Louisville

Jack Cummings (98 lbs) moved to Illinois... we will miss our friends and teammates in KY. Good luck to all this season!

We live in Jefferson County (Louisville), but I agree with North... If you want a balance of the best academics and athletics (including wrestling) in a public school setting, I think the schools in Oldham County outside of Louisville are at the top of the list in the state of Kentucky, particularly North Oldham middle and high schools.

Austin Hedges, Shamrocks is 8th grade David Young, Shamrocks is 8th grade I believe Carson Deckard, River City is 8th grade

Jack Cummings, Shamrocks is 6th grade Johnny Phillips, Shamrocks is 6th grade Elijah Phan, Shamrocks is 7th grade I believe that Scott Villums, Fern Creek and Dylan Preston, Carr are 7th grade I believe Jack Calvary, River City is 8th grade

Right. I guess what I am suggesting is that you try to balance the number of wrestlers for each session. According to Track you had 156 for 01-02, 268 for 03-04, 305 for 05-06, 313 for 07-08 and 127 for 09-11 for a total of 1,169 wrestlers. Out of those, 745 wrestled the morning session and 424 wrestled the afternoon session. If instead, we wrestled 05-06 and 07-08 in the morning for a total of 618 and then 01-02, 03-04, and 09-11 in the afternoon for a total of 551, it would have been more balanced. In other words, wrestle the two lowest populated age groups (the youngest and oldest) and the most populated in one session and the other two in the other session. These ratios of wrestlers seem roughly consistent with the 2015 youth tournament as well, even though we added three birth years to the youth tournament in 2016. While this will keep the morning and the afternoon balanced, it doesn't necessarily make more time overall. Since we added three birth years to the youth tournament this year (11 birth years vs last year's 8 birth years) and thus added 25% more wrestlers (1,169 this year verses 942 last year), we should expect that without 25% more mats, the tournament overall will take 25% longer. Therefore, you had to cut out the face-offs or we would have been there well into the late evening (past the start of the Super Bowl). If we keep the youth tournament at the convention center in Louisville it seems as though we have room for more mats (move the t-shirts sales over by the concessions, and perhaps not use the seating on the short (east) wall since there seemed to be plenty along the long (south) wall)... is that an option for next year? I know that means more mats, more scoreboards, more refs, more table workers, etc... but there was room, right? Is that feasible?

The youth morning session took much longer than the afternoon. The morning session didn't end until after 2pm, but the afternoon seemed to take less than three hours. Is this largely a factor of number of kids in the morning age groups? If so, do you shift one of the morning age groups to the afternoon to balance it? This could allow for more time for face offs, particularly for the morning session.

I worked the table for the bracket where the two girls from Carr and Braves met in the youth championship match and there were also other girls in the two brackets that we had at my table and there were no forfeits to any of the girls, so I suspect this was an isolated incident. I am not affiliated with River City, but in my experiences with them, the coaches and program are top notch and I doubt they would be advocating a religious position to not wrestle girls, though it is unofficially associated with St. X, which is a catholic high school. My sense was that this parent specifically may have had religious issues and made that call... But it could also be that he didn't want to risk his son losing to a girl and used religion as an excuse.

Thanks!

Do you know what kind of seating they will have for spectators in Hall 2D?

Another potential problem with fixed weight class at youth is that it could encourage these young kids to cut weight to drop a weight class. You might even see parents pushing this on their kids to make them more competitive. I think there is less pressure on the kid if there isn't a target weight that they might try to cut to, and instead they just wrestle their natural weight.

...and I agree that 98 is really tough. Adams, Lenhart, Pledger, Lee, Powell, Cowan and others are all contenders for first in that bracket.

I am a little biased towards the 92 bracket, but I think you have a really solid group that will be battling. Conrad/Cummings (have split their two very close matches this year), Blue/Deckard may have a rematch from last season's state consolation final at 86. Deckard is a beast, so it will be interesting to see if anyone will step up and take him down...otherwise it will be seeing who gets the scraps for 2nd and 3rd.

