PIAA proposal draws mixed reaction from coaches

Take a look at a picture of champions from any PIAA Wrestling Tournament over the past 18 years.

Now take a pair of scissors to cut out two of those state gold medalists.

In essence, that’s what the PIAA proposes to do for the 2020-21 season when it would like to trim the number of weight classes from 14 to 12 in an effort to reduce the number of forfeits in dual meets.

Weight classes: Current: 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 182, 195, 220, 285.

Proposed: 110, 118, 125, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 190, 215, 285.

The PIAA has submitted a proposal to the National Federation of State High School Associations to begin a pilot program to test the new weight classes. The proposal, which is not expected to be acted on until next year, has been met with mixed results from coaches throughout Berks County.

“I’m very much against it,” said Derek Sola, who will be the head coach of the new Berks Catholic program in December. “I was upset to find that out. I just don’t think you should be cutting opportunities.”

But at a time when dual meet forfeits are mounting, others see a positive side in limiting the number of weight classes to 12 for the first time since 1987. There have been 14 weight classes since the 2002-03 season.

“I see this as more of a way to enhance the varsity matches to improve the experience of the dual,” said Kutztown coach Daniel Aruscavage. “By eliminating forfeits we will see better duals and hopefully less decided by who has more kids.”

The change, if enacted, could have the biggest impact on the smaller wrestlers. Since 2012, the smallest weight class has been 106 pounds, up from 85 pounds in 1938, 95 in 1942, 98 in 1973 and 103 in 1989. Under the new proposal, the lightest weight class would be 110 pounds.

“We’ve had a couple years to look at it and probably next year will be the third, maybe the fourth, that these weight classes have seen an increasing number of forfeits in the lower weights,” PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi told PennLive.com. “We think our proposal is a better distribution than 14 and cuts down the number of forfeits and makes dual meets more pleasing to fans and to coaches.”

The change to 110 pounds could have a big effect on some of the undersized wrestlers who already are giving up a large percentage of body weight. Daniel Boone’s Stephen Spitko and Hamburg’s Parker Davidson, to name a couple recent examples, weighed less than 100 pounds during their freshman seasons and were at obvious size disadvantages.

But a study completed by Pat Tocci, senior director of the Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Association, found that there were forfeits at 106 pounds in more than half of the dual meets in the state in 2018-19. Tocci, a fromer Kutztown University coach, looked at 3,722 dual meets that had 16,888 forfeits, or 4.5 forfeits per match. Of those, 1,913 forfeits came at 106 and another 1,619 came in the second-lightest weight class at 113.

“I support the proposal to reduce weight classes, as we all know the number of forfeits is a growing problem each year in wrestling,” said Ken Thomason, who coached Wilson to three straight Berks County titles and now coaches at Muhlenberg. “I feel this will reduce forfeits and could produce closer dual meet competition.”

But even Thomason said he isn’t fully on board with the PIAA proposal. He pointed out the proposal to eliminate the 182-pound weight class leaves a 20-pound gap between the new weight classes of 170 and 190.

Others aren’t on board with the idea at all.

“I would much rather see the wrestling community spend time, energy and resources on finding strategies to increase participation in our sport,” said longtime Wyomissing coach Frank Ferrandino. “Eliminating weight classes is eliminating opportunities, and now more than ever our young student-athletes need to be involved in wrestling.”

Not only would there be two fewer state champions in each of the PIAA’s two classifications, there would be a reduction in sectional, district, regional and individual tournament champions. And in one year alone it would mean 80 fewer state qualifiers.

“My thought on the elimination of weight classes is that in doing so it does not support the push to grow the sport of wrestling,” said Daniel Boone coach James Hogan. “Eliminating weight classes will be taking opportunities away from those athletes who could potentially be competing in the sport of wrestling.”