The Scholar,

We live in the Kansas City metro area and sent our son for a couple of years as a youth to the Purler academy and it was definitely a good experience for my son and I believe elevated his game at that time. So Purler was and I bet still is available in the Kansas City area for our local youth wrestlers. Freestyle and Greco is also available here.

I also know though that being part of the Aquinas kid wrestling club from the fourth grade and then on to the Aquinas high school team at that time was also a big factor for him as he as a sophomore was part of that 2007 State Championship team. The seniors from that team also won in 2005 their sophomore year. That STA kids club was a big part of the success of that group of wrestlers at Aquinas from about 2004 thru 2007. I think the development of a strong kids clubs could definitely help the local metro high schools. But they definitely are competing against some other strong interests in our area. Along with previously mentioned basketball, I would include soccer, football and baseball which are all pretty big in our area. I know those sports are in different seasons but with the trend to one sport year round participation and training for a lot of kids I think these sports are also a competition factor for wrestling in our area.