stanmms

Congrats Connor. Keep up the good work.

I applaud Mlee for asking for suggestions on how to improve the state tournament. The WKY situation has been discussed at length. There is in fact several WKY teams that attend the state tournament in Frankfort, kick butt, take names and go home. I have personally attended every youth meeting, but one due to a death in my family, and never has a WKY team shown up to discuss the date and time of the tournament. Union Co. reps have shown up for several meetings but their argument was for a bracketed tournament with a state champ per weight class. We accomplished this by going to the 10% rule thereby crowning a state champ per weight. There is not one current board member from NKY. Hosting the state tournament is simple. Show up at meetings, host tournaments to prove you have the manpower to host the state tournament, and put your name on the list to host. Then take the heat for everything you did wrong you thought you were doing right. The past host teams can tell you it's no picnic. You need well over 100 volunteers, a tournament director willing to put in at least 100 hours of personal time, and extremely hard working parents that don't even get to see their kids wrestle in the State Tournament because they are more concerned that the rest of the state is able to enjoy themselves. You say "follow the money", I say follow the people actively involved in youth wrestling who show up for meetings, vote on these issues, and then dig in to get it done. We all welcome your involvement. See you at the Spring meeting.

I agree growth starts at the Youth level. You want growth, look at the history of wrestling in the big wrestling states. Youth programs have and continue to create legions of new fans as well as many generations of wrestling families. Youth wrestling has experienced phenomenal growth in Ky with teams from all over the state becoming dramatically more competitive. Just 4 years ago Conner held a state tournament with barely over 200 kids, JC was next at about 450, Fern Creek-600, and this year's tournament had 800. Any High School coach that isn't promoting Youth programs is missing the boat and will be left behind.

Frank it must be easy to post such post when you dont know anything about wrestling . It seems funny that you didn't mention the school that didn't want you in their program as a top 5 team in the region. You really need to keep personal barbs to yourself. Opinions about the best teams are one thing, but personal jabs are out of line.

The Frankfort Civic Center is rented for the week of State already for at least the next two years. Hold the Youth on Monday, Middle on Tues/Wed., High School the rest of the week as normal. This takes control of the event out of the hands of an individual school system, allows multiple teams to make money for their programs instead of (1), and brings all levels of competition together for one big show. The Youth association allows different teams to be the host team each year. That team is responsible for recruiting tableworkers, hiring refs, setting up the tournament and running the tournament under the supervision of the board. This allows different teams to make money for their program every year. Enough money to fund most programs for several years.

I do think running the Youth on Sunday after the High School (just like this year) would be best.

D. W. , "If we as parents and coaches don't care any more than this then we will see Ky wrestling remain as it has been or get worse. " 1. I know, for a fact, the board has sent out numerous requests to refs for the Youth State Tournament and is having great difficulty finding enough. Not a lack of "caring" but a lack of refs. 2. I also know, for a fact, Fern Creek used "Certified Refs" last year. 3. Raider youth wrestling has been attending large youth tournaments every weekend of wrestling season for over ten years. I have personally coached thousands of matches and the % of matches adversely affected by a bad call using High School Refs is minimal at best. Have you been to a middle school match lately? I've had refs ask how many counts it takes to award back points. Control, what's that? Out of bounds, Oh that's why there are lines on the mat. I firmly believe " most" high school wrestlers understand the rules better than the majority of refs I've seen in Middle School this year. 4. Coach Kyle has done a great job taking over this year. Early indications are the State Tournament will have record numbers of kids. For all those busting their buts for the kids of Ky, keep up the good work.

My hat's off to the kids of Region 3. Hard nosed wrestling from the start. Very few pins and very few dominated matches, plus a lot of upsets, made for a great day of wrestling. If the other regions are this tough, state will be a bear. Great job to Region 3.

Paris--Scheduling the NKY Youth Regional had NOTHING TO DO WITH THE HIGH SCHOOL COACHES SCHEDULE. The last time I looked there was not one single High School Coach, coaching Youth wrestling, in NKY. Dogwood- I have been to every single meeting since the start of elementary wrestling in KY. I have NEVER heard opposition voiced to holding the State Tournament a whole two weeks earlier. I have spoken, on the phone asking him to attend our upcoming meeting, to one WKY High School Coach who thought Elementary wrestling season should start after the High School season was over. His reason..."nobody can coach wrestling in my county but me." This thought process of NKY and Louisville against you is not helpful. At the Spring meeting there were coaches from every area except WKY. Voicing your outrage one month before the tournament is consistent with previous years. Look what this organization has accomplished in a few short years. The competition is so dramatically better than Larue, Conner, McCreary, or JC it is unbelievable. I hope the "unanimous idiots" made the right call. You may not see it this year or next but I guarantee you that once the KY kids, see the High School Finals, there will be no turning back.

