Read on the NFHS forum (link below) the rules committee voted to change weight classes to option B...106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 182, 195, 230 and 285.

Can anyone confirm?


http://www.nfhs.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=17;t=001196

Sounds horrible. Wonder how many kids will drop down to 106 and how many kids will be oversized at 106. Also if we are doing this because kids are getting bigger, why not make HWT the old fashioned unlimited?

I think what is horrible is losing a middle weight where the majority of the best kids are.

Old weights 119,125, 130, 135, 140, 145.
New weights 120, 126, 132, 138,145.

More specifically look for the bottleneck next year of kids that would have been 130,135,140 now pulled into just 132 and 138 Can't get to 126 and too small they feel for 145.

I am with you X. I do feel raising the lowest weight hurts the little guys that this is their main sports where bigger guys have other options. Just look that the College signings... the majority of the bigger guys we are creating opportunities for are choosing football when they have to anyway.

But it looks like we deal with it at this point. Not much other choice. Time to work on getting better now.

Ok, my thoughts now as I stew on this more are that this is a totally moronic asinine idea.
Who in the world associated with wrestling would actually come up with this and think it is a good idea? Were all the people in charge of this change heavyweights in high school or 215 pounders? It is my opinion that those two weights were already the "weakest" and all they did was make them "weaker", especially 285.
Why would you punish a bunch (the majority) of stud athletic skilled wrestlers from say 120 to 150 to satisfy a few (the minority) 230 pounders (AKA FB players) that either didn't want to pull to 215 or felt they weren't big enough to go 285? Or some kids that were tweeners of 171 and 189 (still AKA FB players)? Either way it is definitely catering to footballers. Football players are not bad, but as Badbo said they have other options. I don't get it. The only argument there that I can see is that you could say that the change will get more football players out for wrestling. More footbal players out for wrestling is good but not at the expense of the stud athletic skilled middleweights I was talking about.
I know that there are those that will disagree with me or even be mad but there is a good reason why they originally put more middle weights in. Why would we all of a sudden say it's broke, let's fix it? I don't get it. I know there are some stud athletic skilled bigger wrestlers, but definitely not near as many, not even close. And certainly not at 215 and 285.
To help prove my point all one needs to do is go back and look at the past years Fab 5 which morphed into Super 7 selections. What weights were all of them at? The majority were "middleweights". There were no really heavier kids for a reason. Beard was the biggest. The Fab 5/Super 7 are the quality of kids, especially the lower middleweights, that are being "punished" at the expense of bigger kids.

Its a shame that we can't have a weight class system that everyone one likes. If you cut one out of the middle (i.e. the proposed new weight classes) then some people are mad because all of the "good guys" will be pulled into just 2 weight classes. If you leave it the same then you have the 230-240 pound guys that can't get to 215 and are to small to compete at 285 complaing.

It just like any decision thats made your going to piss 50% of the people off all of the time.

I've never seen a 230-240 guy who is worth anything that is too small to compete at 285. Are you kidding me?

yeah I agree seems like a lot of years your better heavyweights are athletic 230 to 250 pounders

i wrested from 171-hwt and never weighed over 225 in hs. the state championship match most years were 220 vs 215. we didn't have 215. i guess the train of thought is to get more "big" guys involved to fill a roster??? i doesn't make sense. seems like to me there were more full rosters when there was no 215lb class. most duals you see teams are open at either 103 or hwt.

We should add a 98 pound class. Montana has it!

Texas has a 180, I think NY also has the 98. Go to 15 weights, that way you have 1 tiebreaker too!

"We should add a 98 pound class. Montana has it!"

I agree with this - and Montana is one of the least populated states. I agree that it is mostly filled with freshman and sophmores - but some of those freshman and sophmores may have 6 to 8 years experience and have a ton of wrestling skill. They for the most part are late bloomers.

The weight change has been discussed at the April 4-6 National Federation HS Wrestling Rules meeting. The process requires that before the NFHS can announce any specific rules changes, the NFHS Board of Directors must review the changes passed by each specific rules committee. Until that point in time, the NFHS cannot announce the changes. I am sure we will know shortly. RMG

The heavyweights have always been discriminated against...they never get any respect! People don't stay and watch them at the tournaments because they are always the last ones and they never get the outstanding wrestler award at tournaments because coaches are already turning in ballots before their match even starts. They are overlooked for awards as well. You are correct in saying the Fab 5 are all middle weights because no one even considers the heavyweight. It's been very tough being the parents of a heavyweight because he didn't get some of the awards we thought he deserved but a 143-18 overall record and 2 time state champ we couldn't be prouder!!

Lori,

It is true that the heavy's wrestle the finals to a near empty gym. I am in favor of drawing the order of matches before each final. The discrimination claim is actually earned. There are a handful of athletic big guys. Most heavy matches are very plodding and lethagic. For the most part, leg attacks are non-existent. The weights are also very top heavy (excuse the pun), similar to 103. At 119-152, you usually see 5 to 6 deep athletes with a variety of technical moves instead of a two on one lean/push out extravaganza. There are certainly top quality exceptions!

Did the Kansas Coaches or Admins as a whole vote against or for this change?

My son Tucker will be a freshman next year, and is weighing about 85#'s. I currently have him strapped to a weight bench, with an iv drip consisting of testosterone, weight gain, growth hormone, and other various steroids. But even under these conditions he will be far from the new 106# weight or even the 103# weight class. Every pound matters when you are at this size.

Don't forget the mashed potatoes............lots of butter and gravy.

peanut butter and milk work better. trust me. cheeseburgers and beer work best, but the kids only in the 8th grade.

Its kinda weird, this year we were trying to cut 17 pounds to get down to our weight, I chained him to the truck and drove for three hours in his rubber suit, barely making weight, sometimes I forgot he was back there. This year, the complete opposite.... Wrestling, what a sport.