The new weight class were approved by the NFHS Board of Directors. The NFHS wrestling rules committee approved the upward shift of the weight classes,begginning with the 103 - pound class moving to 106-pounds, which resulted in new weights for 10 ofthe 14 classes. The 14 weight classes approved by the committee for the 2011-12 are as follow: 106,113,120,126,132,138,145,152,160,170,182,195,220 and 285. The change in weight class resulted from a three-to-four year process utilizing data from the (NWCA) Optimal Performance Calculator, said Dale Pleimann, chair of the NFHS Wrestling Rules Committee and former assistant director of the Missouri State High School Activities Association. "The rules committee was able to analyze data from 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. RMG

At Fila cadets in Akron, OH last week...there were 54 entrants from 187.25 and up. If those contestants were competing in the new HS weights a few might drop to 182, the rest would be 195, 220, or 285. (4weights). In comparison there were 96 entrants in just two weights of 119 and 127.25. I understand this is freestyle wrestling and not in season HS wrestling but I bring this up to make two points.

1. There are more kids wrestling in the lower and middle weights that lost a weight, than the upper weight classes that gained one.

2. This change in HS weights caters to the bigger weights that clearly have less depth and less kids that are "hardcore" wrestlers.

Fila cadet is Fr, So and alot of Jr's. Older Jr's and Sr's could add some to the upper weights. So I added the Fila Jr's numbers in as well even though those include young men all the way up to 20.

total for 119 and 127.25 in cadet, and 121 and 132 in Jr's (2 weights each) was 156 wrestlers.

Total for 187 and up in cadet, and 187 and up in Jr's. (3 wieghts in each) is 141.

So even including 19 and 20 years college kids the two lower weights where the new HS weights have targeted for a loss, have 10% more wrestlers than 3 higher weights where a weight class was added. And this is comparing 2 weights to 3.

Bottom line the 125-160 classes are the most competitive, deepest and have the most total participants. It makes no sense to cater to kids that have not in most cases put in the 10 years plus of hardcore dedication to the sport, but rather are recruited from the football team to fill the upper weights. Sure there are exceptions, but for every kid 200 plus that is a hardcore wrestler there are 10 140 pounders that are that same level of dedication.

There is nothing we can do about it now. We live with it and go on, but don't tell me this is good for the sport and those kids that focus on wrestling.

JMO...with a few stats. Not trying to be mean, just protective of the kids that I have seen put their blood sweat and tears for years into a sport only to see opportunities given to kids that in alot of cases are participating as their 2nd or 3rd sport.

How can you look at data and throw the middle finger up in the air? They have basically taken a weight class right out of the middle of the bell curve and thrown it out to the right side of the distribution. Surely they are going to tell us that high school wrestler's weights are not a bell curve? 130,135,140 were replaced with 132 and 138 to give another class to a less dense population 182, 195, 225, 285 (was 189, 215, 285). Just plain stupid.

The NF did same thing (eliminated a weight class in the middle) for the 1995 season; it lasted only that season.

Agree with Will. . .makes no sense to take a weight class from the range of weights that has the greatest number of participants.

But Kansas does NOT have to use these weights, correct?

We do not but Gary Muscleman will only let us break one rule so we don't get a vote at the NFHS meeting. How many other states don't get a vote? Montana and Texas don't adhere to their weight classes.

We could step up and have six matches in one day too but Adolf Muscleman says "NEIN".

I see the major problem with not following this rule is if states surrounding us do follow the rule; will make it difficult to compete across state lines and how it would impact certification rules; not just for Kansas wrestlers but the other states's wrestlers as well if there was across state competition using the "When in Rome. . ." rule.

Also, this is a situation where Kansas NOT having a vote on the NF rules committee could have hurt us.

Why would you not want to follow these weights? Its a long way from being statistically perfect but its one step closer. .... If the median kid weighs around 148 lbs, we need 7 weights above and 7 below 148 to make it right. .... If I counted right thats what we have.

<now the rest of the story>

I do agree its bad to lose a weight in the middle. But its not the fault of the 180 lb kid. Believe it or not 15% of 18 yr olds weigh between 165 and 185. Thats 2 new classes for 15%. The smallest 15% get FOUR of the new weight classes. So I would suggest the problem just might be the distribution of the bottom 7 classes.