Come join us for the Raiders Youth Tournament. Last year we had over 450 kids with kids from Ohio, Ky., Indiana, WV, and Tennessee. RYLE RAIDERS YOUTH TOURNAMENT DATE Saturday January 2, 2010 LOCATION Walton-Verona High School Walton, KY NOTE:********Location Change, Due to the growth of our tournament we have moved to ABOVE LOCATION*****Please make a note of this. TIMES Weigh-ins and Registration need to be completed and forwarded by Wed. Dec. 30, 2009 NO REGISTRATION AFTER JANUARY 7!!! Wrestling will be from 8:30-5:00, with a half hour break at approximately 12:30. We are dividing the age brackets up and wrestling half of the kids from 9-12:30 and the other half from 1-5. The 5/6 and 9/10 age group will wrestle at 8:30. The other two groups of 7/8 and 11/12 bracket will wrestle at 1:00. CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND FACEOFF HOSPITALITY ROOM AWARDS Awards for the top 3 finishers in each weight class AGE GROUPS 5/6, 7/8, 9/10, 11/12 Every attempt will be made to keep the wrestlers within 1 year and 5 lbs of each other with 8 man (maximum) brackets. Less than four in a bracket will be a round robin format. If we cannot accommodate this guideline we will notify the coach prior to the tournament. ENTRY FEES $12 per wrestler (pre paid

Just a reminder to have rosters in on time. Thanks

Correction 12/30/09

This was voted on at the last meeting and won unanimous support. It was felt, that by having the state meet the day after the High School, a tremendous amount of publicity would be generated for the Youth programs around the state resulting in more growth. Also, if we can get kids to the High School State Tournament, they will be hooked. As to holding the Youth tournaments in March. The majority of the teams start their programs in December, wrestling season. By February most little kids are done. I fully understand what you are saying about finding coaches. It is extremely difficult. Some suggestions: 1. We send flyers home to every elementary age student throughout our District to recruit kids and Parents. 2. We screen the Parents to make sure they are not wackos BUT welcome anybody who wants to help. 3. Keep in mind that on this level coaches do not need College wrestling experience. They're teaching the most basic moves and more importantly just trying to get kids involved. 4. Once Coaches are in place, give them a weekly outline of what you want them to teach, and poke your head in the room once in a while to offer support. If you have any questions on how to get a program going or how to promote your program please email me at stanmms@fuse.net Their are several coaches around the state with 30- 100 kids with great ideas.

Just wanted to say thanks to the coaching staff of Montgomery Co. The Ohio State Wrestling clinic this weekend was awesome! Tom Ryan is a class act. Rarely, have I seen a coach, speak to the kids about LIFE like he did. I expected the wrestling portion to be great, and it was. I wasn't ready for the Life side, it was over the top. Thanks to Tom Ryan and the Montgomery Staff. Stan Martin

Raiders will be there. Should be a great event.

******Time has been changed to 11:00****************

Spring meeting will be held at: Wildwood Country Club 5000 Bardstown Road Louisville. KY Date: 05/17/2009 Time: 1:00 pm Agenda includes announcement of New Board Members, weight classes and scoring. From the parking lot enter the first door on the left. Go up the stairs and the Meeting Room is on the right.

*******************ALERT CHANGE OF MEETING OF KYSWA ***************** MEETING LOCATION IS CHANGED TO: MADISON CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL RICHMOND, KY TIME: 1:00PM Discussion will include announcement of new officers, weight class announcement and scoring discussion.

Will there be a hospitality room for coaches? Just kidding, I thought you might need a good elbow in the ribs today.

I look at all this nonsense concerning the Hospitality room as the greatest compliment Fern Creek can receive. If the next time I host, this is the biggest gripe, I will definitely consider the tournament a GREAT SUCCESS.

It's oh so interesting to hear people complain that never have taken the time to run a tournament of this magnitude. Let's see: 650 kids ranging from 38lbs to 240 150 volunteers from all over the state-try coordinating that 200 very anal coaches- I know, I'm one of them 16 Refs that have probably never seen a Youth match much less attempted to referee one 3000 screaming parents-My wife's one of those But I must agree with has been. Oh how PRICELESS a cold german beer would have been. Awesome job Fern Creek!

2009 Elementary Region 3 Wrestling Tournament Saturday, February 28, 2009 Campbell County Middle School 8000 Alexandria Pike Alexandria, KY 41001 Entry Fee: $10 per wrestler

grapplearms is correct. New kids coming to our team, with programs in their district, are instructed to join those teams but are not required to do so. I know Conner has the same policy of asking kids to join where they will attend middle school. Our veteran kids are allowed to stay on our team regardless if a new team starts up in their district. Raiders Youth is a CLUB team. Campbell County is the only NKY team I'm aware of that is a true school team. All the Louisville teams are club teams. That's why you see kids jumping teams.

I certainly hope this isn't the case. We want kids wrestling in Regions and State. We setup the region format to give the kids more matches, NOT for bragging rights. Keeping team scores on the Region level is the host teams option. Some did, some didn't.