Sweeping Changes Coming to High School Wrestling

On the day after Thanksgiving when the Red Bank Regional wrestling team officially returns to the mats, the wrestlers competing for spots on the varsity roster and the coaches will have some big decisions to make. 

For the first time in more than two decades all but four of the weight classes will be completely different from where they were this year. At the National Federation of State High School Associations' meeting earlier this month a change was authorized to raise the weights of the remaining classes for the upcoming season. 

Those wrestlers who competed at 103 this year will now see their weight class bumped up to 106. For most classes the change will be a similar three pound bump. At 103 however, freshmen who might weigh no more than 90 pounds could now theoretically be competing against opponents as much as 16 pounds heavier than them. 

The only weight classes to remain the same were 145, 152, 160 and heavyweight with its maximum weight of 285 pounds. Wrestlers will now be competing at 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 170, 182, 195 and 220. 

Dale Pleimann, the chairman of the NFHS Wrestling Rules Committee, and a former executive director of the Missouri State High School Activities Association, said the changes were made after studying data from the past few years. "The change in weight classes resulted from a three-to-four year process utilizing data from the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Optimal Performance Calculator," he said. 

Pleimann said the data collected showed the weights of more than 200 thousand wrestlers from around the country, dividing them evenly with seven percent of the wrestlers in each weight class. The NWCA  Optimal Performance Calculator was instituted several years ago as a way to ensure that wrestlers were competing in their proper weight class without cutting a dangerous amount of weight. Factors like height, weight and body mass index all go into calculating where a competitor should be and how far down they can safely go at a controlled rate. 

According to the NFHS, this is the biggest change in weight classes since 1988, when the 103 weight class supplanted 98 pounds as the lowest contested weight. The only other change was back in 2002 when the 215 weight class was put as a midway point between 189 and heavyweight. Prior to that change the discrepancy between competitors at the heavyweight class could have been close to 100 pounds making for a dangerous situation for the lighter of the two. 215 at least brought the heaviest wrestlers closer together.

The change at the high school level could make for an interesting time come next winter, but at least one college coach said he is excited to see the change. Former Jackson Memorial and current Rutgers University Coach Scott Goodale said it will make his recruiting at least a little easier in some aspects.

"For me, recruiting-wise I can recruit a 184 pounder," he said. Unlike in high school where the weights previously went from 171 to 189, college weight classes go from 174 to 184 to 197. In prior years Goodale said he and his staff would have to evaluate whether it was better to drop someone who had wrestled one 189 down, or to bulk up a 171 wrestler. Now the 170 wrestler can be looked at for 174, the 182 wrestler for 184 and the 195 pounder for 197. 

The former Jaguar coach said that for teams like Howell and Jackson who have large programs with lots of wrestlers the changes may not be quite as difficult to overcome. But for some of the smaller schools it could have a definite impact in how they approach their season.