All good numbers. Part of the discussion centers around several posters who believe that good wrestlers are being denied varsity opportunities, largely because their team has one or more good wrestlers in the same weight bracket, and good wrestlers (who can not win the wrestle off) are limited to JV. Other poster are worried about cutting weight and the physical effects on the wrestler. Another poster stated it is not difficult for a 245 pounder to lose down to 215. Maybe, maybe not. For big guys weight is power, not necessarily strength. A 30 lb weight (12++%) will require a lot of effort and commitment to first lose the weight, and second to spend the time in the weight room to gain the strength to replace the loss of power from the weight loss. Yes, it can be done. I think Nowak from STA is an excellent example. But, takle it from a fat boy all my life, it is difficult.

So, both more and smaller brackets may have some value in attracting more kids to the wrestling program--perhaps especiall for kids over 180 pounds. Kids are bigger today than in my days, and there are more bigger kids, so give them a slot they can fit into.

Yes, it is difficult to fill a 14 wrestler roster. Almost every school goes into several matches with open slots: big schools, medium schools, and I bet bunches of small schools. Perhaps our current system/brackets are accerbating the problem.