Ok, we all know in high school we have to fight against basketball to recruit the same athlets. My question is how many of you fight for them from 3rd grade up? I'm trying to do my research so I can approach our administration. Here's the deal, a few years back we had a principal that hated wrestling and since we had more kids out then them, he set out to kill our program. He happens to be doing now at his new school and after talking to their coach this weekend, it's working. Anyway, we used to do our Junior high sports during pe but he got that changed so now, all kids don't have to try it. He also started a bball league after Christmas at the same time as our wrestling practices and during the same season. It has cut our numbers below half. Are there any schools out there that have an agreement to have seperate youth seasons so kids don't have to decide in 3rd grade? What they're doing is wrong, but I'm trying to find other schools that administration thinks it's important for kids to experience both and not choose so early. Of course now, kids that have told me they're going to try youth wrestling, now aren't because they've already signed up for youth basketball and their parents won't let them do both. Any info. is appreciated. My program is going to die, and I need ammo to fight with. We have 28 kids out now, but in 4-5 years will be lucky to have 10, and most of those won't have wrestled before. I'm trying to organize a parent group to voice concern but if there's other schools that actually work together to do what's right for kids, let me hear them so I have data. Thanks for the help. You may also email me at dwadding@esu10.org if you don't want to post on here.

Where to start? I've said it before and I'll say it again. We have become preoccupied with getting these kids to start organized sports at a very young age. Interesting that at the NCAA level and all the way to jr high level an athlete is permitted to participate in a certain number of contest per year. BUT, we get below that magic 7th grade year and all bets are off. No limit to the number of activities and contests they can compete in. I remember when my son was wrestling in Huskerland state tourney his 7th grade year and in his semifinal match he was wrestling a kid who had a record of 76-4. 80 matches in a year, CRAZY. that wrestler did not wrestle in high school as he was a pretty good baseball player and did that instead. Just last week I had a parent of a Kindergarten wrestler sign up for our club and then switched to another club because they started earlier than we did. We do not start our little kids until end of Feb. I don't know the answer but I agree with you that it is getting tougher each year to keep numbers of wrestlers up. Wrestling is tough and kids don't want to work as hard as they used to. Throw in the over-zealous parent who wants his kid to be a champion, despite the fact that the parent wasn't a champ or maybe even didn't wrestle, and you run into all sorts of problems. Eagle1, I feel your pain, but until we as wrestling coaches can get organized as a single entity and promote and educate parents about our sport and not at the detriment of others we will have to battle the BB coaches, BB administrators, Parents, and wannabe coaches to get kids excited and involved with wrestling. Just keep fighting the good fight and do what is best for the kids involved. It will pay off in the long run.

Old Coach,
I agree with you. The thing is, I'm not asking them not to have their season, and really, I'm not asking every kid to wrestle. All I'm asking is they have the OPPORTUNITY to. As a parent, I understand not wanting to haul them around to both. So in my mind, if they had seperate seasons, kids could, and would try both and could make an informed decision when they get to 9th grade. I know what you're saying about too many matches, etc. My two boys wrestle and there's a fine line. I'm trying to let them make decisions when they want to wrestle later. I've struggled with the fact I can't get them out of state, etc. to wrestle because of my duties as high school coach and many times they wrestle kids who do experience that but I take comfort in the fact that they're learning the right way to do things and as they get older the gap will close between them. But right now, my feeder program is dieing and before long, they won't have anyone in the room to wrestle with. I don't know the answer.

Coach, I am seeing this more and more. We actually moved one day of our practices this year from Tuesday to Monday, in hopes that we would get a few more youth wrestlers. The next thing we know basketball has done the same. We lose kids all the time to basketball and it is very frustrating. I do not know what the answer is, but we also fight basketball leagues as well in the junior high. I am starting junior high tomorrow and we will have 25 kids out, which is a a lot more then what we normally get. I tried something new, I met with all the 7th and 8th grade boys and gave them a top 10 list of why they should wrestle in junior high. I know it helped me gain some kids. When you live in a basketball community it is tough to fight it. We had 36 kids out for junior high basketball. They had 3 teams, and the last team hardly ever got to play. In my opinion, the sport of wrestling is misunderstood and we have to find a way to sale it to the kids. What that answer is, I am not sure, but am open to suggestions.

