Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School Taken from the Colorado Wrestling Sight: New Weight Class?

This is a question that was brought up on the Colorado wrestling sight:

"I have heard a rumor that "they" are considering adding or adjusting a newer lower weight class. They said that back east that cant find anyone to fill the lower weight classes but from the Midwest to the west coast there is supposed to be a new weight class by next year, if not this year.

Anyone hear anything about this? Supposed to be 95 or 98 llb."

I haven't heard of this yet, but in Texas there is a 180 pound class. With football being the big sport and the gap between 189 and 171 being so large, it just makes sense to do so. Of course, common sense is not so common.

It may be time to start thinking about a weight class between 215 and no greater than 275. As the size of people continues to increase, high school may need to trend towards the same thinking as college and create weights for larger athletes.

like a 240 lbs. class

i like the idea of a 180 pound class. I couldnt count the number of underweight 189 pounders ive seen.

Greetings from the Campus of UCO via way of the library. I know the the NCWA has a 235lb weight class. I think it would be good to add a weight in College and High School overall so that in case of a tie you have most matches won heads up instead of going to the 17th criteria of loose shoe laces.

I think the 180 in between 171 and 189 makes total sense. I also like the idea of another one between 275 and 215. Wrestling needs to get more football players participating and adding a 180 and a 230 or 235 would help. Kids are bigger today and wrestling needs to attract these bigger kids into the sport. Texas high schools have it right with the 180 and the NCWA has it right with the 235.

if wanting to add 2 weight classes it would make sense to eliminate one weight class so it would be odd, and help eliminate the chance of a tie breaker.

Possibly eliminate 103 as it seems to be hard to fill anymore, so thus

112,119,125,130,135,140,145,152,160,171,180,189,215,245,285

Had to change the HWT to 285 to match college since the size of kids is getting larger. Just my $.02.

Bronco:

I would agree with adjusting 275 to college's 285.
I would be tempted to tweak yours a little more to make it closer to the college weights by making your 180 go to 184 and 189 go to 197. I think I like the NCWA 235 weight class better than your 245 class. I think you are going in the right direction though.

Eliminating 103 would eliminate alot of good wrestlers. It would quite possibly drive alot of kids from the sport. Wrestling is about the only sport where small kids get a chance at an even playing field. I am ajunior and this is the first year that I have weighed 103. I would like to see a 95 or 98 pound weight class.

Ditto to the 100th power.

In high school they would have to do 245 because they already have a 215, but college would be sweet if they had a 235.

125-Hwt should be the college weights give or take a few lbs. Have 3 lighter weights currently used in high school: 103, 112, 119. Then add in the 235 weight class to get 14 just like now but using 10 college and 3 high school and 1 NCWA weight (although 125 is all 3). Texas and New York have weight classes that other states don't: TX has a 180 weight class. NY has a 96lb class. Why can't we create our own weights?

103, 109 (old 112), 118 (old 119), 125, 133, 141, 149, 157, 165, 174, 184, 197, 235, 285

Swayz I would like to agree with you, but many schools are finding it hard to fill the 103 weight class anymore. Especially in western kansas where only 10-15 kids maybe out. I really do like the idea of using college weights in HS.

Also there are too many kids in the 125-160 range to be put into 5 or 6 weight classes. Many of the kids are not done growing yet and thus you have many kids in this weight range that's why there are usually not very many opens in this range.

I know there are exceptions to the rule, and Scarecrow_103 I can see you're one of them. I really think though adding a few more weight classes and getting rid of the 103 class in favor of 245 & 180 would help the sport more as far as gathering participation rates. There a lot of kids who are very small HWT's (235lbs-260lbs) that just think they're almost too small to wrestle heavy weight but would have a hard time dropping to 215. Also there is a very large gap in the 171-189 bridge, you cut that down by half and you may draw more support as kids will see they won't be too heavy for 171 but then again won't be too light for 189. It gives vialbe opportunites to both scenarios. In you're case I have a feeling you may possibly be up to the 112 range by your Senior year but again you are a very rare case to only weigh 103 as a Junior. Sorry it's just my $.02.

Alex

I would prefer not to see the lower weight classes dropped. Ultimately, I think we need more opportunity not less. It appears to me that the lower the weight class like 103 and 112, the more likely to see mainly freshman and sophomores being predominant in it, but that is okay as long as we can logistically support it. If we can't support it logistically, a weight class system more geared toward junior-senior participation at the varsity level makes more sense to me. When I participated in football in high school, the varsity level was almost exclusively juniors and seniors. I believe football, basketball and most other sports are pretty much still dominated by juniors and seniors at the varsity level.

I just think that right now we do not offer enough opportunity for the bigger wrestlers. There are just too few weight classes and the weight differentials are just too large. I really think that there a lot of very good athletes who play football and who do not wrestle. I think many of these football players do not wrestle because they do not want to lose all the weight they would need to lose to compete for a weight class. They end up just lifting weights instead. My guess is that some of the high school football coaches do not encourage wrestling participation because they might prefer them gaining weight and lifting as opposed to cutting weight drastically to make a weight class.

With time, I think wrestling will change to reflect the changes we are seeing in the size of kids today. The addition of 215 is a reflection of that and I think that the 180 class in Texas and the 235 currently in the NCWA is also a reflection of that. It is unbelievable to me that NCAA college wrestling goes from 184 to 197 then all the way to 285. There are so many very good college athletes spread in weights between 197 to 285 that makes that type of 88 pound weight class differential difficult to understand.

Without lightweight programs, the truth of it is that my son would have never wrestled; he has always been at the lower weight classes due to just not being a big kid. I am not willing to go for any program that would chase kids away from the sport. I am not saying don't add the heavier weights, but frankly Donnie Altman at Derby last year is an example of a kid who would likely have never wrestled if doing away with the light weight kids. Dante Rogers at Wichita NW, a senior is another example this year. There are many great kids out there like that, just look at the fact that the 112 is one of the deepest classes this year, most of those cut their teeth in the 103 class. Small communities have trouble filling football teams as well, that is why they have 8-man football. There are ways to work around the issues for smaller communities without doing away with a weight class. I promote the addition of weight classes, not the deletion of them.

Mike, I agree with that. But we really do need more opportunities for the bigger kids. I believe wrestling would benefit, if we could attract more football players to the sport both for participation numbers and general interest level with the average sportsfan.

I did a review of the state tournament qualifiers for 6A, 5A, and 4A last year by class. It was not listed for 3-2-1A by class. It did surprise me as to how many juniors and seniors were in 103 and 112, which lends support for keeping both of these weights active in high school. But it also did confirm the dominance of upper classmen in the 171 and up divisions, which is support for adding more weight classes for the bigger athletes. In the upper weight classes 40 of the 48 were junior and seniors for the 215 weight class and 41 of 48 were junior and seniors for 171, 189 and 275.

103
9th-20, 10th-10, 11th-6, 12th-12

112
9th-17, 10th-8, 11th-12, 12th-11

171
9th-0, 10th-7, 11th-12, 12th-29

189
9th-3, 10th-4, 11th-17, 12th-24

215
9th-3, 10th-5, 11th-15, 12th-25

275
9th-2, 10th-5, 11th-21, 12th-20

Leave the weights alone, and consider bumping the heavy weight upper limit to 285. I was against this for years, but now with the healthy size of kids increasing, I feel that it is warranted.

The thing that hurts in the long run is the number of quality big men that go on to wrestling in college is small as compared to those that are smaller.