DENNIS VICTORY
For The Birmingham News
Clay-Chalkville wrestler Jeff Jones always works hard to make his weight class following football season.
Jones, a heavyweight who carries extra weight to stay strong as an offensive lineman during football season, has wrestled in the 275-pound division since he was a sophomore. But new weight guidelines in high school wrestling this season that establish a minimum weight for each wrestler and how fast he is allowed to shed pounds may force the Clay senior to miss a portion of the season.
“I usually end up dropping a lot of water weight after football season, “said Jones, who was one of several hundred wrestlers who were weighed and tested at Vestavia Hills on Saturday. “I’ve always cut 20-25 pounds to make my weight.”
The new statewide weight program doesn’t officially take effect until the 2006-07 season, but a pilot program began this year throughout the state.
Wrestlers take a hydration test before being measured and weighed. During the weigh-in, the wrestler wears electrodes that calculate body fat. A scale is attached to a computer running a specialized software program that measures several categories, including body mass index and fat percentage.
A wrestler’s safe minimum weight is based on 7 percent body fat. No wrestler may fall below that standard and can lose only about 1.5 percent of his body weight each week to meet the minimum.
Wrestlers who run afoul of the regulations this season under the pilot program can’t lose their eligibility, unless the AHSAA determines a coach intentionally flouted the regulations. Next year, wresters can lose eligibility.
“I think it’s the best thing we’ve done for the sport in a long, long time, “said Homewood wrestling coach Dickey Wright. “It has been viewed in years past as a sport where a kid could drastically drop weight to meet a weight class. Now it’s done in a nutritionally safe manner and monitored very strictly on a national level.”
Wright is a member of the National Wrestling Coaches Association rules committee and understood the new guidelines could cause problems for some wrestlers wanting to lose weight because of the short season, which begins Nov. 21 and ends Feb. 4.
Jones weighed 296 pounds at his Saturday weigh-in and barely passed the hydration test. Even if he loses the 4.4 pounds allowed each week, he can’t officially compete until almost Dec. 10.
“I’m still going to miss four or five weeks of the season, “Jones said. “I just don’t think that’s right.”
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