Eliminating the 103 lbs class, will eliminate alot of 4'xers. Most 4 x's state champions start at 103 lbs, with only a few exceptions. I personally like the smaller weights. Much more interesting and fast paced. Hwy Wts have less moves and arsenal to attack, and to me are slow and boring, not knocking them, just my personal experience of watching and wrestling for 35 years. Yes you do get your Jeff Boyles every great once in a while, but all one needs to do to see that by eliminiating the 103 class elimates alot of the best wrestlers in Ks. at one point in their career. (which would be their freshman year). We don't need more pushing and shoving by adding more boring upper weight classes.

I've seen several complaints that Hvy Wts get the short end of the stick due to OW of the tournaments already being voted on, and the poeple are leaveing. They even switched the starting line up around so they would actually force people that don't like to watch the hvy wts watch it now. People are not forced to show up at the beginning of the championship matches, they just do, because the little guys actully hit many many different moves or at least attempt too. People show up on time to watcht that. Just like people leave early as they don't care to see 2 215 lbs or 285 lbs push eachother for 6 minutes, somtimes even longer if its the usuall 1 to 1 tie at the end of regulation.

Leave it the same, or add 98 lbs. I seen a lot of stud 8th graders this yr that will only be sidelined or forced to club wrestling if the weights increase. 12 and under 64 and 68 are crazy tough and the bottom weith classes in this age group. These kids will be lucky to hit even 103 by 9th grade. If you ask me we are losing our best to cater to kids that play football anyway.

I feel this move make the competition even less fair and uncompetitive. Now your 0 and 8 record kids at 103 will have to go up and wrestling even tougher kids at 106 that cut down from 112. Did you think of that one. You can just turn you 8 losses with 7 pins to just 8 pins by loss now,. If they couldn't win at 103 what in the world makes you think they will even stand a chance at 106?

"if they can't win at 103 what in the world makes you think they can win at 106"

-I don't see your point? Sounds like the kid just can't win period.... What does it matter if they are losing at 103 and 106, they're still losing.

Are you really making that point? That's your concern? C'mon man, get a hold of yourself.

Someone talked about research that this was based upon. Look at USA Nationals entries for this year's jr's, 130 to 171 were where most of the kids were, with I believe 160 having the most entires. It gets sparse at the weights above that. Now this would not include most freshmen and sophs. If you look at cadets, you really do not see much at the top weights. As such, where did they get their numbers??? They eliminated a middle weight where most of the kids are, makes total sense. The decision is made and it is what it is, but this is really based on research????

"I feel this move make the competition even less fair and uncompetitive. Now your 0 and 8 record kids at 103 will have to go up and wrestling even tougher kids at 106 that cut down from 112. Did you think of that one. You can just turn you 8 losses with 7 pins to just 8 pins by loss now,. If they couldn't win at 103 what in the world makes you think they will even stand a chance at 106?" - lylegeyer

It really adds up to a 1 lb. difference at State, as the 103's are now 105 for Friday's matches, and 106 for Saturday. The question is, will the state keep the 2 lb. growth allowance?

If the 106 class was in place this past season, we would have had a different kid in there, as I'm sure many other teams would have. The Bobcat wasn't even full at 103 this year, so why should we keep 103 or add 98? And how does this make it less competitive? I see it as a way to ensure that there is better quality wrestling at the 106 weight, because you will have those borderline 113's dropping. I think that this opens the class up to Freshmen through Seniors, not limiting it to Freshmen and a few Sophomore's. A 98 lb class would be just Freshmen. How does that make any sense in the overall scheme of things? As far as eliminating the lighter guys, wrestling has always been a sport where, as Ric Flair says, "To Be the Man, you have to Beat the Man!". If a Freshman is that good at 85 lbs, he will prove it in the room and on the mat. How many Srs. have won State at 103? Been a 4X'er at 103?

As far as the heavy's getting the raw end, run some duals/tournaments backwards for a change. Start with HWT and work backwards through the weights. I think it would be exciting to watch. Make more use of the Random Draw for Duals and for Finals. Mix it up a little bit.

I made the statement of wanting to add 98 because I want to give more kids a chance to wrestle. The fans get to benefit by watching more wrestling, the parents of the kids benefit by having their child compete, and most of all it gives those kids that fit that 98lbs category a chance to compete.

two things-

4xers will be 4xers whether it's 103 or 106- it's 3 lbs

people really leave before the hwt match because it's late, not because they don't like the style. if a dual is undecided everyone of them will stay and be on their feet. come on, it has nothing to do with style.

285lbers do NOT have to be last! When Derby moved the best finals match to happen last in 2009 and 2010 everyone remained in the gym until the last whistle blew.

Headup, you are in denial if you think the majority of wrestling fans enjoy watching dancing bears.

Geyer, where are you coming from?? 103 or 106, it isn't that big of a difference. There are almost ALWAYS more byes at 103 than any other bracket in the tournaments we attend. A 4xer should be an exceptional wrestler. For the most part 103 is mostly freshman so I applaud and effort to make this weight class a little tougher and more populated. Seriously, we should keep a lower populated weight just to have more 4xers??? That is some strange logic.

