Who is this forfeit guy I keep hearing about?
(12/17/02)
I am an avid fan of wrestling and when I go to a wrestling meet the one thing I want to see is a good match, one that involves lots of action, fundamentals, and no stalling. When I go to high school meets these days I am lucky if I see more than a couple of these good matches. Now I realize these high school wrestlers are still young men and they are not at fault, so who is at fault? Why can't I go to a wrestling meet and not see more than a few good matches? Why is it at some tournaments I have to wait until the finals to see good matches?
One of the answers is there is too many weight classes. Not only does this call for more forfeits but also worse wrestling. The National Wrestling Coaches Association needs to eliminate some weight classes, or better yet repair them. I am a big fan of the 103-pound weight class, but a lot of fans say the lighter weights are to blame for all the forfeits. I feel bad for the little guys because they can't compete in any sports, but wrestling gives them a chance to be successful at something. I agree with this but in most sports athletes don't get a chance to be on varsity until they are juniors. This is why I wouldn't feel bad about dropping the 103-pound weight class. Forfeits are hurting our sport and we need to do something about it.
I was a little curious about where most forfeits were occurring, so I did a little research. I went to www.wiwrestling.com and clicked on high school dual results. Out of the 84 box scores that were on the page there were a total of 277 forfeits, and yes the little guys in the 103-pound class, or lack there of led all weight classes with 40 forfeits. That's more than three forfeits per dual. There were only 10 matches that had zero forfeits. The dual that featured Oakfield and Dodgeville had a whopping total of four matches wrestled.
We need to repair the weight classes. One solution is going to eleven weight classes. Eliminate the 103-pound class and move the 112-weight class to 110 pounds. I don't believe it is really necessary to have only six pounds between 119 and 125, and I don't believe it is necessary to have 5 pounds between 125 and 130. I think we can eliminate a weight class between 119 and 135. We can do this by repairing them. The 119-pound weight class should stay and the next weight class should be 127 followed by 135. So we have gotten rid of two weight classes so far and that leaves us with one more. I think the last weight class can be eliminated between 135 and 160 by doing a little repairing. Here are the final weight classes I came up with 110, 119, 127, 135, 142, 150, 160, 171, 189, 215, and 275.
By repairing the weight classes it will not only eliminate forfeits, but it will also increase the amount of good matches. Since there would be three less weight classes, it would be a shade harder to get on varsity and there would be better quality of wrestling out there. Some teams can win duals these days just by fielding a full line-up. Another thing that I don't like is when teams will just swap forfeits at consecutive weights. Why doesn't the lighter guy's coach let his wrestler get better and move that wrestler up to get a match? I could understand if the guy he was bumping up wasn't that good and was only on varsity in the first place because they have no one else at the weight, or if it would make a difference in the dual, but it would give his wrestler a chance to get another match under his belt. I believe that if we lower the amount of weight classes, we will cut the amount of forfeits in half and most duals will consist of twice the amount of good matches.
Weight # of
Class forfeits
103 40
112 35
119 21
125 29
130 16
135 18
140 9
145 20
152 13
160 11
171 17
189 9
215 16
275 23
John Elmer
For
Wiwrestling.com
Written for WIwrestling.com by Freelance
Columnist John Elmer
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