For middle school wrestling, you have district and regional qualifiers to get to the state tournament, and there is a seeding process for the state bracket. Younger kids (4th-8th grades I think are eligible for MS) that want that level of competition have that avenue to wrestle. Youth is more about getting younger and less experienced kids interested and excited about wrestling in Kentucky. Hence, Kentucky youth state tournament doesn't have a qualifier or seeding for the bracket. We just changed last year from an 8 man to a 16 man bracket which was a great move to make it a little tougher and more interesting, but at the end of the day youth is about exposure to the sport.

I wish my Jack had one more shot at your Jack, but three is probably enough. My Jack just placed third at 98 at the Veterans Tournament at John Hardin today. Beat Conrad from Twenhoffel (and Conrad had beaten Dahl from Hardin). Jack got taken out by some kid named Diesel Duncan out of Indianapolis(?) in the second round, and I think that kid went on to win the bracket. When is your Jack's first meet?

Jack Cummings (92 lbs - Shamrock) will be wrestling 98 lbs this season. Thanks.

I noticed a few 7th graders signed up for the youth trials at Woodford. I thought this was limited to 6th grade and under AND 13 years old and under? The flyer for the Heartland tournament says: "Grade verification (report card or official letter from an elementary school authority) will be required for all wrestlers. This event is for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. A wrestler cannot be in this event if he or she is 14 years old or older. Please be prepared to show proof of age if challenged." The part about grade verification seems to indicate that 7th graders wouldn't be eligible even if they are still 13. I would think that we would want the trials at Woodford to be consistent with the requirements for Heartland... But perhaps I am missing something, or those kids listed as 7th graders are really in 6th and under and justed registered incorrectly on Track.

I am looking to sign up Jack at 85, but as others have mentioned, there are other spring obligations where I am worried about conflicts. I know I can get him to Campbellsville this Saturday and to Iowa in April, but the practices may be tough. Have we any idea on when and where practices might be, and if they are required?

Other than age, are there any other restrictions? Are middle school state placers eligible for Youth Team KY so long as they meet age eligibility, or will they be steered towards Middle School Team KY?

My son wrestles 80lbs so he has faced - and I have seen - many, but not all, of the top 80 pounders in the state including Ketchen-Carter and Ballinger, and my money is on Higdon from Fairdale. And I don't mean to downplay how good Tom KC is, especially for a fifth grader (I think), but Higdon (regional MOW) seems to be hitting on all cylinders heading into state.

I think MS place-finishers should be able to compete at youth if they are still age eligible. We already balance this by placing the youth kids into four separate age divisions (this year: 2000/01, 2002/03, 2004/05 and 2006/07) so that you don't have a 3rd grader competing against a 7th grader at youth state. If a 5th grader places 4th at MS state, having been beaten out by 7th/8th graders, shouldn't that kid get a chance for a youth state championship by beating kids roughly his own age/grade? Also given the age breakouts, I would like to see youth state as a qualified event with full 16 man brackets. I understand the issues as outlined by others with regard to large vs small regions, but there has to be a way to make this work.

Gene, I remember the match that you are talking about when Blue got his pin taken away at the belt series. I didn't see anything illegal and was surprised when they made Blue finish the match after calling the pin in his favor. He ended up losing on points didn't he? Jack is wrestling in the MS state duals this Saturday, but nothing at Youth this Sunday for a change. He won't get to wrestle at the belt series this year or Ohio TOC (he finished 4th there last year) because he will be playing lacrosse this spring. Mpire, I think the best age to start wrestling depends on the kid. My 8 year old was probably ready to compete coming out of the womb, but my 7 year old is more your typical youth wrestler, not as driven or focused which will probably not come for him for many more years. I also support an earlier comment about having kids participate in more than just one sport when they are younger. They have to figure out what they like and can be passionate about. Wrestling takes more dedication and discipline than any other sport, and if the passion isn't there then they should probably try something else.

Gene... My son, Jack, is an 8 year old third grader that wrestles middle school 70 this year for Shamrock. He took home the belt in the belt series at Bantam last summer, but has only won about 50% of his MS matches this season and got 6th at region. Virtually all of the top 70 lbers are 6th grade or older. Jack hasn't been able to win against these older kids but he is getting great experience and should at least qualify for state next year, though Louisville is a tough region. He likes to keep an eye on Blue because he knows he is his grade and weight and is looking forward to the day he gets to face off against him. Should be a good match. In the mean time, wishing Blue good luck at state representing the "up and coming" of Kentucky middle school wrestling.