I too met with the Jr. High. I had my 215 lber. talk to them with me and he has accepted a walk on spot for the Huskers to play football. Had close to 20 sign up but when the first day of practice came, many of them didn't show up. When asked why, their answer was "parents won't let me" Frustrating. Sometimes I tell myself I shouldn't worry so much, I get paid the same either way, but it isn't in my chemical make up!

Don't think of it as a fight.The key is to work with them. We had the same situation. We talked to the ad and told him we wanted our kids to have as many opportunities as possible and would like to work with you b-ball to work out a non conflicting practice schedule. The two directors met with the ad and worked it out. It was actually easier than they thought it would be. Ideally we would work out non conflicting seasons but it's a step in the right direction. We only gained 1 or 2 kids but at least we didn't lose any. Talk to your super or ad and make sure they understand that your goal is to give kids opportunities and that it's not just about getting kids to wrestle. Extend the olive branch. It's not perfect but it worked for us.

Tried it, didn't work. Our AD is the ex-basketball coach. He doesn't see a problem with them practicing at the same time and neither do their club coaches. They all feel it's beneficial for both programs for kids to make up their minds early. You and I both know it isn't.

Since I know who your elementary P.E. "teacher" is your situation is not surprising. At his previous school, he would intentionally bench any one who was or might become a wrestler no matter how good an athlete they were. Good Luck with your program..you will need it as long as you have your current P.E. teacher.

Random wrestling thoughts by Rick Henry………

I don’t know where to start on this one……… Specialization is here, whether we agree with it or not, in ALL sports. Having third and fourth graders play basketball for 7 or 8 months out of the year and getting 50 plus games played is reality, or 100 softball/baseball games, or 100 volleyball games…….. Playing youth basketball during half time of a varsity game for 6 minutes twice a year and one or two weekend tournaments is so 1982! You can’t compete at the high school level if you only practice basketball 3 months a year grades 2-6, or so it is believed by most parents/fans…… And in junior high you can play basket ball for a couple of months, but everyone knows that the real season is the ‘off season’ ‘club team’ ‘select league’. I’ve got a doctor buddy, college friend, who told me this summer that the most common ‘new’ injuries he is seeing are “repetitive motion syndromes”. Even in wrestling, we see kids starting the season earlier and ending later. Elite level 12 year olds in Nebraska are wrestling 7 or 8 months out of the year (or more).


I have a 4th grade boy, and call me crazy but I want him to play everything! Compete in as many sports as you can for as long as you can…….. But he can’t do that. He already has to chose, or I have chosen for him, between wrestling and basketball. It’s not right, and I would love for communities and youth sports organizations to figure it out. I have approached the community sports leaders and the administration and have been heard out and some things have even changed slightly, but bottom line is that during the months spanning from October until April it IS NOT POSSIBLE to have no basketball practices for any length of time. If you try to play that game, we live close enough to population centers that parents will simply take their kids to the closest or best team/league anyway.

1) Starting wrestling right after football season, beating basketball to the punch; 2) Having wrestling practice during Physical Education, during the school day; 3) Having meetings with junior high kids, utilizing high school wrestlers; 4) Having meetings with parents and handouts during parent teacher conferences; 5) Wrestling coaches who are coaching youth football and junior high football; 6) Having a dozen or 15 FREE after school practices at 3:30 for novice youth as soon as high school practice is done (basically free daycare, afterschool program); 7) Implementing fun summer camps that involve tents, fishing, canoeing, wrestling on sand bars in the middle of the platte river. THESE ARE ALL THINGS THAT I HAVE EXPLORED/TRIED AND I STRUGGLE TO BUILD SOMETHING!!!


