2023-24 NFHS weight class changes

[Falconswrestling]

KY is 14 weights for guys and 12 for girls. WE adopted them when NFHS came out with the scenario a few years ago.

[mat73557]

The more the merrier.  Bigger is better. 

From what I can see, most of the coaches who want to do away with 106 and see less weight classes are from smaller locales and struggling to fill weights.  We always have small guys in my area.  I rarely ever see a forfeit at 106 when big school competes with big school.  

What we really need to do is attract more kids to wrestling.  Worrying about seeing only the best match ups and forcing the top guys to compete in the same weight class sounds appealing to a lot of you, but its small minded thinking in my opinion and a quick means to an end for the growth and traction that HS wrestling has gained in recent years. Those top guys are going to compete anyway.

As already stated, most kids don't win state in wrestling.  Most don't even get a state medal.  We need to stop trying to fix boring duals by reducing the # of weight classes.  Fix that problem by growing our kids clubs and increasing the number of wrestling participants.

[rideOut]

1 hour ago, mat73557 said:

The more the merrier.  Bigger is better. 

From what I can see, most of the coaches who want to do away with 106 and see less weight classes are from smaller locales and struggling to fill weights.  We always have small guys in my area.  I rarely ever see a forfeit at 106 when big school competes with big school.  

What we really need to do is attract more kids to wrestling.  Worrying about seeing only the best match ups and forcing the top guys to compete in the same weight class sounds appealing to a lot of you, but its small minded thinking in my opinion and a quick means to an end for the growth and traction that HS wrestling has gained in recent years. Those top guys are going to compete anyway.

As already stated, most kids don't win state in wrestling.  Most don't even get a state medal.  We need to stop trying to fix boring duals by reducing the # of weight classes.  Fix that problem by growing our kids clubs and increasing the number of wrestling participants.

Great point, the reduction of weight classes is a band-aid solution and the actual root cause is the low level of youth participation.

 

In my opinion this is the harder but more efficient way of creating "better matchups." A lot like parenting, taking time to build a relationship with trust and instruction/proper correction will go a lot further than constant belittlement and physical punishment.

[Mason422]

On 5/1/2023 at 2:49 PM, cobrakid8 said:

and again go back and see how many of those kids dropped down for that tournament only or those big tournaments just to wrestle higher up during season itself. I know of a few that did so, so you can't tell me during the season if 106 was that heavily populated why they don't just stay down? So yeah I know those big tournaments have some of the largest brackets at the lowest weights, its because its easier to place there compared to if those kids didn't cut at all and had to wrestle at 125 or whatever. Also since I'm not going to take the time to look it up but what kind of testing do they follow to allow wrestlers to drop, do they follow TN and their hydration stuff or do they allow you to just wrestle at whatever weight you choose if you can get there?

Really?  You don’t know how NFHS sanctioned tourneys work??  Every state that participates in NFHS tourneys has to have a hydration test. Every school still has to follow decent so, no you can’t just drop. 
 

The hard core cutting takes place at tournaments like Super 32 where decent isn’t required and they have overnight weigh ins. 

 

Kids like mine drop at tournaments like that is because that is where he is most competitive. He manages his weight really close and stays low for several big national tournaments.  Then, when that is over in mid Jan he goes up a weight class.  Not to be arrogant, but why cut weight when it’s not needed to pin or tech your way through 4 state titles?  If Hunter lived in a State like PA or NJ he wouldn’t ever go up a weight class and he would stay low because that’s probably what he would of had to do to win state titles there.  
 

You are also incorrect about the majority of 106 pounders going up after a big tournament. The overwhelming majority of those kids hold that weight all year long. You are just seeing the best kids in TN traveling to those places at a lower weight class then go up for the state tourney. That’s not how the rest of the country works. 
 

would love to meet you one day. 
 

My name is Sid Mason

[TotallynotLEO]

Sid is correct about the cutting, they're doing satellite weigh ins on Fridays for a lot of tournaments.  Kids can cut hard and weigh on Friday.  Wrestle on Saturday.  

Met a kid at a pretty good sized tournament last year that weighed in Friday  morning at 197.0 

On Saturday he was at 210lbs by his own admission and wrestled 197lb weight class.  Our teams kid was walking around at 193lbs. This was at a duals tournament no less.  His team made gold pool, ours didn't.  

Edited May 5, 2023 by TotallynotLEO

[cowcatcherII]

On 4/27/2023 at 5:01 PM, cbg said:

I have been told by a very tenured coach that Tennessee will go with 14 weight classifications and use the NFHS weights

I have been informed that you were correct @cbg. It has now been confirmed that Tennessee will go with the new 14 weight class option next year.

106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 144, 150, 157, 165, 175, 190, 215, 285

 

[cobrakid8]

On 5/4/2023 at 9:18 PM, Mason422 said:

Really?  You don’t know how NFHS sanctioned tourneys work??  Every state that participates in NFHS tourneys has to have a hydration test. Every school still has to follow decent so, no you can’t just drop. 
 

The hard core cutting takes place at tournaments like Super 32 where decent isn’t required and they have overnight weigh ins. 

 

Kids like mine drop at tournaments like that is because that is where he is most competitive. He manages his weight really close and stays low for several big national tournaments.  Then, when that is over in mid Jan he goes up a weight class.  Not to be arrogant, but why cut weight when it’s not needed to pin or tech your way through 4 state titles?  If Hunter lived in a State like PA or NJ he wouldn’t ever go up a weight class and he would stay low because that’s probably what he would of had to do to win state titles there.  
 

You are also incorrect about the majority of 106 pounders going up after a big tournament. The overwhelming majority of those kids hold that weight all year long. You are just seeing the best kids in TN traveling to those places at a lower weight class then go up for the state tourney. That’s not how the rest of the country works. 
 

would love to meet you one day. 
 

My name is Sid Mason

I LOVE the sport and even though I coach other sports now that my own kids participate in I still keep up with wrestling as a whole(although I could have taken the time to look up the NFHS rules regarding the Beast, RTOC and Powerade, I just didnt take the time and I even said so). As far as moving around weights, I saw that alot from looking up even some of the top guys in the tournament, I went and looked at their state records and quite a few did move around, especially after looking at the weigh in list and seeing some were right there on not making the weight or not. 

 

As far as 106, YES a BUNCH moved up after Beast, a total of 50 weighed in for 106. Quite a few of those moved up in season, also I was told the other day that 106 and 113 were some of the highest totals for wrestlers at Beast. From the weigh in sheets it goes 106-50,   113-58,  120-66,  126-66,   132-64,  138-71,  144-65, 150-53,   157-53,   165-52,   175-56,  190-59,   215-43,  285-45.  So as most of us have noted previously and when talking about weight classes have stated the middle classes are those with the most participants, the lower classes and upper are those with the least. Also I only saw 2 kids that weighed under 100 lbs at the Beast, one at 98 and other at 99. 37 of the 50 weighed in over 106, 43 of the 58 weighed in over 113, 59 of the 66 at 120 and I wont take the time to look up the others. 

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by cobrakid8