From the Idaho Statesman of Pocatello
Cutting it out
Idaho wrestling’s plan to prevent excessive weight cutting
appears laudable, but it’s not without its critics.
By Pete Iorizzo
Alone in his dark room around 3 a.m., Clint Milliron often wondered what he was doing to himself.
He should have been a lean, muscular scholarship athlete, but his body felt emaciated. His mouth tasted pasty. He couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t concentrate. He lost his temper easily. He begged for water. He wondered if he’d lost his mind.
“I’d be watching TV, “he said. “Did you ever notice how many times someone eats or drinks something on TV? I did. When you haven’t had any food or water for two days, it seems like it’s about every 30 seconds. “
To this day, Milliron remains unsure why he tortured his body that way. For himself? For his coaches? Or was it something more, a part of wrestling culture that told him cutting weight made him stronger and more disciplined?
In 1997, lots of people wanted to know the answer after two college wrestlers died as a result of excessive weight-loss methods. Because of the debates that followed, high school athletics associations in 18 states – including Idaho – set standards for the amount of weight wrestlers could lose.
Although Idaho coaches have resisted parts of the rules, which took effect prior to last season and were modified before this year, most agree something needed to be done to protect not only the wrestlers, but also the sport’s reputation.
Wrestling, coaches say, needs fewer cases like that of Milliron, who believes he became borderline bulimic as a freshman at Northern Colorado. He cut, on average, 10 to 12 pounds a week.
“I never made myself throw up on purpose, “Milliron said. “It was mental. I’d go to the cafeteria for dinner, I’d eat, and I knew I’d be overweight.
“Somewhere on the way back I’d pass two garbage cans. I usually hit one of them. “
Milliron, now the coach at Burley High School, tells his wrestlers his story, because he hopes to dissuade them from cutting weight like he did. He believes the Idaho High School Activities Association helped his cause by making it illegal.
A CHANGING CULTURE
A couple weeks ago, ISHAA executive Bill Young sat through a meeting during which health experts noted an obvious but often overlooked fact: High school students grow.
Therein lies the high school wrestler’s dilemma. At a time when nature demands he grows, his sport asks that he shrink.
The ISHAA’s rules sought a balance. The system, called the Wrestling Minimum Weight Certification Program, can be summarized in two parts:
€ Wrestlers must have at least 7 percent body fat.
€ Wrestlers cannot lose more than 1.5 percent of their body weight each week.
“It’s one of the best things for wrestling, “Young said. “It has really helped the image. Grandma has a birthday, and you want to go celebrate. Before you could go but not eat cake. Now the kids can go, have fun and not worry about it.
The ISHAA plans to study the rules’ effects. For now, Young said, anecdotal evidence points to success. He said fewer wrestlers catch illnesses, and he said teachers note better classroom performances.
“This is good for wrestling and good for the students, “he said.
The NCAA enacted its weight-management guidelines in 1998. Though its rules are less demanding, Chris Owens, an assistant coach at Boise State, said he notices changes.
“I wouldn’t want to go back to how things were in the past, “he said. “(Weight cutting) was a real black eye for our sport. It’s been a stigma that’s tough to shake. I like that there is less emphasis on weight reduction and more emphasis on weight management.”
Drastic weight reduction, experts say, affects students physically and mentally.
Physically, low sugar and dehydration inhibits the body’s ability to control temperature, said Jim Moore, an exercise physiologist at the Idaho Sports Medicine Institute in Boise. It also thickens blood, which results in less blood flow to the organs. That impairs everything from heart rate to immune function.
Mentally, people with depleted blood sugar often experience depression and an inability to concentrate, Moore said. Some former wrestlers reported sleeplessness. The combined effects envelop every aspect of a wrestler’s life, from his academics to his relationships with friends and family.
“People going through this can have anger, anxiety and depression, “Moore said. “These things affect you in the classroom and in life.”
Milliron remembers his grades suffering and his demeanor changing. In high school, when he needed to cut weight, he ate half a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, an orange for lunch and a patty of elk or deer meat for dinner. He drank water only sparingly.
Today, he makes sure his wrestlers eat three meals a day.
“With the new rules, “he said, “the kids can just eat right and work out, and that should take care of (making weight).”
CUTTING BACK
Here’s how wrestlers shed weight in the past:
Said Joe Boardwine, assistant director of the National High School Coaches Association: “I remember taking exams, I couldn’t talk because my mouth was so pasty from dehydration. I remember it being 30 degrees outside, and I’d have to open the window, because I was hot.”
Said Bill Clegg, Century wrestling coach: “I’d eat hardly anything but celery. To this day I can’t look at celery unless it has peanut butter on it. And Jell-O cubes. We’d put them in the freezer until they got kind of hard.”
