Thoughts on poss. weight class changes.

[ptoc-nwca]

Cutting weight classes will limit the number of forfeits.

The majority of the forfeits are at 103, 112, 171, and 189. If weight classes are cut, they are going to get cut more than likely in the middle. We would still have the forfeit issue at the weights mentioned above.

Once we cut weight classes, I doubt we are going to get them back.

The boys high school participation rates for the 2001-02 season was 244,637 and for the 2006-07 season the numbers were 257,246. The number of schools sponsoring wrestling in 2006-07 was 9445 which made the average roster size across the country 27.8 wrestlers. In another words, there is currently 132,230 varisty opportunities for the 257,000 wrestlers. For every weight class we cut, we remove 9445 varsity opportunities.

The sport is showing growth, I would hope that we all could work towards greater recruitment and retention of wrestlers versus just cutting opportunities.

[legridder155]

Sounds like the corp. world were a new CEO is stepping in and cutting jobs to make himself look good.

Participation is key and like ccbig said, let these kids have fun. And like I said why are we putting so much importance on dual meets? please tell me which in your opinions is more important, winning the dual meets or getting these kids ready for the state tourney?

I know that most of the powerhouses in Ohio do more toourney's and quads than duals. I have even seen were teams will use their "b" team for duals.

[Ground&Pound]

Do those numbers include ALL 9th graders or only 9th graders who wrestle on the high school team as opposed to junior high?

I'm finding the 27.8 number very hard to believe.

By the way, I didn't read any post that suggest we don't all work towards greater recruitment and retention of wrestlers.

I consider the program that I'm associated with to be quite healthy. Cutting 2 weight classes would probably a disadvantage to us. I'm looking out for the sport as a whole when I suggest we try to go down to 12 weight classes for a trial period.

[Ground&Pound]

2 things....

Legridder - I think you should start a new thread to discuss the team v. individual philosophy. It love to hear some opinions.


Next, I'd like to hear some opinions about freshman on varsity. Maybe I'll start that one.

[coachbull]

CCBIG

"Coaching requires dedication. Coaching can and often means personal sacrifice. I don't understand people with a attitude that they will do the bare minimum and expect great results."

Are you kidding me did you really say what you said about dedication? The "out of the building" coaches doing the minimum. Let's look at my situation. I am a paramedic. That's what I do to feed my family. Season runs from Oct. 13th to Feb 14th this year. That works out to roughly 90 practices, 13 tournaments and 11 duals. 220 hours of practice time, 144 hours of tournament time and 16 hours of dual meet time. I am at the school at least 2.5 hours a day Mon through Friday unless we have a dual or a tournament and then it can be more. I work from 7 pm to 7 am go home sleep from about 8 am to 2 pm at school at 2:30 pm for practice until roughly 5 pm. Home to see MY family for about an hour from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm and then back to work for 7 pm. So your inference that the out of the school coaches are "can do more" is ridiculous.

"That out of the building coach make have to try to get off work some days (make up the lost work hours on other days or use vacation) to help build the team he runs."

Yeah that's what I should do use all of my vacation to coach my team. Not try to see my family because as you can see I spend so much time with them during the season. I take some time off so I can attend tournaments. But, guess what. I can't take every tournament day off so, what happens? I'm up for nearly 36 hours. Work my regular shift, get to the tournament for weigh-in, coach the tournament and then roll back to work. Oh and by the way I have a club team too. We work out 3 times a week after the high school season ends.

So please don't come on here and make accusations of laziness pointing your fingers at coaches that bust their behinds for their teams. This isn't about me, it's not about the school, it's not about dual meet records or forfeits. It's about the kids. It's about an opportunity to participate in the greatest sport there is. That is one thing we apparently do agree on.

[Champ Kind]

I would rather test out restructuring the weight classes before we cut any.

[Avallone]

Sounds like the corp. world were a new CEO is stepping in and cutting jobs to make himself look good.

Participation is key and like ccbig said, let these kids have fun. And like I said why are we putting so much importance on dual meets? please tell me which in your opinions is more important, winning the dual meets or getting these kids ready for the state tourney?

I know that most of the powerhouses in Ohio do more toourney's and quads than duals. I have even seen were teams will use their "b" team for duals.

You also have Dual State that you have to qualify for.

[coachbull]

No dual State tournament here. So not a concern for us.

[Champ Kind]

Duals are were most of the fans will be. Not many casual fans come to watch the state tournament. Duals are where you gain the new fans and can do some great marketing to get students to come watch. You can't get new fans to come to a Saturday tournament or super dual.