As always, history will tell us what to do and what will happen. Several years ago a student from Haskell Indian School wanted to wrestle but could not cut his hair due to his heritage. A letter was written to KSHSAA and an exception was made for this student. Then, a student from NW Kansas (Colby I think) would not cut his hair because of his job (he played in a rock band)so he protested and wrote a letter to KSHSAA and and exception was granted. Now several years later you only have to cover the long hair with an approved hair cover to wrestle. Has this hurt wrestling? In my opinion NO.
Now comes to the wrestling community a student from the Middle East and because of his religion he wants to wrestle with a beard. This situation is different than the one discussed above because a beard can be abrasive to the opponent. The same as a weeks growth on a shaved head can be abrasive. This situation is not a religious issue, or a political issue, it is a fairness issue where one wrestler with a beard can take advantage of another wrestler using the beard to gain advantage.
One can look at many reasons to side step the rules but in this case a clean shaven wrestler is what is required by the rules and no exception should be granted. Having said that, what might happen would be for the bearded wrestler to wear a full face mash similar to those protecting a injured nose. Those of you who want to make this a Supreme Court issue are reading too much into the situation. If we have a student from a foreign land wrestle they are to obey the rules. What if this student can not understand English (our official language) are we required to have a multi language offical on the mat?
We must not let issues like this take away from the sport, obey the rules as they are written, if you take exception to the rules, take it up with the KSHSAA rules committee and change if merited will occur.
Good Luck and God Bless
