HammerHead

Are USA Wrestling cards (insurance) really necessary?

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TRUMP changed the Law. and for a $15 card I would say is a good choice. I'm really not sure how this cost is ruining our sport. The benefits to membership are many.

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Thanks for clarifying that a secondary becomes primary. I purchased all the coverage even if secondary. I believe you can never have enough coverage myself. I personally want to know that I’m covered no matter what happens. The $65.00 that I pay for my son to wrestle and for me to coach is well worth it in my opinion. I personally don’t want to ever have to use it. How many of us has changed jobs and lost what we paid into an insurance premium that we never used because we didn’t have too. Be thankful for that.

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I agree with Coach Riordan and Naplesme on every level. As a MIDDLE school team our wrestlers are covered under the school district's accident policy first. Each child has this coverage through their school across the state in some form or fashion if that school has any athletic teams. If your school doesn't have this coverage let me know, I got a guy that can hook them up. These policies(USA wrestling & school) are secondary to each child's primary insurance(i.e. Humana, Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Passport, etc.) The accident policy covers some(if not all) out of pocket expenses in regards to medical bills. Naplesme is correct, kid gets injured and goes to the hospital and tries to hand them the USA card they are going to laugh then ask for primary insurance information. Coaches that are hired or approved under the school district are covered the same way. The added step of making school approved coaches purchase the USA card is overkill, unless they are doing the following... 

Other side of the coin now. Under USA wrestling the coach's coverage and liability(in regards to transport and facilities) are better. I am a district employee that is allowed to transport wrestlers in district owned vehicles to matches or tourneys. Under USA wrestling, I can use my personal vehicle. I, individually or the youth program that is chartered can host a tournament and provide coverage at a facility. Therefore, I don't have to go through any of the school's accounting measures to pay officials or to put into a school account. Also, USA wrestling provides coverage for the KFWC association at a reasonable price and is independent from KHSAA(which is a bonus). The KFWC is a pretty fluid group, good or bad, changes can be made. KHSAA is opposed to changing a great many things, unless every other state association or the NFHS changes.

Youth needs USA cards. Just the same as little league sports. Your signup fee most likely includes money for insurance.

Pros and cons for both sides. I'd say if you are a district employee that meets all the coaching requirements you should NOT be forced to buy a card. The same goes for wrestlers. There needs to be some middle ground. Hopefully, we can come to a consensus on this. I know the KFWC will do the best that they can.  

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When it costs $15 a card and you have 20-30 kids on a team that equals to $300-$450 that the school must pay for those kids to participate. And for many school teams that comes from the HS wrestling budget.  

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Insurance is your insurance primary, school secondary and the USA Wrestling.

36 minutes ago, grappler-of-old said:

When it costs $15 a card and you have 20-30 kids on a team that equals to $300-$450 that the school must pay for those kids to participate. And for many school teams that comes from the HS wrestling budget.  

Plus the cost of each tournament, transportation and coaches fees at some tournaments. This is one reason we have issues with our budget.

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No offense, but we work those into our budget at the beginning of the year. We, charge our middle school only wrestlers what the school requests plus the 15.00 USA card fee. It’s usually around 75.00 for Middle School. Our youth gets charged 100.00 dollars and then we inform them that the tournaments are charged to them individually. The extra 25.00 for youth helps cover the cost of our in season off site practice at Spatola. I know the schools who have to bus their wrestlers to and from tournaments is unfair to them and the extra cost of that hurts. My question is can your athletic association help in that manner. We have fundraisers throughout the year for Middle School in which our youth helps support by selling candy bars, buddy cards etc. That helps pay for our Middle School tournaments. I know it’s a lot to deal with. I’ve been dealing with it for 4 years now. But overall, I think since we’re different in so many ways Club vs Middle that it’s hard to be ruled under one association. Each county has different rules for the Middle Schools. Sorry it’s not like high school where they follow the same guidelines throughout the state.

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     I can tell you this at our school (Holmes) we are not allowed to charge kids to participate in sports, and if we did there would be no one playing sports.  As for fundraisers that is also not allowed, it has been tried in the past by other sports and the candy or other material never gets returned. The high school athletics must pay for everything.  As stated in other posts the poor and inner city schools is who this is affecting the most.  I know for us the budget has been cut and uniforms were not replaced (hence why all don't have the same uniform).  If the 300-500 dollars could be saved that would be a big savings for us.  Also we have had kids get injured at middle school matches and the school picked up the medical tab after the individual insurance was billed, The family does not have to pay one penny for an injury that occurs during a sporting event. 

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As a High school coach myself ( a few years ago) That was the cost of having a filler program. Back then the HS coach ran everything. Hell, it's awesome to see paid and unpaid youth coaches. I was the one that petitioned the school board to have paid coaches for our MS and Youth programs in all of Hardin County. Our HS did fundraisers With the youth and MS programs, you can make some good money for all programs. As a rule, our youth program has always paid a participation fee (card included). The only athletes that are not to pay this fee per our AD was HS

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Ksmith;  You can talk fundraiser all you want but they cannot and will not occur in our system.  

The main reason is because they are not needed when the school pays for everything.  But they keep balking with the USA cards because they are not needed for out kids.  So why are they still being forced to buy one, when they are already covered under our school insurance?  The proof is in the pudding already this year 2 kids have been covered by our insurance one in high school and one in middle school.  Our coaches are covered also because they are employed by the high school, or have gone through the process to become unpaid coaches through the KHSAA rules. 

As a parent/coach they tried to tell me I had to have a USA card to coach my son.  That to me as stated before is silly who am I going to sue?  Myself?  I have never had a USA card and coached my son for 7 years. 

So I ask again why can't proof of insurance allow a school to participate? 

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I’m sorry to say this, but you’re in between a rock and a hard place. It sounds like you have no support no matter what you do. You guys know we would reach out and help in anyway possible. But besides giving money, how could we help. I hate to say it but it’s not going to change for USA wrestling no matter what we do. And if you guys aren’t allowed to even accept a donation to your program, then that handcuffs you to whatever your administration says you’re going to do. Unless you go the club route independently.

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Sorry Bulldog, but you are misinformed about the school covering all aspects of your team. You need to ask your AD for an update.. As for you never having a card, that's a personal choice not to. Have you heard of "murphy's Law"? Also proof of insurance for your child in School covers just that "to be in School". depending on districts they don't add the sports coverage (More $$$), but every student must have some sort of insurance. Liability is the issue. You don't need it until you need it. also, most do not have any idea they are not covered. If you are sued in your school district and you were in the wrong, guess what? they do not have to represent you. with USAW they do. 

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12 hours ago, kdsmith27 said:

They can join the Cincinnati Youth League and be covered under them, when they participate in CYL events. 

 

 

1. Just wondering if the Cincinnati Youth League covers travel to and from practice and events?

2.Covers your place of practice and all coaches, volunteers, and athletes from liability?

3.covers your facility from all liability during practice, scrimmages, and events?

 

 USA Wrestling General Liability Coverage


What does General Liability provide coverage for?
• Bodily and personal injury (3rd party)
Property damage (3rd party)

so does this mean that if your personal property is damaged at a USA sanctioned event it is covered by USA Wrestling?

 

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