Last week I talked with Travis Shives who is a National Events Coordinator with USA Wrestling. He stated that USA Wrestling does not wish to have any qualifying requirements placed on kids who would like to participated in the Southern Plains regional event. He went on to say that the dramatic decline in summer participation over the past 10 years is alarming. USA Wrestling would like to see as many kids as possible from Kansas competing in this event.

The team concept as pitched by Coach Gonzales is absolutely on track for the dual events as they are Team Events. Those teams represent Kansas. Southern Plains is an individual event. Yes, our kids are reepresenting our state but NO team scores are kept and very often Kansas kids will be wrestling each other to see who goes home with a medal and who doesn't. Lets keep this post alive with responses from those who would attend Southern Plains to wrestle if the camp requirement is dropped. In my opinion, if one more kid will participate if he doesn't have to go to camp then the requirement/restriction should be dropped.