Jees, I don't think anybody did the switcharoo. I would love to see matside weighins though!!!!

I agree with matside weighins also.

And photo IDs are a joke if you are talking about the Wichita Junior football League. Been there and done that. Had parents shaking their heads at what their OWN coaches would do as far as bringing 8th graders down to play on the 7th grade for big games. Those ID cards, IF they ever bothered to actually check them, went like this. Hand the guy the bundle of cards, he called the name of the kid, the kid said "here", and he never made eye contact with them. Pretty hard to circumvent that huh?

I think we just need to continue to trust people to do what is right. If you feel like someone is doing something underhanded, it would be very easy to videotape, and follow them, to prove your point.

Ok, I think I am tracking now. A wrestler is issued a club singlet (weighs, oh lets say 4 oz., but his parents can afford to purchase him a super high tech singlet that only weighs, oh lets say 2 oz.). He uses the 2 oz. singlet to weigh in, but wrestles in the 4 oz. club singlet - by the way, he made weight right on but would have been 2 oz. over with the club singlet. Did he just circumvent the rules, or did he just have enough financial backing to slip through a loop hole? Meanwhile, a couple of teammates in club singlets are running off .1 or .2 to make weight. In the buff, he would have been at weight either way. Do you see where I am coming from? Oh, one more thing, we know that all of these scales are calibrated and officially certified by the NFHS.

They can and will be a joke IF those "officials" do not conduct the checking of them. Sure. On the other hand, I've seen many officials that took it seriously BECAUSE OF REAL INCIDENCES OF ATTEMPTS TO CIRCUMVENT THE RULES (I've seen it happen/or the attempt anyway). Point is, the structure is there to protect against violations. True, it has to be properly used, but at least it is/would be there as a tool.

Oh yeah, THAT would go over well, following a kid or group of kids with a video camera. Might assist, but doubt that would work well in practice.

No, this hypothetical wrestler didn't circumvent the rules. The rules state (almost everywhere) that the wrestler must make weight in _A_ singlet, not THE singlet he/she will wrestle in. In some cases, you see references to a "competition singlet" (whatever THAT is), but there is nothing that says a wrestler must make weight in the very same singlet he/she will wrestle in. In fact many kids wrestle in some of the sorts of singlets we see offered at many of the larger tournaments, rather than a "club singlet".

Really? I seriously doubt that. They SHOULD be! or was that a sarcastic statement? and if so, yeah, that's it.

BeefyD,

I was joking about the scales. Did I think the kid in the scenario circumvented the rules by weighing in in a lighter singlet, no I didn't. I was trying to make a point. Maybe this real life example will make more sense.

I spoke with a young man and his father at the Middle School State Championships. The wrestler went to the 3pm Subs weigh in and was .2 over. He went and changed into a second singlet (teammate's or friend's). He didn't make it in that one either, went and found another teammate or friend with an even lighter singlet and made weight on the third attempt. Now, it could be that he made weight because of the lather he worked up changing so many times, but I am guessing it was because of the singlet.

Here is my point, did he circumvent the rules? Heck no. In my opinion, he was at weight on the first attempt because wearing a singlet does not give your true body weight. I understand it is the rule, and as I stated earlier in this thread, I will follow the rules. Is the rule fair to everyone, probably not when singlets don't all weigh the same. The other point is that many wrestlers are well over their weight on Saturday, or in this case, Sunday morning. Why make a kid go run when they are .1 or .2 over when scales aren't always accurate, and singlets add weight to their true weight.

The point here is that we have weigh-ins for the establishment of a baseline. We all know that what a wrestler weighs when they step on the mat isn't usually even close to what their weigh-in weight was.

Now sure we could just start giving out allowances for singlets, scale variance, and everything else we can think of, but then that kind of defeats the purpose of even having a weigh-in.

As far as scales are concerned, at least at the State tournament there were no less than 5 electronic scales which were tested and verified using the same 50 lb calibration test weight and each scale to my recollection showed 50.0 right on the dot. Even IF a scale were to be .1-.2 off each competitor is allowed to step on each available official weigh-in scale to account for differences that may be present, so the whole scale issue is a moot point.

As far as weigh-ins with singlets, the rule was uniformed with the idea that females would be able to weigh-in side by side with males, and that most states had adopted the shoulder to shoulder 1 hour before competition weigh-in, and some had even gone so far as to use the aforementioned matside weigh-in.

To be honest I don't know why we are even having this back and forth because it seems pretty clear to me that everyone is generally on an even plane when it comes to weigh-ins and that if someone is having issues at a particular weight then they should reexamine their options.

Mr. Isom,

I agree with most everything that you have said in your post. In the nine years my son has wrestled, he has never missed a tournament due to not making weight, only injury or illness. So this is not about my son. What bothers me is, we all know that singlets probably weigh a few ounces, and some weigh more than others. I am not talking about the State tournament where I am very glad to hear from you that they do calibrate the scales. I am talking about every other tournament during the year (guarantee that many scales are off by more than an ounce or two). I also would wager that come Saturday morning, some kids will outweigh their opponent by as much as three to five pounds. That is why I get a little bent about a kid having to go run off an ounce or two when they are weighing in with a singlet on.

Anyway, sorry for dragging this through the mud as long as I have. It has just been a little pet peeve of mine for a few years and it is something a feel is a little unfair for some wrestlers, but it is something that I can live with and will continue to do so.