esj:

I have also stated that I would prefer that weight classes not be dropped. My ultimate goal is for more opportunities not less in high school wrestling. So I would prefer to see 103 stay and the rest of the classes change to what I suggested in my last post yesterday on this topic. But ultimately if the national governing board is unwilling to bump the weights up to 15 weight classes than I do believe 103 should be dropped and changed to the ones I suggested which I believe are more reflective than high school wrestling's current weight classes of the 50% median weight level and the increased size of high school students today. Remember a lot of that increased size is due to increased height and improved strength training.

I am not sure why you are saying that wrestling is the only sport available to a smaller athlete since gymnastics was taken away from them. First of all wrestling would not be taken away from them. They would just have to wrestle up 9 pounds to 112. My son weighed 217 at regionals this year and probably averaged 220 for the year. He had to wrestle several kids at the 270 level this year. What is more unreasonable? My son at 220 going against a 270 wrestler is about the equivalent of a 91 pound against a 112 pound kid. I think you would find more sophomore, junior and senior athletes around 220 than you would find at 91 pounds. Secondly besides wrestling still being available to the smaller athlete there are other sports like cross country, soccer, swimming, and track & field.

I am not following your logic at all on your statement that asks if the 125 NCAA champion should have been forced to sit the bench his first two years so more football types can compete. My simple answer to that would be absolutely yes. Why should a lighter wrestler be given favorable treatment over a heavier athletes? I don't know the person's history but let's assume as a freshman that he weighed at least the 91 pounds that I used in the previous example, are you telling us that an NCAA champion would have been unable in his first two high school years to win his school's 1st team 112 position? I have a very hard time believing that statement. My son as a 220 sophomore this year was able to win his school's 285 first team position on the 5A state championship team and a nationally ranked team. I don't think my son has close to potential NCAA championship ability.
My son had to sit the bench last year as a freshman at Aquinas because of the lack of heavier weight classes and he spent the year as the 189 second team guy wrestling JV for the majority of the year. My son was a State kids wrestling champion in the 6th and 7th grade. He was a Liberty nationals champion as an 8th grader. I saw plenty of freshmen 103 and 112 wrestlers his freshmen year who had no where near his kids wrestling record wrestling varsity. Why was it more important for those lighter weight freshmen to have more opportunity to wrestle varsity last year than my heavier son? I played football in the late sixties and it was rare for a freshmen or sophomore to make the varsity team much less start. What is so wrong with a freshmen or sophomore not being varsity?

Due to the reasons that were stated in your article about the NFL, I don't think I am in favor of your statement about bringing back the unlimited weight class to high school wrestling. I think one doctor in your article suggested that the maximum NFL weight should be something like 285 pounds. Someday high school wrestling may need to bump 285 up just like it bumped it up from 275 last year, but for the reasons in your article I do not think we want to be in a hurry about it. High school wrestling certainly doesn't need to raise the upper limit before college wrestling would.