The Sorry State of Wrestling Today

[MarkK]

If I follow you there fish, I am really in agreement.  Wrestling does teach kids to work hard, I guess if we want full programs we have to work harder to fill the rooms with kids who want to be there.   I know there are challenges, but that is life.

[imnofish]

If I follow you there fish, I am really in agreement.  Wrestling does teach kids to work hard, I guess if we want full programs we have to work harder to fill the rooms with kids who want to be there.   I know there are challenges, but that is life.

We have the majority of our high school team comprised of kids who never wrestled until high school.  We even get upperclassmen rookies involved.  At Regionals, we had a first year junior, still recovering from mono,  defeat an experienced senior with a much better record.  Such stories encourage little brothers to get involved and then recruit their friends.  We have been filling our varsity team by pulling kids in from the halls, for a few years now.  At the same time, our middle school numbers have been skyrocketing.  When this cycle started, we only had about 18-20 kids out in middle school.  This year, we have 60.  Yes, some coaching changes and different recruiting standards are a big part of that, but the infusion of new families into the program has definitely trickled down to positively impact participation, as well.  It's not just what you have; it's also what you do with what you have. 

[MarkK]

Glad to hear that fish.  We need more stories like that.   

[Chief]

We are now about 30 hours away from the start of Team sectionals.  There are 4 teams in D1 that have their wrestlers name and record listed on the track wrestling web site.  5 teams have the names but no record.  7 teams do not list anything.  The way to increase participation is to give credit and advertise.  Many of us will go to a dual meet Tuesday night and pick up a program and it will not have the records of the wrestlers in it. This will also be the case at team state.  If you are a casual fan or are not familiar with one of the teams, it sure helps the enjoyment of the meet to have the records.  Now the question is who should be responsible for doing this?  So why is the person or organization responsible not being held accountable?  The coaches of the 4 teams with names and records already listed on the web site are some of the most successful wrestling coaches in the state. 

[jaguarwrestler]

Your always going to have schools with 6-10 wrestlers, usually same teams year in and year out... so too many weights doesn't work for them they just don't have the program no matter if there was 10 weights or 20 weights they would still be bringing up the rear.

When are we finally going to look to our neighbors to the West and jump on board with JHI? Maybe just start with 8th graders and 5 years after evaluate and then if it is working try 7th graders.

[aarons23]

Can't we all stop posting on the downfalls of wrestling and how the numbers are dropping? Let's enjoy the next two weeks of the best wrestling of the season........

I agree that we need to recognize and build upon the positives we see.  Locally, I see some programs growing their middle school numbers rather quickly, which bodes well for the future.  These tend to be programs that have been down for a while, so the pendulum still swings and every dog can have its day.  As for the number of weight classes, has anyone considered that having more weight classes minimizes weight cutting, which is a positive development?  Expanded opportunities are a good thing; let's focus on finding more ways to gain participants that will take advantage of them. 

Actually less weight classes will have and result in less cutting and encourage more JV opportunities.

More weight classes is an absurd suggestion.

Actually Ram, I believe you are wrong...spreading weight classes out will result in more weight cutting. Wrestlers will do almost anything to make the team.....let's not spread the weights out to increase the amount needed to be cut to make a weight.  Let's focus on recruiting and retaining. 

[ramjet]

Can't we all stop posting on the downfalls of wrestling and how the numbers are dropping? Let's enjoy the next two weeks of the best wrestling of the season........

I agree that we need to recognize and build upon the positives we see.  Locally, I see some programs growing their middle school numbers rather quickly, which bodes well for the future.  These tend to be programs that have been down for a while, so the pendulum still swings and every dog can have its day.  As for the number of weight classes, has anyone considered that having more weight classes minimizes weight cutting, which is a positive development?  Expanded opportunities are a good thing; let's focus on finding more ways to gain participants that will take advantage of them. 

Actually less weight classes will have and result in less cutting and encourage more JV opportunities.

More weight classes is an absurd suggestion.

Actually Ram, I believe you are wrong...spreading weight classes out will result in more weight cutting. Wrestlers will do almost anything to make the team.....let's not spread the weights out to increase the amount needed to be cut to make a weight.  Let's focus on recruiting and retaining. 

Nope you are wrong combined wth emphasis on JV it reduce it.

[WrestleIt]

It makes no sense to me to have a 195, 220, and a heavyweight.   A grown man weighs around 200.  Even Apple Valley cannot fill top level guys at all three of those giant man weights.  I was reading what Iowa wrestling fans said about the 195 lbs bracket.  They said there were only 5 guys in a 16 team tournament
in the 195 lbs weight.

Okay, this is like saying "Let's get rid of 106, 113, and 120.....Any small guy can just wrestle 126 and under."  Really?  So big guys over 182 should just all wrestle together?  There is already a 65 lb wt. difference between the ends of the heavyweight class, and all other skills being equal, I can tell you who will win in a 221 vs 285lb. matchup.

One way to increase numbers is to get all types of kids in wrestling; working with football coaches to get their bigger kids in the sport is one way to do it.  Our hs football coach is a former wrestling coach, and you bet he encourages our athletes to wrestle.  I know from experience that college fb coaches love to recruit athletes who wrestle, so why not leverage that info to attract kids?

If there aren't enough kids in a weight class, the solution shouldn't be to drop it and make wrestling less appealing to kids in who might be that size. It should be to go out and let all kids know there is a place for them in wrestling if they are willing to work hard. 

[imnofish]

It makes no sense to me to have a 195, 220, and a heavyweight.   A grown man weighs around 200.  Even Apple Valley cannot fill top level guys at all three of those giant man weights.  I was reading what Iowa wrestling fans said about the 195 lbs bracket.  They said there were only 5 guys in a 16 team tournament
in the 195 lbs weight.

Okay, this is like saying "Let's get rid of 106, 113, and 120.....Any small guy can just wrestle 126 and under."  Really?  So big guys over 182 should just all wrestle together?  There is already a 65 lb wt. difference between the ends of the heavyweight class, and all other skills being equal, I can tell you who will win in a 221 vs 285lb. matchup.

One way to increase numbers is to get all types of kids in wrestling; working with football coaches to get their bigger kids in the sport is one way to do it.  Our hs football coach is a former wrestling coach, and you bet he encourages our athletes to wrestle.  I know from experience that college fb coaches love to recruit athletes who wrestle, so why not leverage that info to attract kids?

If there aren't enough kids in a weight class, the solution shouldn't be to drop it and make wrestling less appealing to kids in who might be that size. It should be to go out and let all kids know there is a place for them in wrestling if they are willing to work hard. 

Great post!  If there is a need, let's work to meet it...   not eliminate it!