Taking it from the other direction, according to many of the detractors of this thread's premise, any HS freshman, JV or varsity, state qualifier or not, who would enter the 14U division of kids state when a HS division is available, is a medal hunting bum who is seeking out the easiest bracket to wrestle in. So what about that? KS has a system that allows that to happen. The same people who say toughen up 8th grader, it gets you ready for HS!, what would they say to a freshman state champ who entered 14U? The freshman state champ would probably get booed. Why? well everybody knows why and it's a double standard that we allow and encourage with our nonconformist cutoff date. The competition is super sparse all year at local tournaments for the 8th grade 14U kid, combined weight round robin brackets are the norm, then the state tourney comes around and suddenly their bracket is full of freshman that they have never had a chance to wrestle. That doesn't get you ready for high school or any other scenario, it's ambush by design and it is stupid. Also why have we kept the HS division if it's original intention has never even come close to fruition? I'm not sure how it got changed in the first place. Right now we are 2 surveys in and 5+ years of debate and we still can't decide when to have state next year let alone the format. Instead of a complete overhaul, how bout a cutoff date change coupled with a two week earlier state tourney date preceded by a district tournament the week before in all 4 districts? No subs. Seems more sensible than the radical overhaul/splitting of the tournament that is currently on the table