8th Grade Youth Wrestler of the Year Award

Justin,

My name is Billy Parish. I am with the Gladstone Wrestling Club. I have two, now one, wrestlers on the team and she enjoys it immensely. The reason I am writing to you is because I would like to see the way the UP group the kids changed. All of the UP's tournaments are grouped by grades. Other states group the kids by age, which I feel is a lot better. Even for kids that go all the way with wrestling, it's later also done by age, not grade.

One of the dilemmas that I have faced because of this is my daughters are extremely bright girls and for the most part are the youngest girls in their classes. Most of the time when they are wrestling people in the same grades as them, at times they are wrestling boys that are two years older than them. And obviously, in those two years, the boys bodies mature more than the girls in the same grade.

And then you also have some parents that hold their kids back a grade in school because they feel that they are not ready for the next grade or because they are looking for that advantage later in sports which also is not right. For instance, my daughter started preschool with one of the kids on the wrestling team. Both of them were four years old in preschool together. So that meant that they would wrestle in the PK-K brackets. Now that time has passed, both kids are turning 6, and my daughter is starting 1st grade and the parent of the other boy is going into kindergarten for whatever the parents reasoning is. So for the same age as the boy starting kindergarten again, my daughter will be wrestling 1st and 2nd graders while this boy will still be wrestling PK-K. He will have the advantage over any kids coming into wrestling this year and my daughter will be at a major disadvantage at the same time.

You are probably not the person to decide this, but I do ask that this request is passed along to the other clubs and ask for their consideration. I have spoken with other parents who do feel the same as I do. This has bugged me since we started wrestling in the UP last year since we have wrestled in other states and they group by age, no grades.

Thank you for your time, Justin.

Billy

Whoever you are,

Thank you for your input. Personally, I think you just proved my point even more. You said that your son had to wrestle kids two years older than him due to his birthday. If they were grouped by age, instead of grades, that problem wouldn't have occurred at all.

Other things that could be taken into account is you have kids that are ready to be challenged more mentally. My daughter's school has thought about moving her up a grade due to that she can already do the work that she will be taught. Since she would be skipping a grade, does that mean she should have to wrestle those same graders as her because she was ready academically? Worse yet, what about the kids that are not ready to move on academically? Should they really have the advantage like that? This year I met a 7 year old going into first grade this upcoming year. Most first graders nowadays turn 7 while in first grade. If you don't think that there will be a difference and I am saying that I think there is a difference, why not make the change to grouping by age, instead of grades?

Does anyone have an objection to grouping by age, instead of grades? MYWA already does it from the response that I got from the concerned wrestling parent. Is UP Youth Wrestling the only ones behind like this?

I would love to hear more responses especially from the coaches since they are the ones who are ultimately going to decide. I am already going to suggest to my club to change our tournament bracketing from grades to ages.

Coaches and parents,

________________

Hello. My name is Billy Parish. I help out with the Gladstone Youth Wrestling and have a couple of wrestlers myself. I'm sure some of you may have seen me at a few tournaments.

What I wanted to talk to you about today is the way UP Youth Wrestling brackets for our tournaments. Normally, we bracket by grades; PK-K, 1-2, 3-4, and so on. For the most part that system has worked, but with the changing times in schooling and the ages are starting to become a bigger gap. Theoretically, we want the kids to wrestle the same ages as themselves or one year difference at most. That is not always going to be the case due to some parents doesn't always feel their kids are ready for the next grade.

A prime example that I came across this past season was a parent did not feel their kid was ready for first grade and decided to hold their kid back for one more year. When that kid wrestles again this year, he will be 6 years old still wrestling other 5 and 6 year olds, which does not sound terrible. But then we have other kids that are ready to move to the next grade. Now, we would have some 6 year olds going up against 7 and 8 year olds just because they are in the 1st and 2nd grade bracket. Needless to say that 6 year old might only have two at most seasons under their belts while the 8 year old might have four seasons.

What I am suggesting is that we change from bracketing by grades and bracket by ages instead. To some of you, it won't matter. USAW, MYWA, IKWF, and some WI clubs already bracket by ages and have for a very long time. I am going to suggest it to my club when we have our next board meeting because some of the other parents have gone to tournaments out of state and have seen the age bracketing and liked it a lot better. I, for one, am one of those parents.

I would love to hear feedback from coaches and parents alike. I want to hear the pros and cons of a change that I suggested. To be more clear, I think we should group as such; 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, and so on or something very similar to that. I feel we should not bracket by how we think a child will do education wise, but age wise. I can't wait to hear from you.

Billy

GYWC

Think about these and give feedback about it if you want to. Feel free to use the forum to discuss it. For those that email me with their concerns or comments, I will post those results here as well without names if desired. Please email comments or suggestions to me, Justin Chouinard.