***boring personal story to counteract "my kid is so small" stories***
Our team this year had 13 wrestlers on the roster in the top 6 weights (thats not counting the eneligible and at least 2 that didnt wrestle because of no varsity spot) - 9 wrestlers in the bottom 8. Had at least 2 deep in every top weight - couldnt fill bottom ones (103). If we had these new weights we might have had a 106 lber and would have had no problem filling the new upper weight. Net result - 2 wrestlers with new oportunity to wrestle, middle weight guy bumped to JV were he really belonged, 112 and 19 lber could have ate one more lb, and a heck of a lot tougher team.

One thing that I wish there was a way to implement in high school varsity wrestling is to allow high school teams to bring more than one wrestler in a weight class to varsity tournaments. That way you can avoid situations where you have two legitimate State placers in the same weight class but are restricted to bringing one for most tournaments and the State qualifying tournament series. In most other sports with individual high school competition you can take more than one athlete to events including State. For example you can take more than one shot put athlete or long jumper to State as well as cross country runners.

I have made this point before but I have actually seen it work in college tournaments now that my son is at Baker University a NAIA school. The colleges often take several wrestlers per weight class to open tournaments during the season. Also the NAIA allows twelve wrestlers instead of ten to the national qualifying tournaments, so you can qualify twelve wrestlers. They do not have to bring a wrestler in every weight class so you could fill the twelve by bringing two in six weight class or another combination.

From Montana High School Athletic Association

*Cooperative Sponsorship
1. Each division will hold a divisional or wrestling tournament each year to
determine the entries for the State Class A Wrestling Tournament. Class A
schools will be allowed to enter a maximum of nineteen (19) wrestlers in the
divisional tournament. Each school shall have the opportunity to enter a
maximum of four extra wrestlers and shall have no more than two (2)
wrestlers in a weight class. Team points, at both the divisional and state
level, shall be awarded to each wrestler. However, only advancement and
place points shall be awarded when two wrestlers from the same school
meet each other head to head. All nineteen wrestlers from each team have
the opportunity to advance to state.

Thank you for posting that information. That is exactly the type of system that I was suggesting. I think with these impending weight changes that the Kansas High School Athletic Association should seriously consider such a system to give additional opportunities for our high school wrestlers. This type of system really works in college open tournaments and for the NAIA national tournament series. You see NAIA wrestling All Americans from the same school and in the same weight class. Sometimes they do end up wrestling each other. In this type of system coaches would not need to worry as much about filling all the weight classes as you could just wrestle two of your best wrestlers in the same weight class if they are both naturally in that weight class. For example in Montana system it appears a team could qualify two wrestlers in just nine weight classes and one in another one to make the 19 limit. So you would not have to worry about filling four weight classes if you did not have wrestlers to fill those weight classes that year. I think if this type of system was in place there would have been less reason to have made these weight changes.

Why don't we baby the kids a little more. 2 wrestlers per weight, give me a break. I think this waters down the sport quite a bit. The best kids wrestle against the best kids. Participation? kids that don't make the line up can still participate on JV, put in their time during the offseason and see what happens the following year.

It does happen from time to time where 2 guys on the same team could both place in state at the same weight - But the second string guy can not go up 1 or 2 weights or down a weight. I have seen a few examples on the high school and college level. The situation is not normal but, it is a good problem for the high school coaches to have that problem with that kind of depth.

You are correct on this. Seaman High School back in 1986 had a state champion by the name of Scott Roush. Scott was held to JV until his senior year. He most likely would have placed at some other point. I think its a good thing. This puts ALL the best kids in the state at the varsity level.

Lazyman 1, how is that watering down the competition?

One example of this was the Goddard teams from 2007-2009 from the weights of 135- 189 you had to be close to a state champion just to make the varsity team. I would also think that Ark City had this problem in the late 80's and early 90's

I have known Scott for a number of years. I didn't realize he was a State Champion, let alone a wrestler, until about five years ago. I didn't know the circumstances until your post. Good stuff. I guess Scott doesn't talk much about it, or at least not to me.

Back to my story; I was roaming around the halls at Seaman during a Kids' tournament around that time and saw Scott's picture on the wall as a State Champ. It looked like him, younger and a bit smaller. Then I ran into him in the Coaches' room and asked him about it. I honestly had no idea until then. Just a true story, and it doesn't add much to the substance of this thread.