By Ryan Wallace
The Calaveras Enterprise
The face of high school wrestling in the state of California and across the country will undergo some significant changes over the next year.
A new weight management program aimed at regulating weight loss will be enforced beginning in the 2006-07 season, but all of the California Interscholastic Federation’s sections are giving its schools a change to get acclimated to what’s coming.
The new program calls for wrestlers to be assessed during the beginning of the season to measure weight, body fat and body hydration. The program will also limit the number of pounds an athlete can lose in a week to 1.5 percent of the wrestler’s weight.
For the 2005-06 season, all teams had their athletes assessed at the beginning of the year, but will not be enforced to follow any of the guidelines through the rest of the season.
The new system has not gotten much support from high school coaches and will take some time to get used to, according to Sac-Joaquin Section assistant commissioner John Williams.
“We believe we have to do this for the student-athletes,” Williams said. “You can never please everyone, but we want coaches to gain an understanding of what we’re doing.
“Anything that changes the culture of the sport is met with the idea that the sky is falling, but in actuality I don’t think it is. The entire nation is doing this and it’s not like we’re going out on a limb. We expect them to resist it, but hopefully they’ll come around.”
Calaveras High coach Vince Bicocca is in his 27th season coaching wrestling at the school and like many coaches feels the current rule is effective enough.
But Bicocca also realizes there’s no way to get around it, so it’s better to accept it and move ahead.
“I think it’s still one more hoop to step through,” Bicocca said. “Cutting a lot of weight isn’t an issue here, but for some teams across the state it is and maybe this will help.”
The current rule that high school wrestling teams adhere to is the 50/50 rule. This rule allows athletes to wrestle at any weight class as long as he or she weighed in at the desired weight in at least 50 percent of their competitions that season. After an official weigh-in in early January, athletes cannot wrestle in any lower weight classes for the rest of the season.
Bicocca doesn’t have a problem with athletes not being allowed to drop below the 7 percent body fat limit or losing no more than 1.5 percent of their body weight, his hang-up is with the hydration test.
“The bug I have is that kids are getting overhydrated and that’s skewing the results of the whole analysis,” he said. “And when kids are overhydrated, that bumps up their minimum weight class. If they’re at 153 pounds they’ll go up to 160, if they’re 161 they’ll go up to 170 and so on.”
Bicocca said that all of his wrestlers this year passed their hydration tests and he said that’s beneficial to know.
“The one good thing is that I know where my kids are at, and where the new rules say they should be,” he said.
Another thing that has coaches and athletes concerned is the condition the athlete must be in when the season begins.
Bret Harte coach Nathan Vader believes the new weight management program will be effective because it’s in the best interest of the athlete, but like Bicocca he feels there are a few things that need to be sorted out.
“It’s going to make kids get ready months before the season starts,” he said. “They have to be in condition and there isn’t a lot of kids that have that desire.
“Most kids come in at a higher weight then they should be and that could be a big problem.”
Bicocca agreed, saying it’s going to take a lot longer for kids to get down to the weight class they want to compete in, if they’re not in the proper condition.
“You can only lose 1.5 percent per week and if you take the test when you’re not at your lowest weight, it could take until the middle of January before you get into that specific weight class,” Bicocca said.
Vader said the changes aren’t going to affect his coaching style, because he follows healthy guidelines already.
Calaveras junior Chris Watson said its good to have a run-through year and to know what he has to do in the offseason to get ready for next season.
“It’s going to effect a lot of things in a lot of ways, but I think it’s good,” Watson said. “Preaseason and in the offseason we’re going to have to work a lot harder to stay in shape and come in where we want to be at.”
Bret Harte’s Dan Kelly is one of the few senior wrestlers on the team, and although he won’t be around wrestling next year, he too believes the program is a good step toward protecting the wrestler.
“It’s going to stop people from dropping 20 pounds,” Kelly said. “We might not like it, but it’s the best thing for us. You just can’t come in fat and lazy.”
And if athletes aren’t in shape and try to go outside the guidelines, the penalties are severe. If an athlete loses more weight than they are required in a week, they will not be allowed to wrestle for the rest of the year.
Williams said from the hydration test results that have been reported; only about 10-15 percent of the athletes have failed.
“That’s a pleasant surprise,” Williams said. “We were expecting something around 40 percent.
“We’re moving toward it and getting ready for next year.”
Bicocca said it’s just a matter of getting used to, but in the end he believes there will be some positive results.
“I think we’re just going to get accustomed to going up to coaches after the match and showing them our alpha list (the records of how much weight an athlete lost for the week) and that we passed the test. And I think that’s a good thing.”
Wrestling Gear
