Vince, how many good kids are there behind 103lbs state champs that "could" be good if we had another 98lbs weight class again?
I don't know, but perhaps instead you could tell me how many 160 to 285 pound wrestlers who wrestle behind their first team counterpart could be good if we had more than 4 weight classes out of 14 available for them. Or perhaps you could tell me how many great athletes between 160 and 285 are out there who never even try wrestling but might if there was more opportunities for heavier athletes in wrestling.
... Without football we wouldn't have wrestling right? I mean football makes them better wrestlers, I mean dancers, I mean water polo players right?
When did anyone ever make that claim that without football we would not have wrestling? This all somewhat started in another topic when a couple of people made statements (and I believe you made one of them) that the heavyweight class was not that good this year. I responded to that and one of the observations I made was that it was not due to a lack of good bigger athletes in high school. I stated that a lot of these bigger athletes were just not wrestling and that wrestling should try to do things to get them wrestling. I never said football makes them better wrestlers but since you brought it up I have been told by a couple of coaches that are involved in both sports that the two sports do complement each other.
I think if they're good enough athletes they can be just as disciplined as the rest of us are/were and learn to cut weight or gain it to succeed....I can tell you from personal experience without 103 I wouldn't have been a 2x SQ... our 112 was just that much better than me, so are you saying because I couldn't have been the 112 starter I shouldn't have been the 103 starter? Or that I didn't deserve to be in a weight class that is made as to include the underdeveloped or smaller wrestlers?
No, I guess my answer would be that as a 103 pound freshman or sophomore you just needed to be as disciplined as what you are suggesting for the heavier athletes. In your case you would have just needed to follow your own advice to the heavier wrestlers and just have been more disciplined and hit the weight room harder so you have could gain weight to succeed at the 112 level.
If your son was good enough to start then he would have, plain and simple. He wasn't good enough last year so he got better apparently and has succeeded.
Seems like this could have applied to you also in your situation as a 103 pound wrestler trying to unseat the 112 pound kid. My son did lose his wrestle-off with our 189 pound kid in double overtime as a freshmen but he was good enough as a freshmen to be on the starting team when they went to Texas where there is another opportunity at the 180 pound division. He was also good enough as a freshman to replace the starter one week when he was injured and place first in their meet that weekend. He was also good enough to have a 6-4 record that year in 189 (a division that is predominantly juniors and seniors) and three of those victories were against guys who took first, third and fourth in a local 6A regional. He got a lot better this year but I think he was a varsity quality wrestler as a freshman too.
As you quote here Vince...Why should a lighter wrestler be given favorable treatment over a heavier athletes?... why should we give heavier athletes greater treatment over the lighter athletes? ...
We have 10 weight classes up to 160 and only 4 from 160 to 285. It seems like we would have to add several weights for those 160 and above before we would have to be concerned about giving the heavier wrestlers preferential treatment over the lighter wrestlers.
