In the topic 119 in college, I just posted that I thought it was more of a problem that there was not a weight class in regular college wrestling between 197 and 285 due to the fact that young people are just bigger today and I believe they will continue to get bigger. I believe it would help wrestling's popularity and overall participation if our weight classes would be more reflective of this trend of increased physical size in the general population. So I think high school should have a 240 and college a 235 or 240, what do you think?

I think in High School if you are going to add a weight class you need to add a 245 that way you have 215 to 245 to 275 30 lbs split 60 overrall....as for college, NCWA has a 235 lb weight class, in fact Kansas State qualified Eisenbiese (sorry bro, I know I butchered your name) but I think with 285 being in college and 197 below it It's a rough road...I wrestled at heavyweight in college this year at only 212 against the D1 National Runner up Kevin Hoy of the Air Force Academy...however, I also had more success at Hwt then at 197 in college, but that was conditioning that came into play and the fact I was used to the old 215 Heavy mentality from high school... but time will tell, I doubt it will happen though, but you never know.

Aaron, thank you for replying. Your personal situation is exactly the reason why I think that the NCAA needs to add a 235 or 240 weight class. I would bet at 212 you are in very good shape and probably at a decent body fat percentage. It would be wrong for you to have to go down to 197, but it is not fair for you to have to give up a potential 73 pounds. That really is a ridiculous amount of weight to have to give up. The NCWA has it right and the NCAA needs to change. It may not happen soon but I believe it eventually has to because young people continually get bigger.

Aaron, do you think these large weight differentials that wrestling has currently in high school and college for heavier wrestlers discourages some of the heavier and faster football type athletes from participating in wrestling as a sport? I guess a lot of football players do not wrestle and lift weights instead during the winter, since there are more opportunities for athletic football scholarships.

In a time when we are losing college programs left and right I can't see them adding any additional weights regardless of the need.

sportsfan02,

I believe you are correct that they probably would not add any more weights due to the budgetary problems that have caused wrestling to lose so many programs already. I am of the belief that wrestling needs to explore ways to make itself more popular and get more young people to participate. If the weights are set up in a way that does not properly reflect the average sizes of young athletes then I believe it will not induce enough athletes to try our sport.

I believe wrestling is more accomodating for the smaller athlete. I am not saying that I would want to see the smaller athlete excluded but I guess I would just like to see some more of our efforts directed at attracting some of the bigger football type athletes into wrestling. The general public likes to watch big powerful athletes in action. I think that explains the TV popularity of Professional Wrestling and Sumo Wrestling.

You do not necessarily have to add a weight class. I would prefer to just add the weight class but if due to budgetary reasons it could not be done, I would suggest to just change the current weights. You could change the weight classes to be more reflective of the average sizes of college athletes. I just do not think there are that many college athletes naturally under 125. I believe there are a lot more potential college athletes at a natural weight between 197 and 285 than under 125. I would change the current weight classes of 125, 133, 141, 149, 157, 165, 174, 184, 197, 285 classes to something like 130, 138, 146, 154, 163, 173, 184, 197, 235, 285.

At UCO we have had a guy signed to both a football and wrestling scholarship for at least a 4 year stretch that I know of or some guys that went from football and joined wrestling....Wrestling and Football help each sport out...starting low in football stance with explosion coming out helps the big guys do fairly quick things on the mat....

SIZE DOESN'T ALWAYS MATTER.....

I remember John Paul Shepherd had to cut weight almost every year to make heavyweight...but for a guy with a gut he had probably the best mat awarness I've ever seen for a big man...he left after his Junior year in which he didn't lose a match in 4A until the state tournament...but I also remember the funniest thing happening in his sophomore campaign...we were at the Minneapolis tournament...John was one of about 8 chapman guys in the finals....Norton had there share as well...in fact the final 2 matches were Chapman boys against Norton guys....I was shocked that I wrestled Shaun Smiley who beat out 2x 4a state champ Matt Vogelsburg in the semis...needless to say I got beat but not to badly....however...John Paul and the rest of the crowd were in for a shock treatment when a 188lb guy came out for Norton and proceeded to if I recall correctly almost pin John if not then he Majored hime like 14-2....Size doesn't always matter, but an extra weight class wouldn't hurt.

The weight classes are fine how they are. There are 10 classes and nothing needs to be changed. Making a change for mild fatties would only cause problems. So either beef up or stop eating, but either way stop complaining.

By the way, Hoy weighed in at 231 on the second day for the NCAA heavyweight finals.