High school weight classes changing in 20-21?

[timamos]

Sources indicate that national federation will reconfigure high school weight classes in 20-21 season reducing the number from 14 to 12. I have not seen details on the new weights being proposed. There is also talk of:
1. Reducing to 11 weights to make tie breakers easier
2. Reducing to 11 for duals and increasing to 15 (adding a 100 pound weight class which works well in states without a separate female division) for individual tournaments.
3. Tinkering with rules requiring more duals.
4. Encouraging states to allow teams to enter multiple wrestlers at same weight for individual tournaments.
5. Eliminating the team scoring aspect of individual tournaments.

Pennsylvania is indicating that it will change evennif the National Federation does not. It is already difficult to wrestle a michigan team because they use the old weights. If the National Federation doesn’t change and PA does, tournaments like Powerade will be interesting and WV coaches wrestling an out of state schedule will need to be very careful on weight certifications.

[RickWelkerShow]

Tim I agree it will be interesting to see what happens as this moves forward. I too am curious to see what the WVSSAC does as have consistently stayed aligned with the NFHS. For smaller states like WV I think this could be a good thing for sure.

[Bravescoach7]

These are the proposed new 12 weight classes 108-115-122-128-134-140-146-152-160-172-185-215-285

[Gator]

They must have heard a rumor Braxton Amos was going 195!

[mriggleman]

These are the proposed new 12 weight classes 108-115-122-128-134-140-146-152-160-172-185-215-285

This is the second time I have seen these "12" weight classes listed. I am guessing either the original report on the count of new weight classes is inaccurate and it is actually 13 in the new proposal. OR these aren't the weight classes they are looking at.

Either way I am not a huge fan.

[Bravescoach7]

I agree but the 13 weight classes were what was listed in the Lehigh Valley article but the Ohio forum posted that a source said this would be the 12 weights 110, 118, 125, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 190, 215 and 285

[Jchap8750]

This will encourage more parents to hold kids back that are lighter weights. I know there are several teams in this state that didn’t have a 106 but there are a lot teams in this state that are missing more than half the weight classes. Eliminating more weight classes might help a team that only have a few kids but cause some kids with a full team to quit because they can’t cut weight or gain weight to get the next weight class. Just a thought

[coach_williams]

I don't understand the lack of consistent gap between weight classes. If Bravescoach7 is correct then the gaps between weight classes will be 7-7-6-6-6-6-6-8-12-13-30-70. Who is the rocket scientist that came up with this?

[J.W.]

I disagree with it. For people who claim to be trying to grow a sport this is a negative. It will sideline and bench kids who would otherwise be competing.....PERIOD. Yes there are forfeits, but they are at every weight. PA can claim they have stats to support but their 106 Bracket was just as full at states as their 145, which means the same amount of smaller wrestlers had an opportunity to compete in a sport they love.

There are some basketball teams without a kid above 6', they dont lower the rim to make it fair. There are football teams with way less size and numbers and we dont limit who can play or how many can be on the field.

I look at Kentucky and Minnesota, they allowed 7th and 8th graders to compete at high school level. Grew the sport. Less forfeits, more opportunities to compete.

This is PA strong arming the NFHS and they are caving to it.

#SIZEDESCRIMINATION

Back to my beverage!

[Bearhugger]

All of this because of dual meets. I have had parents of wrestlers tell me they hate to make a road trip to a QUAD for just one match(concerned of forfeits).

Can somebody spread some light on this "dual requirement" being fulfilled with tri matches and quads?

I will not be making any trips for a lonely dual. I will just forfeit.

[J.W.]

If you truly dont want to see over 200 opportunities to compete in wrestling in the state of WV alone, and 10,000 more high school varsity positions removed from high school wrestling nation wide, please sign this petition and share this link on your social media pages.

https://tinyurl.com/y3pmotmc

I will need alot more than 125 signatures to be able to take to the NFHS and debate this.

[mscoach4]

https://news.theopenmat.com/high-school ... sses/73165

[Gator]

Also, the PIIAW website cost $14.99 a month to view. Another bad way to promote wrestling!

