Lance, I respect your stance here and the position you took not allowing our Liberal wrestler to participate on Sunday. I've nothing to hide. I am sure there are some who will shake their head at me entering the kid in the Hays novice tournament so I will give context to the situation. Our club kid was a 6U last year in his first year of wrestling. He entered the 8U state series and advanced through districts without winning a match (default advance with only four kids in the division at districts). He beat another 6U age kid in the 8U state tournament with a 5-11 record (and likely another kid who wouldn't be at state but given the thinly populated, light weight division.....). Furthermore, the Liberal wrestler is a sub .500 W/L and placed 4th in a novice division in TX a week before Hays. The fear of an uproar over a "state qualifier" with a win at state wasn't worth it for Lance being subjected to criticism and I can't fault him one bit. We disclosed "state qualifier" and Lance/their board made the call, which is fine. I stand by the premise this kid belongs in a novice division in his second year, sub .500 and has just one 1st place finish at a smaller tournament. I guess lesson learned our club should refrain from sending first year wrestlers to the state series unless they are a freak.

Even written guidelines for novice will probably be ignored by a few bad actors - someone rating their kid as "average" with a 56-11 record and a 6th place finish at the state series after winning their district lacks either common sense or integrity. I noticed Great Bend posted in the forum for their tournaments, "The novice brackets are for 1st and 2nd year wrestlers with fewer than 5 tournament wins (Novice and Open Combined). If your wrestler has won 5 or more tournaments they must enter the open bracket." I believe that is being generous and I would be of the opinion that three 1st place finishes is plenty enough to force a kid into open divisions instead of novice.

Lance, might I suggest as Jesse Pfortmiller alluded. Give some clarification for your "novice" definition with the respective tournament flyer if you host one again next year. Give it some teeth too! "all matches will be forfeited if found in violation of the novice definition set forth."
JMHO, 2 years max, no state placers and fewer than three 1st place finishes in any tournaments to enter the novice tournament (a 3rd win kicks them out of novice).

Lastly, thank you for hosting a novice only tournament although some don't agree with the premise of novice tournaments. We had three kids who made the long six hour round trip and it was worth it for the experience they gained on Sunday.