Said Milliron: “When I was an assistant coach in Montana, we had a kid started at 175 (pounds) who wrestled 152. He’d get up at 4 a.m., drive 20 miles to work out, full bore and high heart rate, for an hour. He’d go to school, go to practice and work out again. He ate small all week. Two weeks before the state tourney, he almost passed out after a match. We took him to a doctor. He had totally exhausted his body. He won the state title, but what happens if we didn’t take him to the doctor?”
Here’s how wrestlers lose weight today:
Said American Falls wrestler Clint Call: “If it’s that day and I need to lose weight, I just slim down on the eating a little. Or maybe I’ll just throw some extra clothes on and go for a run.”
Said Highland’s Ryan Shuman: “It’s just being smart about what you eat. If you eat healthy, it’s not that hard (to make weight).”
Said Pocatello’s Jake Wells: “If I need to lose a pound or two, I’ll just throw a sweatshirt on and run around for a bit. It’s not that hard. Or maybe I’ll grab a partner and roll around.”
Almost unanimously, coaches agree these changes benefit wrestlers and the sport. Some kind of weight-loss rule, they say, is necessary. But whether it should be Idaho’s current system remains a great debate.
The rules, some coaches say, handcuff their ability to manage their rosters. In wrestling, only one athlete can wrestle in each of the 14 weight classes. So if coaches have two outstanding wrestlers who are the same weight, they need to move one to a lower weight. Because wrestlers can lose only 1.5 percent of their weight each week, that process could take months.
Also, the 1.5 percent rule applies to all weight classes, from 103 pounds to 275 pounds. Heavy wrestlers with high body-fat percentages often lose their weight limit just by practicing. The rules, some say, should discriminate by body type.
Take Wells, a tall, slender 140-pounder. He started the season at 9 percent body fat. He guesses by now he has dropped to 5.5 percent, which is technically illegal.
“And that’s just from working out, “Wells said. “I haven’t changed my eating at all.”
“The overall concept is a good concept, “American Falls coach Jim Giulio said. “But the 1.5 percent, that doesn’t make any sense to me. Maybe at 103 (pounds) it does, but at 152 and up, it’s too hard.”
Others wonder about the rule’s enforceability. Each school appoints an administrator, who cannot be the coach, to record the initial weights and keep tabs on wrestlers’ weights throughout the season. Some wonder if certain schools circumvent the process.
“There are still kids doing garbage bags, still kids spitting, still kids in saunas, “Highland coach Travis Bell said. “You only have the kids when they’re in school. You can’t control them 24 hours a day.”
“When you see some of these kids, they’re cutting weight, “Pocatello coach Todd Praska said. “It needs better organization. I don’t think it’s supervised enough.”
Wrestlers say a small percentage of kids continue to use dangerous weight-cutting practices.
“There are always ways to get around it, “Pocatello’s 152-pounder Clayton Cook said. “There are still people who do things.”
A BRIGHT FUTURE?
Milliron still feels the effects of his weight-cutting practices. Tall and thin, he looks more like a cross-country runner than a wrestling coach. He wonders how cutting weight affected his metabolism. He knows his past mentality still affects his eating decisions.
“My wife says my eating is still messed up, “Milliron said. “My wife eats more than I do, and she’s a very in-shape person. When we got married, her parents would always say, ‘You know, your husband doesn’t eat very much.'”
Milliron believes the experiences of wrestlers in his generation helped prod states to make rules like Idaho’s. Coaches today, with state support, can preach nutrition and weight management, not weight loss.
The sport’s mentality is changing. Administrators hope practices will, too.
“Wrestlers are more aware and are smarter, “Preston coach Jamie Holyoak said. “You can manage your weight. But cutting huge amounts of weight on a weekly basis is now a thing of the past.”
Concerns about weight continue to crop up when coaches recruit wrestlers. Several coaches said parents, especially those new to the sport, often ask, “How much weight will my son have to lose?”
Holyoak’s wife already expressed concerns about their 2-year-old son’s wrestling future. He and his wife agreed that their son will never drop more than one weight class in a season.
“Wrestling’s reputation is something we’re very concerned about, “Holyoak said. “We want it to flourish. We want lots of kids involved. Sometimes weight cutting sheds a negative light on the sport. If that kind of activity ceased, we’d get more kids.”
Holyoak said he sees evidence of that just walking through the Preston High School halls.
“When I walk around, I see my kids eating lunch, “he said. “In the past, that never would have happened.”
New Rules
Before the season
Every wrestler’s body fat is measured. It must be at 7 percent for boys and 12 percent for girls. Wrestlers whose body fat falls below the standards must supply a doctor’s note to wrestle. Also, all wrestlers must take a urine test, which is analyzed to ensure they are properly hydrated.
During the season
Coaches must carefully monitor wrestlers’ weights. Wrestlers may not lose more than 1.5 percent of their body weight each week. After the wrestlers’ initial weights are recorded at the beginning of the season, coaches receive printouts showing the minimum weight each athlete can wrestle at each week.
Wrestling Gear
