kyor74

South Oldham would be a great place to start. Not in the area any more, but I do know their program has really fallen off recently and it is near the Louisville area, which would have some decent competitors. Also, you have a decent feeder program, with a good coach, at East Oldham which splits their wrestlers between Oldham County (a top 10 program) and South Oldham (a fallen program, for the most part). I'm not even sure they need a coach (per say) but where the program is today compared to the past they do (just my opinion).

Just FYI, this was by far the best run and set-up of any tournament we went to last year. Huge kudos to Kyle and the North Oldham program.

I said wrestle every weekend, sorry. I meant wrestle off every week to wrestle evey weekend. Also with opens over duals every child no matter how good gets an opportunity to wrestle more than just once and the more they advance the more they get to wrestle. I understand that you guys may like the way it is currently done but to close the gaps between the bottom kids and the top that comes with mat experience. It's not the same in the room as it is during tournaments. Granted you improve technique in the practice room but it is not the same as competing in tournaments against kids that you don't work with everyday at practice. Also as kids get older and know when to show up to the mat without having to be told, they still get the opportunity to cheer on teammates.

I'm just talking about having your sport grow, with talent all around at all levels. And I believe the right age is high school. Trust me, where we moved from has to be doing something right because there are currently wrestlers from there wrestling at Minnesota, Lehigh, Illinois, Stanford, Arizona State, Boise State, and Oregon State just to name a few. That's not by accident. Also, I'm not trying to promote the everybody wins process. I'm trying to offer suggestions to grow the sport and keep interest. In Kentucky you are always going to compete against basketball and need to do whatever it takes to draw interest to youth. So making kids wrestle every weekend before they have even hit maturity is tough. Give them all a opportunity to COMPETE, not win, to keep more kids involved. It doesn't effect my son either way, we have traveled to Reno Worlds, Regionals, and even Freestyle and Greco Nationals to compete. And he has placed in several of thes tourneys. It doesn't hurt me, just keep thinking inside the box and talking about how the sport has grown in the state, while the surrounding states still sit WAY ahead.

Wow, this has been a pretty passionate posting thread. Now for my two cents. We moved to KY last year and was appaulled at how some of the things are ran in wrstling there. Part of it had to do with the program we where in and the horrible coach we had to deal with. There are alot of politics and I'm also speaking middle school (not youth), there are too many tournaments ran as duals. Under USA wrestling opens you have EVERY kid have the opportuinty to wrestle every weekend. You want the sport to grow, give every kid that works his or her butt off during the week a chance to wrestle on the weekends. Now I know whats coming, you will have beginner kids get beat by good kids and the good kids don't get good competition. Well facing the best is where you get better for the beginner (they all start somewhere) and with opens the better kids get good wrestlers by the end of the day. I've mentioned this before and Ranger was the first to rebutt me with long days and bad ran tournaments. My suggestion to that is what has happened in other states. Bring in the age groups at different times. Have bantam and intermediate come in early and wrestle. Then in mid-day bring in the novice and schoolboy/schoolgirl to wrestle. The days are shorter per family and every kid gets a opportuinity to compete. Also don't require kids to where just there team singlets (expect for districts, regions, and state), allow them to where whatever singlet they want. Some kids really get a kick out of that and it gives them just another reason to have interest. I'm not trying to burn any bridges with anyone. I just know where we came from that we had tournaments with over 1000 kids on at least 7 or 8 different weekends a season. Personally, the North Oldham tournament was by far the best tournament we wrestled in all of last year. Now on a more positive note, other than the way tournaments are run and the agenda of some coaches. I do believe that the talent across the state at the top was much better than we had expected. So in some aspects the sport is growing by leaps and bounds in KY. But if you want the next level of kid to continue to get better and the gap to close, give every kid a chance to compete. Once again, I hope I didn't ruffle any feathers or offend anyone. This is just an opinion. I do wish everyone the best for this season and hope you guys find the best way to continue to grow the sport in your state.

kylejgoldsmith@gmail.com

North Oldham usually has a open style tourney between Christmas and New Years. The gentlemen that runs that program is Kyle Goldsmith and that might be your only option. Most tourneys in this state are ran as duals, not the USA style opens you are probably used too. This tournament is ran as open brackets though. There is a seeding to this tourney, so they will probably want to know his accomplishments to some level. What age and weight is he?

