aacoach70 wrote:With all due respect to those coaches who may believe otherwise, forfeits do count as wins on an individual's record and to not count it as such only penalizes your own kids unnecessarily. The team earned the points by having him make weight and ready to compete. At a seeding meeting, it is very easy for a coach to mention if a kid has x number of forfeits. Win-loss record is usually not one of the first few criteria for seeding anyway. Byes are totally different. Byes do not count as wins. They are merely there to indicate the absence of a wrestler in a bracket tournament. A bye is not associated with any particular team. As far as assigning losses to a wrestler who doesn't make weight, that might sound like it's deserved, you might want to wring his neck, but crediting him with losses is just spiteful. If a kid is not considered as being "in" the meet, he can't receive a loss. Would he automatically be given two losses at a double-elimination tournament? In a dual, you'd credit him with a loss if the other team had a wrestler,.. then perhaps not if the other team was also forfeiting that weight? Sounds kind of ridiculous. Unfortunately, I think it may be more likely that an injured wrestler who defaults a match would be credited with a loss. At least in that instance, there were two opponents, both "in" the meet based on weigh-in, who started a bout in which one wrestler wins and the other loses. Thankfully, these default matches don't happen every day, but to answer the original question: yes, forfeits do count as wins.
I don't think anyone said they did not count. The only commentary was on whether it made sense that they do count. My opinion is no individual should get a win if their opponent doesn't exist. Others are entitled to their own opinion.