[coach_williams]

All of this because of dual meets. I have had parents of wrestlers tell me they hate to make a road trip to a QUAD for just one match(concerned of forfeits).

Can somebody spread some light on this "dual requirement" being fulfilled with tri matches and quads?

I will not be making any trips for a lonely dual. I will just forfeit.

We attended duals all over the state this year and I can only think of one or two instances where one of our wrestlers had 3 or 4 forfeits out of 5 matches. If a wrestler is consistently only getting 1 or 2 matches per week, then that is on the coach to schedule better opportunities for his wrestlers. If a coach has a chance to attend Mountaineer Match-up, Nat Guard Duals or South Classic, but instead chooses to attend some small 6 team round robin dual where they know most of the teams will only have 6-10 wrestlers, then that coach is cheating his wrestlers and the parents should be complaining about the coach, not the wrestling opportunities in the state or the need for weight class changes.

[dontlikethelights]

I don't understand the lack of consistent gap between weight classes. If Bravescoach7 is correct then the gaps between weight classes will be 7-7-6-6-6-6-6-8-12-13-30-70. Who is the rocket scientist that came up with this?

NFHS takes data throughout the country and tries to establish weight classes where each weight class has an equal percentage of participants. I.e. 14 weight classes means each weight represents 7.14% of participants. Typically you're going to see a normal distribution (bell curve) skewed left with weights at that age. This explains the larger gaps on the right side of the curve. So in essence they just want an even number of wrestlers in each weight instead of basing their weight classes on safety or being similar in size.

[coach_williams]

I don't understand the lack of consistent gap between weight classes. If Bravescoach7 is correct then the gaps between weight classes will be 7-7-6-6-6-6-6-8-12-13-30-70. Who is the rocket scientist that came up with this?

NFHS takes data throughout the country and tries to establish weight classes where each weight class has an equal percentage of participants. I.e. 14 weight classes means each weight represents 7.14% of participants. Typically you're going to see a normal distribution (bell curve) skewed left with weights at that age. This explains the larger gaps on the right side of the curve. So in essence they just want an even number of wrestlers in each weight instead of basing their weight classes on safety or being similar in size.

I see. You would think NFHS would realize that they are putting upper weight wrestlers at risk. Thanks for the info.

[aacoach70]

I have almost 30 years experience coaching at the high school and middle school levels, so I've seen some changes come and go. I have a couple observations/opinions. I respect others' right to disagree. 1. Upper weight classes have gotten some relief and have had a couple classes added, compared to how it used to be. It makes perfect sense that gaps are larger as size goes up because gaps should be based on percent of body weight. 2. Regarding number of classes, I don't think increasing the number of weight classes has ever proven to increase participation, so I doubt lowering the number will cause harm. Besides reducing the number of forfeits, one could argue that fewer classes could create some depth on rosters and improve quality by removing individual complacency. In addition, I think gaps between classes should be a significant spread to make it a sizable reach to cut to the lower class. In the world of dual matches, larger teams absolutely have the advantage by being able to put bodies in classes despite being undersized. We've all done it.
There's nothing wrong with it. We all try to mitigate our damage and give ourselves the best chance to win... and one more kid gets to earn a varsity letter.
As I begin to digress, the bottom line is I respectfully disagree that cutting 1 or 2 classes and readjusting would be a terrible thing and to suggest that it would cause a mass exodus from the sport is mostly hype.

[TrueSouthFanInPburg]

If the gaps should get bigger between each weight class then how about one pound more than the previous gap between each weight class meaning a 7 pound gap from the first class to the second and then an 8 then 9 then 10 then 11 then 12 then 13 then 14 then 15 then then 16 then heavyweight. So the weight classes could be 108 115 123 132 142 153 165 178 192 207 223 Heavyweight.

[Bearhugger]

The logic of reducing weight classes to reduce forfeits is unsound. Once wrestling goes to 12 weight classes and forfeits remain, is the next step to go to 10 weight classes? 8? 6? 4? 2? Go full Buffalo and wipe out the sport.