Hey All,
I've been lurking on this board for quite some time this year. I've seen a few topics tonight I would like to comment on from an out of state perspective. I moved here from Omaha this past year and love wrestling. I grew up in Nebraska and attended several Iowa and Nebraska wrestling meets after my wrestling days. I would like to comment on the tournament attendance first then on the quality of competition at these regionals. *One thing I want to be clear about though is this is not a bash Kansas wrestling post. I think there is plenty of talent here. It's more about the organization of KS wrestling as a whole.*

I just decided to go to the 5A regional at STA today. I wanted to see some wrestling and heard they have a good team. I walked up and had to pay $8 to get in. For me, I don't mind paying $8 to get in to watch some good wrestling but I don't think there was one full weight bracket in this regional of 8 teams. However, I enjoy good competition so I can justify paying the $8 because I am a fan. Recently on this board there has been discussion about meet attendance and getting younger kids and families involved in coming to these meets. I am willing to bet that if a father had 1 or 2 kids in youth wrestling and wanted to bring them he would have cringed at paying $20 ($8 for adult, $6 for K-12) for something they would only stay a couple hours at most to watch since kids have short attention spans. Too high of a price to reel in the casual fan when they can spend $8 or $9 and go to a movie and be entertained for that same amount of time. I told my dad that STA was charging $8 and he laughed.
I know this may be minor but the minor things count when you are trying to make the sport more visible. When I went to meets up north I paid $5 and kids paid $2 or $3.

And it isn't about growing the sport in STA or Gardner some BV schools (as these are the only school I've seen this year). They will fill up anyway, it's about growing the sport in the other schools. KC Harmon and Wyandotte had about 4 kids each. Either way, if this sport is going to grow in this state school like that need to get more kids out. I know it may be difficult with their circumstances though but it's the truth in my opinion.

Now to the regionals. First of all I like the idea of less weight classes but how come the same size schools in Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa can fill the weights? It's a tough question and I don't know the answer other than good youth programs getting kids into wrestling early on. I'm sure they are around here but I don't have kids yet so I don't know. I grew up in a town of 5,000, had 400 people at my high school and we ALWAYS had a full roster. It's tough to pin point the answer.
But take the Salina south regional today at 120. I saw the #2 - #6 wrestlers were in that bracket and at STA they only had 6 wrestlers total. I don't know how feasible it would be but maybe reclassifying in wrestling is in order. Go to 3 classes and larger regionals. Again, I don't know if this is feasible but when over half the kids competing today at STA qualified for state, and I'm sure it is that way in other places, that is a problem. I heard one parent from STA say that 182 only had 4 wrestlers so STA put a JV kid into that class because he only had to win one match to make it to state. I don't know the accuracy of this but the number in the bracket did reflect it. Combine some classes and regionals and make it more competitive.

And finally, HOlD YOUR STATE TOURNAMENT IN ONE PLACE! Every state I know does this! Iowa, Nebraska, some said Missouri and Colorado too on another thread. It makes no sense to spread it out and pay for different venues. AND you fill it up with all those schools going along with parents and kids who did not qualify making the trip to. At least this was the case in Nebraska and Iowa, but we all know Iowa is a different animal. I loved going to state at the Devaney Center in Lincoln and now it's in Omaha and they love it there. Under one roof. Makes no sense to me to hold different venues, it defeats the purpose of the grand stage when you break it up. I suppose it has to do with travel distances but the panhandle towns in Nebraska travel 8-9 hours to Omaha for a 3 day tourney just fine. Kansas would be shorter. I heard travel distances is a reason why they apparently don't weigh in before tourneys here either, which is a whole different issue....

Sorry for the long post. I just had some thoughts after today and after reading the board. I don't expect to have anyone read this far so congrats if you did!

Matbraska