Curtis Headed to Missouri Valley

Gardner-Edgerton High senior Collette Curtis has signed to wrestle next year for Coach Carl Murphree and the Missouri Valley College Vikings. Curtis earned 2005 All-Kansas Girls High School Wrestling Team honors at 195 lbs. She wrestled at 205 lbs last year for the Gardner-Edgerton High School.

Way to go Collette!

I swore I had something on here asking about weight class she will wrestle in college...why is my stuff being deleted?

Some idiot that calls themself a moderator probably thought I was being offensive because it was a female whose weight I was questioning for college wrestling, well if that's the case EARTH TO MODERATORS....this is wrestling, weight is a major part of our sport.

Women
(Moderated by: CoachEd)

OH CRUD! I AM HUMBLEY SORRY I BOW DOWN BEFORE YOU! WHICH COACH ED? IS IT REALLY THE BIG MAN OR THE MRS. JENNI? DON'T WANT TO MAKE ED MAD, HE TOLD ME AT THE CLINIC FOR TYLER WHEN HODGE WAS SQUEEZING THE APPLE THAT HE COULD DO THE SAME.....WITH AN OVERRIPEND PEAR THAT IS!

Can you say foot in mouth?

Bottom line whomever deleted it should have given some reason of merit. If the gal read it and was offended by the question send me a personal message so I can clarify the question. I wasn't knocking anybody, THIS IS WRESTLING...WEIGHT is part of wrestling, and I don't care how big of a fan you are, if you were to ask any Wrestling fan on the street to name the weight classes for women's wrestling on the college division you would be hard pressed to find a handful. Heck I think a good number don't even know how many weight classes women have!

Dude chill out WE DIDN'T DELETE YOUR POST!!!!!!!
Maybe something else happened. Mr. Mercer is researching this answer for you. He will post it when the answer becomes available. She does wrestle in the heavier weights but the weight classes vary a lot for women in the different governing bodies. Now calm down Swayz, you know I love you. Even if I am middle aged.

Ms. Jenni

Also, does that mean you don't mind making ME mad, cuz that is really dangerous you know.

Ms. Jenni

Miss Curtis will wrestle at 76/80/82 kilos. Canada has raised their 80 kilo wt class to 82 kilos. The US programs will likely do the same. At this point Miss curtis will have plenty of competition opportunities. It looks like next season that we will have 76 kilos for University division and 82 kilos for college competitions.
I hope this clears the matter up for all that were wondering.

I think I can shed a little light on the issue of women's weight classes. I went to the expert - Coach Carl Murphree at Missouri Valley College. Here is a copy of my e-mail to Coach Murphree plus his response:

Coach:

A recent visitor to our talk forum posed a question that I could not answer. I hope you can help clear something up for us regarding women's wrestling.

We are all quite proud of Colette Curtis and happy that she is about to become a member of your MV women's wrestling program. The question is what weight class will she compete in? Is she too heavy for the current university weight classes?

There are 11 weight classes for the FILA Juniors, ranging from 95 lbs to 220 lbs. In the University Division there are 8 weight classes ranging from 105 lbs/48Kg to 169.5 lbs./77Kg.... but I noticed that at the recent Womens College National Championships the heaviest weight class was 80 Kg/176 lbs - won by sophomore wrestler Selina Perez of Missouri Valley.

I think Colette has wrestled at 189 lbs for the high school JV team - even though she seemed to be a bit undersized. I think she has even wrestled in heavier weight classes from time to time to help fill weight classes. She also looks like she has trimmed down of late. If the heaviest weight class in the college ranks is either 77 or 80 Kg, how can she contribute to a college wrestling program?

Again, we are not taking any shots at Colette. She is an exceptional person and a solid wrestler who we hope the best for in the future. I just want to know the thought process for recruiting heavier girls from the high school/FILA junior division. Are there plans to add heavier weight classes or is the hope for such wrestlers to cut enough weight to make it at 77-80 Kg ?

I never thought about this issue until it was brought up on the talk forum. Hopefully you can clear this up for me.

Jeff Mercer
Kansas Krusaders

"Colette will wrestle at 80 kilos, the US college programs will most likely follow the Canadian College programs and change the 80 kilo to 82 kilos (180.5 pounds). Unfortunately Collette is too big to wrestle at 158.5 pounds, The highest international weight, but she will have plenty of action at the 76, 80, 82 kilo class. It is my hope that the senior level will add a weight higher than 72 kilos, if we are able to demonstrate that there are athletes to fill the upper weights, perhaps that day may come."

Carl Murphree
Head Women's Wrestling Coach
Missouri Valley College

Thanks for being patient as I tracked down Coach Murphree. It is confusing with the different governing bodies listing different weight classes for women and I wanted to provide the correct information. It sounds like Colette might have to cut a little weight women she gets to college but it doesn't sound like she'll have to cut very much. She is still a tough wrestler and we look forward to tracking her progress at Missouri Valley.

Thank you to both Coach Murphree and Jeff Mercer on the reply. We are just trying to educate our self, not tear down any walls.

I think some good questions were raised and I appreciate Coach Murphree giving us a glimpse into some of the growing pains that women's wrestling is dealing with. Until the questions about weight classes came up I know I hadn't thought about girls wrestling at some of the heavier high school weights or FILA Junior weights who despite their skill levels or wrestling success, might not have a weight class to compete at in college. Thanks for bringing the issue up.

We in society are generally getting bigger, they need to up the weights for women's opportunity which in turn by adding weights might help with problems such as Title IX down the road.