Varsity sports aren't really meant for Freshman. How many do you see on the court, football field, track, varsity golf, etc. I had a son who this year weighed 99lbs at the start of the season and was undersized all year. He would have been even more undersized at 106 and it would be unfair, in your eyes, to him. To me it would prepare him for the next three years. Still better to be on varsity getting whipped than be on jv. The weight classes have to be adjusted to fit the normal distribution of varsity athletes. There will ALWAYS be outliers or exceptions. I don't think we should cater to undersized freshman so we can have 16 team tournaments with 7 kids in the 103lb bracket.

98lbers should not be wrestling, they should be working on their pony riding skills as their true calling is being a jockey. JMO. Brandon, you would look great in some black and orange silks at Churchill Downs on Saturday afternoon in the spring. In the winners circle with a mint julip in one hand and a trophy in the other.

Might be in the running for funniest post of the 2011 year! While I don't agree.... It is funny!

Coach, Will's remarks may be funny but they are also very offensive to some parents and young athletes that read this forum. As a parent of one of these dancing bears as Will describes the 285 pound wrestlers I took offense to this remark of his:



There are just some things a person who is in a position of respect in the USAW-KS organization should not be saying on a public forum. Will is a person who is respected by many in our wrestling community and I think remarks like this are not needed.

Will has a lot of great progressive ideas and I know is dedicated to Kansas wrestling. But I think he could get his point across in better ways sometimes and this was one of those times.

A former 285 pound wrestler Cameron Adcox is fighting to keep the KSU wrestling club alive. See the college forum if you are interested in being a part of his efforts for all wrestlers of every weight class!

Will, I understand that where my son is now, is not of the norm. It is our problem, and we will work with whatever the majority rules. My vote of course, due to our situation, is to keep it the same or to go to the 98# class. Will you may think that it is good for Tucker, being 26lbs under weight next year, to get his butt kicked, and that it will be good for him in the long run, but I disagree. Tony Purler told me once that, too much success inspires laziness. Too much defeat causes lack of confidence, therefore lack of effort and the desire to try new moves... So i think after reviewing this conversation with you, and knowing that you are the wiseman of the sport, Tucker and I will be shopping for a thoroughbred horse this weekend.

First of all, everything we say and do can probably be seen as rude or inappropriate. I am 100% sure Will was Tongue and Cheek here with this comment. I may be wrong, but I believe he has a son who competes at 103 and I thought was a little small for that weight class. It is what it is..... While I don't agree with 106 Weight class, I found a joke funny. We laugh at inappropriate jokes every day. Almost all jokes are offensive to somebody these days. It is what it is... It was funny, I laughed and it's over. I even put I did not agree with his statement... but still laughed....

Have a blessed day...

Some of these comments are derived from a narcissistic personality disorder, and can be treated through psychotherapy.:)

LOL... Now I think that is funny... However, there is probably somebody in America that has a Narcissistic personality disorder and would be offended by that statement... However, as I stated.. I think its humorous.

I have been trying to avoid posting on this weight change because I am too personally and emotionally involved on the small side of the weight classes but I can't resist so here goes....

One of the main reasons I love wrestling is because it doesn't discriminate based on size or a subjective opinion of a coach. That is why I loved wrestling growing up. Wrestling provided me an opportunity that no other sport could provide because I was the 88 lb freshman and we had a 98 lb weight class. Because of that I was able to place at state 4 times and win it once.

The reason this is important is because it allowed me to get recruited to wrestle in college at a variety of colleges. I ended up attending West Point, wrestling for them and then serving in the Army until I retired in 2007.

I am absolutely convinced that if I did not have the opportunity to compete as a freshman, my chances of getting recruited to USMA would have dropped dramatically. My life would be totally different than it is now.

I share this because I think we lose site of the overall purpose of high school sports....that is to provide opportunities for kids. Wrestling is one of the only sports left that allows smaller folks to compete and have a chance to get help their college education.

Now we are taking away another opportunity....who cares if it is mostly freshman wrestling at the smaller weights. Yes you don't see a lot of freshman starting on varsity in other sports...why....because size and a coaches subjective assessment plays a major role in playing those sports.

I also agree with John, we have decreased the # of weight classes in what seems to be the largest population of wrestlers. We have done this combined with increasing the smallest weight in order to add a weight for a relatively small number of folks.

Done venting....just my perspective.

Will,

Yes I did jockey and gallop horses when I was in high school....decent $$$. We also raised Mules....do you know what makes a Mule? Mule = Horse + Will's Comment

Coach Church:

I did not intend to take exception to your post. I apologize to you if my post came across that way.

Perhaps I am the only one that took any offense to the dancing bear comment.

Maybe I am getting a little too irritable and overly sensitive in my older age.

I wish I knew how to post a photo here because we have the funniest picture of our heavyweight standing over 6 feet tall wrapped in a bear skin!

We all tend to see an issue only from our own experience. It is hard to be objective when we are parents & fans. Even at 189, the crowds would often be sparse during the finals of most tournaments. Our coach started a policy many years ago that no wrestler could leave as long as anyone on the team was still wrestling. He couldn't control the parents, but at least the team members stayed.

At UNO some of the most exciting matches were the heavys. You never knew what was going to happen and the outcome can change very quickly. This past season's heavyweight had to step in when we lost a previous year's champion. He wrestled with more heart and grit than anyone I've seen. He was often outsized, but he never gave up and always had the crowd behind him.