Klint,

You, Alex and I believe at least one other poster on this topic have said that the overall depth is down this year in heavyweight. I guess I have to accept that is probably true. No one else has disputed you guys on that. I am not an expert on it. I have really not watched that much high school varsity wrestling before this year since this is my son's first year as a varsity wrestler. This is also really my son's first year wrestling as a heavyweight. I do recall occassionally reading on the high school forum in recent past years where people were then saying how there were not that many good heavyweights. Last year there were people telling me that my son who was wrestling 2nd team 189 for Aquinas as a freshman should consider going up to heavyweight since he could be competitive there even around 205-220 due to there being so few good heavyweights.

For these reasons I am skeptical that this problem just popped up this year. It kind of makes you wonder why so many seem to want to keep their weight down when there is such great opportunity for success in the heavyweight division. Maybe more should do what my son has done over the last three years and just lift to build muscle and put on 20 pounds a year. He went from 150 in 7th grade to 165 in 8th to 189 as a 9th grader and now is at 220 and is wrestling in 285. His current plan is to lift and gain even more weight and muscle over the summer so he can do better in football and become more competitive in the heavyweight division next year as a junior.

As to why the depth of good heavyweight wrestlers might be down this year per Klint, Alex and the other poster, I do not think it is because there is a lack of good heavyweight athletes in Kansas. As I said in an earlier post, I saw at Regionals two Division I college bound senior Aquinas football players who are excellent athletes and I am sure either one would have been a very good heavyweight wrestler for Aquinas. I know there are many other big athletic kids on the Aquinas football players who would have been very good wrestlers. I am positive there are these type of football heavier athletes at many schools across Kansas. It would not surprise me that you could find them at just about every high school.

So why are they not coming out? I think that it is because there are too few weight classes for heavier kids. They don't want to mess with dropping 15 to 20 pounds are more to get down to 215. I think this decision is made by slightly lighter football players too who do not want to lose weight to go down to 160, 171, 189 or 215. I think they and probably their football coaches too just prefer for them to concentrate on lifting weights to put on weight and muscle to prepare for their next football season rather than to be losing weight to try and fit a weight class. They see football as a better long term possibility for a financial award too since there are more football scholarships available and the football scholarships pay for more than most wrestling scholarships. I see these as the two primary reasons that heavier football players do not get involved in wrestling.