I have started two programs in this state, and I feel like I am fighting a losing battle DAILY! I invested ten years at one program, had 25 state qualifiers, and some good athletes…….. but two years after I leave they drop the program. The same thing could happen at my current school. All I am asking for is 5 wrestlers per grade that decide to OWN the definition WRESTLER! In a community that has never had wrestling, I am making progress……But, one class will have 7 or 8 wrestlers/buddies and then there will be a couple of classes that supply zero individuals. I have a population of 8 sophomores right now. One freshman, two eighth graders, zero 7th graders and then 9 pretty decent 6th graders, a couple of 5th and a couple of 4th……….. Places like Madison, Bishop Neumann, and Doniphan Trumbull give a guy like me hope that it can be done…….. But how? Is it luck, determination, hours, recruiting, money, success, parents, boosters, fans…………… It clearly is a combination but I’m looking for a recipe.


Society has changed so much regarding youth sports……. In most communities, “Be home when you hear the 6 o’clock whistle”, or “ be home by dark” just doesn’t work anymore. Many of you reading this got better at sports in the back lot/alley/park when there weren’t any adults watching. No refs, No grandparents, No coach……… just your peers, and they let you know what you were good at and what you weren’t. Crying, being a poor sport, being a wuss, or being a bully, flat out didn’t cut it back in the day……. Now kids can get away with that, sadly, in front of adults. Society doesn’t allow most of our families to feel comfortable letting their kids ‘roam’ town for hours on end and computers/video games have taken the place of this babysitter. Safe community=community babysitter ::::: Television/playstation= safe babysitter. Adult sponsored sports for youth has led to a change in competition standards. Youth get to hear adults being loud and sometimes inappropriate fans and watch tv sports and think that talking trash is part of sports.


It’s easy to hide and make excuses for a 4th grader that plays a team sport. Trust me I know! I have to listen to mine tell me how good a tackle he made and how the other team had too many kids over 85lbs on the line…… Sitting on the bench, being able to blame others, and not feeling the blunt smack of a loss, by being able to make excuses really does make basketball an easy choice for many youth AND their parents during the winter.


I have often wondered about starting a youth sports academy in the third grade, up to sixth grade……. They show up every Tuesday6-8 and Thursday6-8 and Saturday 9-12. We practice 6 sports for 6 weeks a piece. All thirty-seven of the athletes need to participate in all 6 sports for 6 weeks. Football, wrestling, basketball, track and cross training/aerobics, baseball, and soccer or other………… Could this work? Who doesn’t feel comfortable with this? Could it be strongly suggested by high school coaches, doctors, athletic trainers, successful athletes………??????


I need to be done for now…….. but know that I have thought about this a lot……. Spent a lot of energy on this….. rarely feeling like I am succeeding…… Someday I hope I figure it out…….. Find a recipe or just get lucky…..

Matjam,
Yep, you hit the nail on the head, he still does those things. My own son asked him why they weren't doing wrestling in PE and he said to him "because basketball is the sport we like around here" I did get mats down there so we'll see if he uses them.

My bet is that he won't use the mats unless he is instructed to by administration which in your case doesn't sound very likely. I have family who live in your school district and I enlightened them on this so called "teacher" before he was hired. Good luck with your program especially with the extra hurdle you have placed in front of you..

Matjam,
Maybe you could convince your family to go to the administration and help me out? Email me at dwadding@esu10.org if you have time. I'm curious who your family is that lives here. Thanks!

To qoute Dori from Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming, swimming swimming". Seriously though all you can do is keep doing what you can. And bless you for helping the few kids you keep out. I don't know where you're from Eagle1 (Wood River?) but it is just a fact that b-ball is more popular. And at least in my town there just aren't that many kids so we coach the ones that show up. Make sure you put as many pictures of your kids wrestling in the paper as you can. Take every opportunity to talk about even the smallest successes of your kids. Make it sound like they're on the verge of greatness. People will start looking. It's very subtle so far but there is more interest in my town now then there was 5 years ago. I call that a victory.

Speaking as a parent of 2 boys one who is in 3rd grade and as former wrestler from a small town that is/was a basketball town a lot of what is being said in this thread sounds very familiar.

