This issue will never be solved correctly.I went back and looked at a few clubs that switched districts for the 2015 season and compared numbers of kids that signed up for qualifying series in 2014(before the move) and 2016(districts held in Goodland).

team 2014 entries 2016 entries
Hutch 41 29
Team Lightning 20 11
Smith County 21 14
Chapparal 10 8
Osborne 10 6
Russell 16 13
Jr. Panthers 19 0

From these 7 teams, there were 137 wrestlers who were moved into district 4, of those 137 wrestlers, it only accounted for 81 additional wrestlers in district 4. What is worse about this, is that the move of the district lines cost 56 wrestlers the opportunity to attend the qualifying series. Any team that is moved to district 4 will most likely see the same results in their wrestler count for the qualifying series.

One thing that could possibly help with district 4 wrestler count is to lessen the burden on the parents. I think that if we eliminate sub districts, it will help with the wrestler count at districts. A parent may be more likely to sign a kid up for districts knowing they only have to drive 4 hours one weekend rather than 2 weekends to qualify for state.

The districts will never be "fair." District 1 will never have to drive as far as district 4, and district 4 will never have as many wrestlers as district 1. District 1 is growing, and you will never be able to add enough teams to district 4 to be able to get the numbers even in a manor that doesn't hurt the sport. I don't know from experience in the other districts, but how often do kids not sign up for districts because there is 5 more wrestlers in their brackets than in the same bracket in district 4?

We need to quit worrying about "fair" and do what is best to grow the numbers involved in the sport.