Nigel, you like to bring people clamoring for change back down to reality. You seem to love to tell us -- Don't waste too much of your time folks it just is not going to happen!!! As you know Nigel I am about 30 years older than you and I have seen a lot of change in my 54 years that I thought would never happen. Just the fact that you, myself and everyone else on this forum are able to be typing away on our own personal computers and communicating with each other that anyone in the world can have access to is an amazing change that I have seen in my lifetime that most people when I was a kid would have said, "Yeah right go back to reading your comics".

I could go on and give you an extensive list of things that have changed in my lifetime that people would have never thought would happen. In many of these changes that have happen in the world of science, business, politics, religion, the media, even television itself, etc., I am sure there were people telling the people who initiated the change to, "Stop wasting your time it just not going to happen". Those people who made these changes happen, just did not listen and stubbornly made these things happen. One thing you will learn Nigel as you get older is that change does happen. Sometimes it is good and sometimes it is not so good. But the one thing consistent in life is change and most people and organizations need it to grow and survive. A lot of times change comes slow and the people struggling to make it happen will encounter many failures along the way, but if you really believe in something you don't give up and you keep trying to find a way to make it happen. I am glad that some of these people who made some of these positive changes in my lifetime did not give up and listen to those who were discouraging them.

So you say you are satisfied with the weights and ages that we now have and you also think most people are. That may be true certainly about your thoughts on it. I don't know about most people. It sure seems there are a lot of people who believe that six and under should be included at State. I also believe there are some people out there questioning whether 16 and under needs to be included at State. I believe that there are also quite a few who are questioning the weight brackets in all age groups but especially 14U & 16U. You say you are not one of them so I guess you think it is okay that we are seeing more and more of weights like 14U 160 (not the extreme end of 14U weights) where in District 1 we only had four participants at District and only one at the South Subdistrict. We did not end up with 16 wrestlers at State in 14U 165. During the season my son who was at 165 wrestled kids from about 150 to 185. Do you think they might want to consider the need to have 150,155,160,165,and 175 and might consider going to 152,160,171,189 like in high school?

I know one thing Ned Price our Kids State Competition Director is considering weight changes. If you haven't read his post from March 14 1:03 PM in this thread, read it and you will see that may be the people suggesting change with the weights are not just wasting their time. I also would suggest you read the minutes from the recent State Body meeting (you can find those by clicking on the Kids Division link on this website) you will find this in the minutes:

"State Competition Director: Ned Price said the Folkstyle Camp, for the fourth year in a row, had declining numbers. It seems that more clubs are doing camps at the local level. In looking at the summer schedule, Ned stated there were 22 other camps held in Kansas so they felt this was a major reason for in the decline in participation. The executive council has decided not to host a camp and focus our funds in other ways to promote folkstyle wrestling. Richard Sayler asked if anyone had actually looked at why the numbers were down. Ned said that the Sunflower Tournament had changed dates / state baseball tournament / freestyle & Greco tournament in Fargo seems to be contributing." (My comment to you Nigel is that the executive council is willing to make a change when they recognize a need to do so).

A little further in the minutes you will find this paragraph:


"Ned is also going to do a study on weight classes. He will be looking at the number of participants from the past 4-5 years and will be making a proposal to the executive council about eliminating weights where there are only a few wrestlers."

So in conclusion, Nigel, maybe this time people are not just wasting their time and my prediction is that you are going to witness many changes in Kansas Kids wrestling in the coming years. Who knows you may even someday see 6&U at State and a separate post season high school tournament. Many of these future changes will occur because the powers to be will be listening to people on this forum and will react to their input. And you know what in the few years that I have been on this forum, I think there has been one or two changes that have already happened like that.