Smokeycabin:

Just to clarify things, I am not advocating doing away with the lighter weights just adjusting them upward slightly. I do think you could adjust the lowest weight class upward a bit say to the 106 or 108 area and I agree with Mike Church that would be a good thing. I realize that it would hurt competitively a little some smaller wrestlers 100 or less because it would bring a few more wrestlers into the lightest weight class. But I also agree with Mike Church that this lightest weight class is a very difficult one to fill for many teams and that it is year end and year out dominated by freshmen and sophomores. Even at 108 it would still be dominated by freshmen and sophomores. I think there is a lot of unhealthy weight cutting that happens for growing kids to make this 103 at a lot of schools.

24/7, I don't think the Senior Metro Classic last year could even fill the 103 weight class but it had two heavyweight matches. There are plenty of heavier juniors and seniors in high schools if we could start getting the football coaches to encourage them to wrestle. I don't feel a varsity sport should be dominated by freshmen and sophomores. There would be nothing wrong with some of these lighter freshmen wrestling JV a year or two. I did not wrestle in high school. I played football and participated in track & field. Those sports were dominated annually by juniors and seniors and I believe that they still are. I think that is the way most sports should be and that freshmen varsity athletes should be the exception and not the rule.

Smokey, actually this high school growth spurt that you gave examples of with yourself going from 5 foot 98 pounds as a freshmen to 5' 11" 138 as a senior (I suspect your senior natural weight was over 150 what did you play football at?) and Tommy Rowlands growth of 5-7 140 as a freshmen to 6'3" 205 are prime examples in my opinion as to why high school wrestling should be have more opportunities for juniors and seniors who grow to these heavier weights. Remember how many quality junior and seniors we saw two years ago at Aquinas who had grown to heavier weight classes over 160 that could not find a spot on that talent rich team due to the lack of heavier weight classes? I think Aquinas that year easily could have had around 18 or more state qualifiers if Kansas had a system like Montana's where you could take two squads to the State tournament qualifying series.

I just hate to see these upper classmen lose the opportunity to wrestle varsity as juniors and seniors due to their natural growth and the lack of opportunity in the heavier weight classes over 160.

I would like to see weight classes adjusted to something like 108, 114, 120, 126, 133, 140, 148, 157, 167, 178, 190, 205, 225 and 275.