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Possibly I’ve not given the National Federation of State High School Associations enough credit for being clever. After all, they managed to keep the entire national high school wrestling community in suspense for 16 days before finally raising the curtain on … nothing.
Nice little marketing trick. And they got away with it.
Of course, I’m talking about the fact that NFHS took a serious look at changing the weight classes, but ultimately rejected any change for this year, in part because they couldn’t decide on a new set of weights (my original report on the matter, including the proposed weight classes, is here).
So for more than two weeks, everyone was a-flutter, only to be left sitting alone in the restaurant, slowly realizing that the date wasn’t going to show up.
So the weight classes are status quo. That’s fine. But what wrestling fans should really be annoyed about is NFHS’ inaction on the rules changes submitted by Pennsylvania official Bob Derr, who wanted the high schools to adopt the continuation rules that have decidedly improved wrestling near the edge of the mat. Those proposed changes can be accessed here.
Derr, like everyone else, was held in the dark about his proposed changes, which basically allows any action that begins inbounds to continue even if the defending wrestler goes out of bounds provided the offensive wrestlers keep one supporting point inbounds. It’s a great, great rule.
Well, Bobby finally received an e-mail from Pennsylvania’s rep on the NFHS rules committee, Dr. John Hosage of Mountaintop, about why his proposal ended up, um, out of bounds. With Bob’s permission, we present that e-mail here in italics:
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Rod, here you go. I got your answer. It is definitely a shame.
There is so much wrestling, and opportunities for points to be scored that could be done on the edge. It is exciting. Plus wrestlers can not relax at the edge, it just makes one of the World’s most exciting sports MORE EXCITING. And falls, this is what people come to see, and wrestlers strive for, the FALL. Not adopting the rule also continues to make it more difficult for referee’s to make that tough call at the edge to identify whether or not both wrestlers have a supporting point out or not. It is so much easier in college that a referee can allow wrestling to continue until everything is out with both wrestlers.
I can understand the reason that they gave regarding space, but my answer to that is get a larger venue and or if the edge of mat is too small then tape extra mats to the sides of mat that do not allow for safety. This is one of the referee’s duties to inspect the mats for safety and if there is a situation you correct it. Also, if you watch college wrestling that soon as any wrestler touches any part of their body on the floor wrestling stops. This happens especially with wrestlers who are taller.
OK, i vented enough. I guess we just keep plugging away and hopefully in time this change will take place.
Rod, thanks for all that you do for wrestling.
bob
> To: REDACTED
> Subject: Re: rule changes
> Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:16:30 -0400
> From: REDACTED
>
>
> Bob,
>
> The committee loves the concept, however the H.S. gyms are too small. The safety factor outweighs everything. We would not be able to hold NE AA regionals at Williamsport. Don’t know if we could get another venue. It was the same feeling on the committee as a whole. Great idea but not safe and practical. Therefore it did not pass. It did get very serious discussion.
>
> Hosage
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Well, there you have it. I have to say this is both good news and bad news.
The good news is that according to Doc Hosage, the idea received “very serious discussion.” But good discussion is not necessarily good thought. As Derr pointed out, the safety issues can be handled in a variety of ways.
Yes, I know that scholastic mats are smaller than college mats. Yes, I’ve been in some gyms that barely have room for a water bottle, let alone a mat. But I’ve seen wrestlers fly onto the floor during action that had nothing to do with the outer boundary. But I’ve seen wrestlers run for the line to save their skin a hell of a lot more.
THEY'RE OUT ... BUT THEY SHOULDN'T BE
But what about safety? Won’t wrestlers fly off the mats? Well, maybe, but my view of this is not to be such a wuss and fight your way out of trouble, especially the pinning moves that happen at the edge. (This is where I, as a skilled staller back in junior high, have to acknowledge that I looked for the edge the moment danger lurked, which was often. I’m just trying to atone for my sins.)
In addition, I’m not exactly a safety Nazi. How long before, in the name of the God Safetius, we start sending wrestlers out in pads? Or just eliminate the sport altogether? I had more serious injuries in wrestling than I did in football, which might not have been the case if I hadn’t run for the hills every time someone snagged my ankle..
Weight classes changes? I acknowledge ambivalence. But the continuation rule? That’s the one that gets me off of the couch.
Thanks to Bob Derr for his efforts to improve wrestling and for aiding rodfrisco.com by sharing his e-mail.
The most common HS Mat (at least in PA) begins life 42 ft sq – 32 ft circle. They do, of course shrink a bit. A couple of inches the first year year, maybe a foot over the first 7-8 years, another ft over the lifetime. Although College mats are supposed to begin life with a 34 ft diameter, to account for shrinkage (and many are up to 42 diameter now), the mats at the NCAA tournament are destined to be HS Mats, 32 diameter, (unshrunk of course).
And like HS tournaments, college tournaments often find it necessary to have mats abut walls.
So for this Federation decision to make sense, they must be concerned with smaller mats, particularly the 36 ft sq mat with 28 ft circles, and minimum 4 ft protection. It would be nice to expect all Sr HS to have a 42 ft mat, but in this era (century) of tight budgets, it is not to be expected at marginal, especially new, programs.
We could, of course, just have those 28ft circles to be repainted to 26ft. That size is between the sizes of the inner and outer circles of sr level freestyle mat.
What is kind of sad is the number of new gymnasiums built for wrestling oriented High Schools with no deep concern for wrestling design, beyond separately controlled scoreboards and maybe a mat hoist. Sure they are good for two mats, any B-Ball court with 5-foot margin from seats will be. But if you go to put in 3 mats, only 36ft square ones may work, and then, too often they overlap or edge up a wall. And going with 4 mats likely loses half the seats, or means horrible sight lines in a 2 level design.
Only schools in the Harrisburg area, that I know of, properly designed for 3 mats are Mechanicsburg and Susquenita. (Maybe Steel-High). Having a 126-130 ft long gymn probably adds 1-2% to the cost. And if it is designed and sold right, a selling point of two full sized practice basketball courts can be included.
Agreed. The newer gyms usually have that nice state-of-the-art look to them, but the detail of floor space is often sacrificed in the process.