Wrestledad

My 2 cents. I am a wrestling parent, I am not a USA board member. I have a completely different stake in what happens in state. Freestyle is the style that females will wrestle in college and this time of year is a more relaxed part of the year to continue training. While I don't know the inner workings of the board, my parent point of view is to give support as much as possible to our state tournaments. While we do travel out of state in off-season, it is done for the bigger numbers in female tournaments, we still encourage all the girls to attend the in state tournies. Hopefully, one day Kentucky can do the things that other states are doing. If I find reasons not to help it or keep hoping it will then that day won't happen. I do see lots of support from varying people around the state and for those THANK YOU.

Great tournament this past weekend with off the chart competition. There were several university ladies representing our colleges. There were 3 ladies representing k-12. Congratulations to Lauren Walton, who went 2-0 and took 1st place in Novice 102 lb division. Lauren is a great wrestler and will be one of the state's greats. Courtney Pittman at 65kg and Jaine Stephens at 53 kg went 0-2 but still represented well. Thanks ladies for representing Team Kentucky.

Good luck to all the Kentucky ladies heading to Irving for Women's Nationals this weekend.

Good luck to all the Kentucky ladies heading to Irving for Women's Nationals this weekend.

My question, we wrestled one state qualifier, registered for another at Montgomery, it was canceled. Now the final freestyle tournament for qualifier to go to Fargo is tomorrow. We are sitting in Irving, Texas wrestling tomorrow. I have already registered for the state tournament at CU. Are my wrestlers ability to go to Fargo gone?

I believe requirements are participant must be attending high school. It will be great to see Lauren as a part of the duals team one day. Truly a great competitor. Wonderful watching her wrestle.

What are the requirements if you wrestled Bullitt?

I would like to add a little too Stephens post. Some positives from Saturday at the Bullitt Freestyle Tournament. We had 4 or 5 that were at the tourny from far western Calloway County that had never been seen by some of us in the central Kentucky area. I can't speak for those that showed, but the obvious thing that has to be recognized is the area that these ladies are spread across. How do you let others know that they aren't the only ones? How do we come together, as a group, to share information? In our world today one answer would be social media. There are some that are using this venue and trying to make it more visible. Coaches, parents, and wrestlers can help with this. Another positive was seeing another young lady from a very good wrestling school here in the state. For me, I couldn't remember seeing a girl in her age group wrestle for this school. She said she wrestled up to 6th grade and stopped, she appeared to be of high school age now. She was wanting to wrestle again and that the tourny was her first freestyle. Several of the ladies that were there and even the boys were wrestling freestyle for the first time. My point being, what helped her decide that she wanted to wrestle again? From my experience with my daughter, coach encouragement is a big thing. Another thing could be knowing that there are other girls doing the same thing as her. I've said this before but I am saying it again, all girl tournament exposure. Going to a National is awe inspiring. The numbers are huge and the competition is even bigger. California brings multiple teams to these events. I believe they brought at least 4 teams to Oklahoma. These are fully rostered teams with some of the countries best competitors. Some of these teams are more than capable of beating our states best male teams, and I only say this to give you a measurement of the quality of competitor. Go to a "local" tourny in Indiana, Ohio, or Tennessee, or close by. Even these tournaments have large numbers of quality wrestlers that show. Expose your daughters or wrestler to the growing sport. There are also negatives that I see on this forum that are talked about from time to time. Also,negatives that are unspoken that are things which have to be overcome. One thing that I have heard consistently is mainly from coaches. They talk about how they were against a girl coming on their team and how they had never coached a girl before. All it takes is the one that comes in and shows the heart of a wrestler to change this view. I've heard one tell a story about being encouraged by his wife to give this particular wrestler a chance. Long story short, he did and is now doing great things for the female sport. Another, had a young female join his team in his first year of coaching that proved to him that she was there for the right reasons. He and other coaches on this team encourage these young ladies to come out and give it a try now. What kind of opportunities are being passed up by not giving these ladies their chance?

In summary, what will this mean?

I am having issues while trying to register for the upcoming Freestyle tournaments on Track and have others asking about the same issues. When registering it is not giving full options on cadet and junior womens. Also, it seems as if some of the weight classes are missing. I had asked a similar question a week ago and was told I should scroll through the options. I have tried several times and after being asked by others about the same issues I am starting to believe there is an issue with the Track registration. Has anyone experienced this and what are suggestions? These tournaments are on us and this may affect numbers.

Good luck to all the wrestlers heading to OKC this weekend for Folkstyle Nationals. I hope you represent your state well and grow from your experience. Keep doing the great things you do and the payoff will come.

No secrets being kept. This side doesn't get the attention it deserves. Lauren Walton is a 2 time national champ. Courtney Pittman is a 2 time AA at 2 different weight classes. Sorry brother but the negativity from some about title 9 loses what these wrestlers go through and what they accomplish. Plus the other wrestlers that represent but a word is never spoken.

Not to bother anybody but this weekend we had some female wrestlers in OKC. They represented our state very well. There are some of us who are very proud of these wrestlers and the sacrifices that they make. They went knowing that they still have a tall hill to climb, but gave it their all and brought home some medal. Thanks to the coaches who stood in their corners, the parents who believed in them, and the wrestlers who keep going without the recognition they deserve.

Congratulations Lauren. Glad to see Kentucky females doing good in nationals.

Good luck to all the wrestlers heading to OKC this weekend for Folkstyle Nationals. I hope you represent your state well and grow from your experience. Keep doing the great things you do and the payoff will come.

I just got on to register and it only gives me the option for Cadet Women. Shouldn't there be a Junior women option?

Females?

Do you have a copy of the USA Official 2018 Entry Form?

Do you pay when you register on Track or at the tournament?

What female age groups and divisions will there be?

March 22-25 Girls Folkstyle Nationals in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Registration is on Flo.

There is a group link on the Facebook page.

Mrs.Powers I would encourage you to become a member of the Kentucky Female Wrestling page on Facebook and request to become a member of the Kentucky Female Wrestling Group also on Facebook. The group is geared more for information and a place for parents to get together. Your girls and our girls and us parents have to be the ones to encourage change. Encourage the younger girls that we see they can be a wrestler. Change begins with one.

I am glad to see this conversation being had on this forum. One problem that there has been is the fact that a lot of girls don't realize how many other girls are wrestling in the state or even around the country. Northern Kentucky doesn't see southern, western Kentucky doesn't see eastern. This is something that is trying to be remedied by starting a Facebook page as well as a Facebook group so that everyone can have a site to go to for info and to know others are out there. A lady keeps reminding me small steps to our goal and this conversation is another one of those steps.

I agree to an extent. Wrestling the boys has it's up side for a certain amount of time. The big difference occurs when going from the middle school level to the high school level. Muscle bound boys are the norm. This is my daughter's freshman year and she just came back from about 3 weeks off for a concussion. We are getting ready for our nationals season right now and the things she has experienced this year have helped her grow. All angles need to be debated and decisions agreed to in order for this sport to grow.