This was a great camp. To get this level of training close to home in September was worth every penny. Several very good kids and parents from N. KY made the trip and that helped my son get great partners to work with. I would also like to thank Jesse Leng for making the trip to work with all our kids. Also, Joe B. for putting this together. For a coach to open up his home to several out of town campers to get them training and make it easy on the parents was impressive. What a great guy and what a great camp. Thank again!!!!! Perry Floyd

I agree contact Coach Q from River City, he will help you depending on where you live. Also, you said your son wrestled 60 lbs. novice, wrestling isn't ran like that here unfortunately. You wrestle here by grade and weight, not USA wrestling groups. Where did you just move from?

Bluesdad, don't think I was critizing you in any way. I'm sure that situation was though to explain to an 8 yr. old. I was trying to say that the refs are causing issues in several different directions. Accidents and mistakes are going to happen but we moved here not to long ago and they are much more consistent here. I do appreciate what the refs are trying to do, because without them our kids don't get an opportunity to compete every weekend. With that said it seems to be the same couple of refs that I have witnessed making these mistakes over and over again.

I agree with this comment. My son had a double arm bar and went to run it towards the ear, in order to stack the kid for the pin. The same move he has ran for the past 3 years, also ran it in national tournaments and the way the move is intended to be run. Only to be stopped by the ref twice and told it was an illegal move because of torque on the shoulder. In return they are stood up and his oppenent runs directly at him, they bump knees and now we are seeing a ortho surgeon tomorrow. I realize this could happen at any time but wouldn't had happened at this time, had the ref made to correct call. With the time and effort these kids put in, it has to be addressed.We were scheduled to go to a national tournament in 2 weeks and now that is in question. All of this could have been avoided with the proper call. Truely unfortunate. This is above and beyond a kid losing a belt, this is about an injury that could have possibly been avoided all together.

Ranger, I agree your kids get to wrestle. But your club is the minority and not the norm. The experience your kids get from wrestling every weekend is why your team is towards the top. Since not every other club does that, opens allow opportunities that most teams (not yours but most others) don't get.

If you prestage each weight class and then have them come out that way, you don't have much down time. The only time you have downtime at that point is in the later rounds while updating the brackets. The point is making everyone better and this is a way to raise the talent pool across the board. Having weight classes where brackets are weak is the same as having weight classes in that are weak in duals. You just don't have to sit through it all at obce (the only downfall). But allowing those weak weight classes the chance to wrestle every weekend, is where they get better. Raising the level of competition for everyone.

You want to make everyone better, switch all teams to clubs teams. Let everyone go where they want and run all tournaments on weekends as opens. Everyone is wanting to raise the talent across the state. Well doing it this way will have some new wrestlers competeing against better kids, but it will also allow EVERY kid that practices monday thru friday an opportunity to wrestle every weekend. Your better kids will also still get to wrestle against kids with similar talent by advancing to the later rounds in the brackets. If we really want to raise the talent level across the board in the state, you need to keep kids interested in the sport. Many of the tournaments we run throughout the year are ran as duals. When you do that there is only one kid per weight per school wrestling. Running open brackets allows multiple kids per weight, per club the opportunity to wrestle at least 2 matches every weekend. The chance to work hard during the week, with the chance to at least compete every weekend will raise the talent level across the state. The top kids in this state are good and could compete at a high level in many places throughout the nation,but the next level down falls off fast. Yes it is getting better every year but you guys are asking for suggestions.

With me being new here. Can anyone tell me off the kids on the list from 86 to 105, which ones aren't eighth graders?