For opinion and debate:

Fact 1: There are numerous Freshman and Sophomore wrestlers that were hurt by the new weight class adjustments, smaller kids.

Fact 2: There are 4 good wrestling states that carry a modified rule for their weight classes to combat this issue. (New York, Montana, Idaho, Rhode Island?)

Question: Would anyone be in favor of the following rule for Kentucky High School Wrestling?

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Wrestling Rules Committee , unless modified by KHSAA rules, shall govern all situations. Rule 4-4-1 is modified by the Kentucky High School Wrestling Association to include fourteen (14) scoring weight classes and one (1) non-scoring weight class. The non-scoring 98 lb weight class will be recognized at each daul meet in proper order but not utilized for team scoring and will be bracketed and wrestled at all tournaments to include the regional and state tournament to allow lighter weight wrestlers to remain competitive in High School Wrestling. The following will be the acknowledged weight classes for the next season:

98 lbs. (min. 85), 106 lbs. (min. 91), 113 lbs, 120 lbs, 126 lbs, 132 lbs, 138 lbs., 145 lbs., 152 lbs., 160lbs., 170 lbs., 182 lbs., 195 lbs., 220 lbs., 285 lbs.

Some will say that it would be good for the smaller freshman and sophomores and some will say it would be a great opportunity to develop the 7th or 8th grader into your future 106.

Thoughts!

HIgh school wrestling should be for high school wrestlers imho. If you want to "develop" 7th or 8th graders, great, just do it in middle school. 106 is a class dominated by 9th/10th graders anyway. What other state allows middle schoolers to compete in HS? There may be some, but I don't know any. I think the sport is growing enough that middle school wrestlers are being challenged without having to wrestle HS.

Mark me down as a "No."

HIgh school wrestling should be for high school wrestlers imho. If you want to "develop" 7th or 8th graders, great, just do it in middle school. 106 is a class dominated by 9th/10th graders anyway. What other state allows middle schoolers to compete in HS? There may be some, but I don't know any. I think the sport is growing enough that middle school wrestlers are being challenged without having to wrestle HS.

Mark me down as a "No."

Agreed on the Middle School wrestling piece. Cut out the 7th and 8th, how about for the smaller freshmen and sophomores?

To be fair, some teams wouldnt exist if they didnt let the 7th and 8th graders wrestle up.

HIgh school wrestling should be for high school wrestlers imho. If you want to "develop" 7th or 8th graders, great, just do it in middle school. 106 is a class dominated by 9th/10th graders anyway. What other state allows middle schoolers to compete in HS? There may be some, but I don't know any. I think the sport is growing enough that middle school wrestlers are being challenged without having to wrestle HS.

Mark me down as a "No."

Couldn't agree more!

Mark me down for yes.As someone that has been in this situation(weighing 73 lbs as a freshman) I would not have been able to wrestle varsity 98lbs if there was a min.weight of 85lbs.I took over the varsity spot when our starter got hurt.And boy did I get killed that first year.If 98 would not have counted against the team score many coaches would have put in their 2nd or 3rd string against me.I quit about every other week but lucky for me my coach knew how rough I had it and keep talking me into coming back.He kept telling me my day would come,and he was right.What would it matter if there was only a dozen or so small guys(98) in the state at least they would feel like part of the team and have a chance at a win.Times sure have changed though,I keep hearing how fresh and soph. dominate 106 and when I was a senior there were 5 other seniors in the state tournament at 98.But back then you could cut all the weight you wanted.Plus if 98 was a weight class now, that didn't count for team points, I don't think to many kids would try and cut to get there.It would just give the little guys a reason to keep wrestling.

HIgh school wrestling should be for high school wrestlers imho. If you want to "develop" 7th or 8th graders, great, just do it in middle school. 106 is a class dominated by 9th/10th graders anyway. What other state allows middle schoolers to compete in HS? There may be some, but I don't know any. I think the sport is growing enough that middle school wrestlers are being challenged without having to wrestle HS.

Mark me down as a "No."

Quinton Murphy NY won his first High School State Title as an 8th grader I believe at 98 lbs.

Current Results:

2 = Yes

2 = No

For opinion and debate:

Fact 1: There are numerous Freshman and Sophomore wrestlers that were hurt by the new weight class adjustments, smaller kids.

Fact 2: There are 4 good wrestling states that carry a modified rule for their weight classes to combat this issue. (New York, Montana, Idaho, Rhode Island?)

Question: Would anyone be in favor of the following rule for Kentucky High School Wrestling?

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Wrestling Rules Committee , unless modified by KHSAA rules, shall govern all situations. Rule 4-4-1 is modified by the Kentucky High School Wrestling Association to include fourteen (14) scoring weight classes and one (1) non-scoring weight class. The non-scoring 98 lb weight class will be recognized at each daul meet in proper order but not utilized for team scoring and will be bracketed and wrestled at all tournaments to include the regional and state tournament to allow lighter weight wrestlers to remain competitive in High School Wrestling. The following will be the acknowledged weight classes for the next season:

98 lbs. (min. 85), 106 lbs. (min. 91), 113 lbs, 120 lbs, 126 lbs, 132 lbs, 138 lbs., 145 lbs., 152 lbs., 160lbs., 170 lbs., 182 lbs., 195 lbs., 220 lbs., 285 lbs.

Does not hurt the team score at all. Win / win situation for the smaller wrestlers.

