Hey all,
I'm on here from another state, Nebraska. We have the luxury (joking) of having more than one controlling organization here in Nebraska. At USA tournaments kids have to make pre-defined weight classes which is basically the same or close to those at Salina. At the big Huskerland tournaments you send in a weight and they do matside weigh ins. This is new this year. You must make your weight that you sent in or be on or under the heavies kid in your bracket. So a kid that sent in 78 but is paired with an 80lb. kid in his bracket has it easy. This is the first year for doing it this way. Before you sent in your weight and there was a 3lb. allowance and they drew random brackets to check weight before the tourney started. If you were more than 3 over what you sent, you forfeited. They've done the matside weighins for a while now and they work flawlessly. They have a scale behind every 2-3 mats. Brackets are preassigned mats and 15 minutes before wrestling starts kids go to their mat and weigh on the scale. If they don't make it, they forfeit. They do get the opportunity to try another scale though. We've had very little problem with it. Now for the smaller tournaments put on by clubs some weigh when you get there and some don't. Those that don't offer a challenge option. If a parent/coach feels like a kid in their sons bracket is more than 3 lbs. heavier than their kid they can pay a $10 challenge fee and make the kid step on a scale. If they're right and he is way heavier the kid is dq'd and their challenge fee is returned to them. If they are wrong and he isn't way bigger, they wrestle and the challenge fee is kept. I can honestly say I've seen 2 weight challenges in my 16 years of coaching so at least around here it doesn't happen often.
