grade school class. I agree that the majority do not wrestle in national tournaments so you should not adjust this cutoff date to try to just serve the minority that do. I am not sure I accept your argument about that either, Jeff Roberts. It seems to me if you are trying to make a wrestler more competitive that Kansas kids who are born before August 31 would be better served by wrestling in Kansas in a higher age group thru the year. Wouldn't a wrestler who turns 13 in August be better prepared wrestling Kansas wrestlers 14 & U than the younger 12 & U kids during the year?
3. Jeff Broadbent, I really do agree with you that we should change the weight brackets to fill out better some of these weight brackets at Subs, Districts and State. But Jeff that would have to be extremely abnormal to find a 4th grader in 8&U. They would have had to start a year early. It is still that they have to be 8 on 8/31 no matter what grade they are in. I also have to disagree with your other point about weight cutting being less likely with a larger weight bracket differential. I think the opposite is true. For instance in my son's 14&U 165 that would be eliminated, I think a 165 pounder is more likely to cut to 160 than wrestle at 171, but I do agree we should make this change. We only had one 160 pound wrestler at District 1 Subs South and only 4 at Districts. Or perhaps a better example would be what my own situation would have been at Nationals this year. I am a 1950 birth year so I would be in Veterans Division D (Born in 1951 and Before). I weigh about 225 facing the options of weight classes 214 or 215-287. This unreasonable large weight differential of up to 287 pounds that I would encounter would tempt me to shed 11 pounds of muscle to compete at 214. Truthfully, Jeff you have met me. Do you think that would be wise for me to lose 11 pounds?
