BA coach sees benefit with team's bigger wrestlers

Brentwood Home Page news reports
Brentwood and Ravenwood coaches say new weight classes approved for high school wrestling next season won’t help – and actually may pose more problems – for their programs.

The National Federation of State High School Associations this month approved the most significant changes in weight classes in high school wrestling in 23 years. The NFHS approved an upward shift of the weight classes, beginning with the 103-pound class moving to 106 pounds, which resulted in new weights for 10 of the 14 classes for 2011-12.

“I'm not a huge fan of the new weights,” BHS Coach Joe Blair said. “There are still 14 weight classes, but they've gotten rid of a weight in the middle where the majority of the kids in our program are and added a weight in the upper weights where we have a tough time getting kids to fill those spots.

“This really didn't solve any problems for us.  If anything, it's going to make it harder to fill a full lineup.”

The 14 weight classes approved for 2011-12 are as follows: 106 (pounds), 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 182, 195, 220 and 285.

Three middle weight classes – 145, 152 and 160 – were retained, although they  are 7-8-9 in order now rather than 8-9-10. The largest weight class (285 pounds) remains unchanged as well.

Ravenwood Coach Josh Peck, whose team finished third in the state duals, thinks the new divisions will hurt the Raptors' team.

"They take a weight class out of the middle to close the gap between two of the larger weight classes," Peck said.

"I think it hurts our team as most of the guys that come out for wrestling weigh in the middle between 125-145.  Now they lose a starting spot.  Maybe if I had a team where most of the guys were around 180 it might be beneficial but I don't see many teams there."

 Peck said the new weight classes would have been beneficial this past season, however, for Cody Stewart, region runner-up at 189. Stewart could have competed instead at the new 182, where "he would have only given up about 6 pounds instead of 13-plus," the coach said.

Brentwood Academy Coach Rodney Cash says his program will adapt to the changes, and he sees some advantages for the Eagles. BA competes in Division II.

"I had gotten used to the old weight classes and found myself planning for future teams with those weight classes," Cash said. "The kids will have some adjusting, but I think that it will benefit us some.

"We typically have more bigger wrestlers. The new weight classes will allow us to put one more bigger wrestler into the lineup."

Dale Pleimann, chair of the NFHS Wrestling Rules Committee, said the change results from a 3- to 4-year proces using data from the National Wrestling Coaches Association's Optimal performance Calculator.

“The rules committee was able to analyze data from almost 200,000 wrestlers across the country, with the goal to create weight classes that have approximately seven percent of the wrestlers in each weight class," said Pleimann, former assistant executive director of the Missouri State High School Activities Association.

“Throughout the process, each state association was kept completely informed and  was provided multiple opportunities for input. The results of the last survey of  each state association indicated that the majority of states favored a change.”

The last wholesale shift in weight classes occurred in 1988, when the lowest weight class was increased from 98 to 103 pounds. The only other changes since then were in 2002, when the number of classes went from 13 to 14 and the 215-pound weight class became mandatory, and in 2006, when the 275-pound class was increased to 285 pounds.

Other wrestling rules changes:

There were 17 other rules revisions approved by the Wrestling Rules Committee at its April 4-6 meeting in Indianapolis, and subsequentlyapproved by the NFHS Board of Directors.

*Among changes in wrestling holds, the Figure 4 around the head has been ruled an illegal hold/maneuver. Previously, the Figure 4 was illegal around the body or both legs.

“This move was being used by high school wrestlers more and more on the head, so to minimize the risk of injury, the committee voted to outlaw the Figure 4 on  the head as well as around the body and both legs,” said Bob Colgate, NFHS  assistant director and liaison to the Wrestling Rules Committee.

*Another significant change was made in Rule 2-1-3, which now makes the boundary line inbounds and, thus, expands the wrestling area. Previously, a wrestler was out of bounds if he or she was touching any part of the 2-inch-wide line which marks the wrestling area.

*An additional exception was added to Rule 8-2-1 stating that if the second injury time-out is taken at the conclusion of the second period, and the opponent already has the choice at the beginning of the third period, the opponent would then have the added choice at the first restart after the beginning of the third period.

*A revision in Rule 3-1-13 allows the referee the flexibility to determine his or her best position to monitor the clock and wrestlers during injury, blood or recovery time-outs. Also, language in Rule 6-2-2 was changed from “forfeit” to “disqualification” to reflect correct terminology.

*The rules committee also devoted considerable time to developing rules for multi-team dual meets and team-formatted tournaments. Previously, the NFHS Wrestling Rules Book addressed only dual meets and individually bracketed tournaments. Definitions for individually bracketed tournaments, dual meet/team-formatted tournaments and combination tournaments will be contained in Rule 1-3.

*The final change is one that has been approved by the NFHS Board of Directors for use in all NFHS rules books regarding the meet referee’s jurisdiction. The rule extends the clerical duties of the referee beyond the end of the meet through the completion of any reports required from actions that occurred while the referees had jurisdiction.

*Points of emphasis adopted by the committee for 2011-12 include communicable diseases, injury time-outs, coach/referee conference, and concussion recognition and management.

Wrestling is the sixth-most popular sport for boys at the high school level with 272,890 participants in 10,363 schools during the 2009-10 season, according to the NFHS Athletics Participation Survey. In addition, 6,134 girls were involved in wrestling in 1,009 high schools.