Some will say that it would be good for the smaller freshman and sophomores and some will say it would be a great opportunity to develop the 7th or 8th grader into your future 106.

Thoughts!

Count me as a NO. We struggle to field a full team anyway (smaller school), so adding additional W/C would be a burden.

It shouldn't be a burden if it has no bearing on team scores whatsoever at all. I like the idea. Some of the small schools have trouble filling lineups, but that is usually in the upper weights.

Count me as a No as well. Does basketball add a spot for kids under 5'5" so that they can play?

Count me as a No as well. Does basketball add a spot for kids under 5'5" so that they can play?

LOL

Count me as a No as well. Does basketball add a spot for kids under 5'5" so that they can play?

That is like comparing apples and oranges, there are plenty of smaller kids in every school I'm sure of that, and this would be a good way to get them mat time and experience so when they do eventually get up to about 100-102 pounds they will have the experience necessary to compete, and it's not like it hurts the team if they don't have a kid small enough

Count me as a yes

Savage,does basketball say you can't play at 5ft 5, well wrestling does has a restriction.I don't really see how they can legally get away with a min, weight.Does basketball say all guys will be the same size?wrestling basicly does.Very bad example to me maybe that is why the best thing on a BB floor is a mat:

Savage,does basketball say you can't play at 5ft 5, well wrestling does has a restriction.I don't really see how they can legally get away with a min, weight.Does basketball say all guys will be the same size?wrestling basicly does.Very bad example to me maybe that is why the best thing on a BB floor is a mat:

Nobody said the smaller guys can't be on the team and continue to practice. Just like a 5'5" guy can play basketball and be on the team if he can make it. It doesn't mean the 5'5" gets a 'special' starting position.

What about the kids that weigh over 285lbs? They are being excluded as well. I'm not try to be a smart a$$ or anything. Please don't take it that way, but you have to cut it off somewhere. When a good portion of a weight class is being filled with MIDDLE school kids for a HIGH school team because there aren't enough HIGH school kids that can fill that class then I guess I'm in the minority. Even at 106- look at Ranger's rankings and look at how many of those kids are middle schoolers.

_{I'd vote no and I have a 106 that is a freshmen and only weighs 86 lbs. I think it's ironic that we worry about the 103 weight class from last year being 106 now and due to that change there might have been / were more injuries but we really don't address the fact that 215 was only bumped up 5 lbs to 220 so the gap between 220 and HWT is still huge. We worry about a kid giving up 15-20 lbs but not so much for a kid who might be giving up 55-60 lbs!}

Charger coach I believe if you do the weight by % an 86lb giving up 20 is about the same as 220 giving up 55-60.Hwt is a big gap and I don't know how many kids in the state would be above 280 and want to wrestle but they should have a way to.Plus in almost every case a kid above 280 needs to loose weight(by Drs. standards) in order to be healty.So droping down would probley be encouraged

remember when HWT was 186 lbs? that was a huge gap especially when they raise the hwt ceiling to 275 from 250.

I vote No. I still think they should start high school weight around 110 or 112.

While in college I actually did a research paper on kids maturation and growth during high school years. Less then 5% of high school freshmen boys weigh less than 115 pounds. (Now I know your saying, "...well I know 27 freshmen who weigh less than 115 pounds just in my class" nonsense) This was a national average.

The same 5% rises 8 pounds from their freshmen to sophmore year, driving that figure to 123 pounds. Your always going to have exceptions to the rule even I was a very small high schooler so my opinon is unbiased.

I also think if you cut back on the number of weight classes then you increase the competition in the state and make it a level playing for all schools small or big.

WHS98, that's kind of my point. If you have a kid who is giving up 55-60 lbs, but he weighs around 225-230 most are going to say big deal, he's a big kid so he can take it. But that little bitty guy who is only 86 lbs, it's not fair he has to give up as much weight as he does when proportionately it's the same gap! I've actually had a couple of kids in our school who wanted to come out for wrestling, but haven't because they weigh too much to wrestle and don't want to come out, bust their tail if they can't compete in anything but practice. Why not knock down the HWT max a little to let's say 270 and then add a weight class for kids from 270-310 or so and make that a super HWT class and also a non-scoring class much like the scenario proposed here? We're talking about adding another lower weight class to help little Johnnie's confidence essentially so he can compete so let's add the super HWT to help big Johnnie's health issues. He comes out, loses a few pounds and eventually gets below that 270 mark and compete for points for the team. What's the real reason we don't do that? It's hard to find big boys in general, that's why so why would we split up the HWT class and essentially make it twice as hard to find kids? Well, it's hard to find kids below the 106 mark so why compound your problem by splitting that division down even further? My vote would be no on the original proposal, but then again, I don't like the new weight classes implemented this year either, but I still have to abide by it. Tell little Johnnie to knock down a couple of McDonald's value meals and chug a gallon of water without taking a pee before each weigh-in. That'll help narrow the huge weight gap, lol.

By adding a non-scoring weight class it will benefit the kids. These brackets would be very small and would add hardly any time to the duration of tournaments. However, we would be giving kids the opportunity to get on the mat and wrestle. Giving up so much weight for these young boys can ultimately discourage them from continuing with the sport all together. We as coaches should strive to enables our wrestlers to learn from competition, not practice alone, and in doing so build their confidence. And as for as these 240 pound kids go, They have plenty of other sports that they can use to build their confidence that a 90lb kid does not.