My thought is you need to have a two part approach, first how to build your base for the future and second how to build your current program. Bottom line with both of these and with any high school or youth sports program though is you must have parent involvement! If you do not have the parents involved and committed to your program you will be fighting a constant uphill battle. Wrestling tournaments both youth and HS take a huge number of people to make happen, when you are organizing those events take time to organize other events for the local wrestling community both during the season such as parents night, senior night, etc. and in the off-season potluck, pizza feed, or local summer event.
If you do not remind people that the wrestling team needs thier support and it is appreciated they will forget and you will lose it.

The highschool I went to often only had 6-7 varsity wrestlers and only had 4 including myself my freshman and spohmore years. They still have wrestling and now have about 12-15 kids out each year, mainly due to the base that was build with the youth program. The program was built on the idea of getting familes involved and bulding slow, three coaches have gone through since I graduated but we still have contact with the school and the wrestling program. I and others still go back to help at the wrestling tournaments they hold each year even though I graduated over 10 years ago and live over 2 hours away. Each year after the tournament the parents and those who helped go out to eat and we have a chance to talk with others who enjoy wrestling and support our program.

As far as youth sports kids should have the right to choose what to participate in and should have options late into jr high and hs. Kids do have these choices, but parents and over aggressive coaches push kids to pick one sport or specialize early. It is up to parents to help thier kids with this issue, not over working them, and above all making sure that a kid has fun no matter what sport he is playing.

I did not go play football with my friends at the park when it was cold a raining because I had to, I did it because i wanted to and there were no adults around telling us what to do and what we were doing wrong, often parents and coaches forget that part of the equation when they remember thier childhood playing sports.

There's a lot of good points so far, and believe me, I agree with all of them. So far, all of the suggestions listed, we are already doing. I'm really just wanting to know if there are any schools out there that have any kind of policy or rule that keeps the seasons seperate. On a positive note, I've been to the administration last year and this year about making sure wrestling is part of the elementary PE curriculum. Today they started a 4 week elementary PE unit with wrestling. My son tells me they worked on doubles, halves, and some live wrestling. Our supt. apparently called the elementary and requested that it be done so it's a start.

It would also help if you had a good young wrestler that really loves wrestling, like a 1st and 2nd grader, or 3rd and 4th grader tell all of his friends how great wrestling is, and that they should try it. That's what happened in our school. My son and his friends all decided to wrestle federation, and they never looked back. When they were seniors, 1/2 of the class was still wrestling. Made for a Championship year their senior year!!

PS: They all participated in Football, Basketball, Wrestling and Track when they were in Jr. High. The wrestlers told the basketball players that they would go out for basketball if the basketball players would go out for wrestling. By the time Jr. High was over, they knew what direction they wanted to go.

That's what I'm getting at though Debos Mom, I already have that. There were 14 boys in my sons class until now that they are old enough to play the league basketball. Now there's 3. They have them sign up for bball before xmas and they practice and play after xmas, same times we do with kids club. That's why I'm trying to see if ANY schools have any kind of policy specifically preventing that from happening so both clubs can coexist, just at different times.

I don't think Mitchell has a policy preventing that either. That's just too bad. I agree when kids are young they should be able to try everything, and see what they like best. Just a funny note when my son was in Jr. High he played in a few basketball tournaments on a team with some of the other wrestlers and basketball boys. His coach, one of the basketball players dads, said, if my basketball players played as well as the wrestlers played basketball, we'd have a pretty good team. I hope you find a solution, but I fear this is a big problem!

Eagle 1 back in the early 90's wresting was great there, but the super. really supported the program. I sent you a new one this year, maybe ask to go talk to the PE Classes or just visit the classrooms at the elementary school?

Mat mom,
Sent me a new one, what do you mean? Maybe you mean a new kid in the club? If so, who's that? We have visited the classroom. Went down last Spring? Got the kids all excited about it but problem is our elementary PE teacher helps with the clubs and hands forms out in class at school and tells kids they'll pay for them if they can't afford it, whatever they can to get them. Unfortunately I don't have people coach the kids club, we have to do it. They have every dad in town that wants to coach so they can start early. It's pretty hard for us to do while still doing high school. I guess next year we'll have to have sign ups very early, before they do and see if that changes anything and will just have to figure out how to coach all of it.