Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School New Rules

Well I guess I need to apologize as well. I was trying tie it together with the HS weights but used the kids as an example.

There are lots of HS kids who are 300lbs plus who are potentially good wrestlers but will never have the opportunity to do so because of the limits. An 85lb HS athlete can still wrestle but not the big guys???

I have not been around wrestling very much in the last 10 years, but these last two have showed me that kids don't bunch in the 119 to 140 weight classes like they did in '90 when I graduated. In my first year of coaching I had only a handfull of kids below 130. Most were freshmen and I don't believe freshmen in any sport should be on varsity unless they are a stud. I would like to see another weight class between 150 and 200.
108,115,121,127,133,140,147,154,162,170,180,200,225,285

Gatewood,

That's a better idea than the ones I've seen listed prior to it. I'll agree that there are less and less HS kids coming in between 103-119#. However, you need only look at the size of the HS Nationals brackets to see that the vast MAJORITY of wrestlers are GRADUATING between the 130-189# brackets. And let's face it, MOST kids who are weighing over 300# are overweight anyhow.

We're always so worried about the health of kids cutting too much weight, maybe we should also be concerned with our athletes that NEED to cut some weight. I'm almost 6'2", old and out of shape, and I've been trying to lose some weight to stay healthy. I'm down to 202# right now, and believe me I still have some that could be safely lost for the better, not worse.

Just my opinion.

I do not think that anyone can say one idea is better than the other. Well, I guess you could. But if one idea was such a great idea, it would already be in place.
Now some other thoughts.
I also thought that removing 103 would solve the problem of adding a weight in between 215 and 275 without adding a weight class because definately, kids are bigger today. Many schools cannot find a kid to fill the weight, I understand that. But understand this. At our school, we were three deep at the weight and all three were good. If we would not have had 103, we would have had 6 kids at 112 and all were quality. Most of them would never be varsity their whole career without 103. I am sure there are many schools that would have the same situation. What would these kids do then, go play basketball? Yea right. Also, one of the wonderful things about wrestling has always been that it was a sport for kids of all sizes. We as a sport have always had the luxury of saying, "just because you are not big enough to excel at basketball or football, that does not mean that you are not a good athlete and should not have an OPPORTUNITY to excel also, so come wrestle". When I was in high school, the weight was 101 and the champ and runner-up were both seniors. Now what would say to these kids without 103? Sorry you are not big enough to wrestle as well so go be a gymnast, provided that your school has gymnastics or go be a jockey. After thinking about it that way, I realized that removing the smallest weight seems to go against everything that wrestling stands for. And I am not hating on Gatewood cause he's the man and I liked his weights idea. 108 would be a good weight to start with although I was thinking more like 105 and I certainly understand the freshman on varsity thing.
Also, while I agree that most kids over 300 are overweight, that is not always the case. Additionally, what about kids that weigh 350? That pull to 275 is still hard or even impossible with their age and homelife. When I coached in Oklahoma, there was a kid named Creighton Soloman that was a great athlete that played DI football. He won the state title as a sophomore and junior. He was 6'5" and NOT fat. He was a growing boy. By the time he was a senior, he could not make that weight and could not become a three timer and that is sad. I do realize that he is somewhat of an exception.
I do not have the answer, just some thoughts that I thought were interesting to share.
My main point from my first response was that I agree 275 should go up and in high school, I do not see the need to have weights five pounds apart outweighing the need for another weight in between 215 and 275 and Gatewood verified that with his weights option. We have a lot of kids at out school that would come out if there was a 230-250 weight. As it is now, they won't because they can't beat our heavyweight and they are not going to pull to 215.
These are all just my thoughts and opinions so don't blast me please.

You know if we have complaints about weights in Kansas we could make our own...Texas and NY have their own weight classes.

NY has a 98lb class or something of that nature and Texas has a 180lb class.