Leading off today: A number of New York high school coaches are wrestling with a weight problem. Well, more accurately, the new weight classes in their sport are troubling to a lot of wrestling coaches,
The Times Union reported Thursday.
The National Federation of High School Associations shifted weight classes in a vote last April, and 11 of 15 weight classes were bumped up and one of the middleweight classes was removed in favor of a 195-pound slot.
The newspaper sent a survey to over 250 New York coaches and administrators, and about half were in were in favor of the new system when it was announced but now 70 percent say they are opposed. The paper reported many of the coaches want to drop the 99-pound weight class -– New York is the only state with a sub-100 class -– and restore a middleweight class.
One coach's comments: "The taller kids have basketball; the bigger kids have football. But wrestling has always been a sport which provided an avenue for the average sized kid to compete in more spots down low from 99-160. Now, there is one less opportunity for these kids and one more opportunity for the bigger kids. The irony is that there is no real call for this because I do not know of any coaches who ever complained about too many kids stuck up top and the need for another weight class at 195 so we didn’t lose these kids to other sports."
About two-thirds of those who responded to the paper said they would be in favor of going back to the old system.
“I will be asking all of our section chairman to get reaction in their respective sections and bring it to our April 2012 meeting. At that time we will evaluate everything and act accordingly,” NYSPHSAA wrestling coordinator Marty Sherman told the paper. “That does not necessarily mean going back to the old weight classes, but possibly tweaking. Again, it is way too soon to consider any moves if any.”
The online version of the story includes an interesting breakdown of vote totals in response to several questions. For instance, 44 coaches said they're seeing more forfeits now, while just 15 said they are not.
Football update: The number of New York seniors known to have signed with BCS schools remains at 24 after Poly Prep receiver Malik Rodriguez committed to Ohio University of the MAC on Wednesday.
Rochester East lineman Pancho Barnwell ended up not signing with Syracuse, according to several reports that said academic issues derailed his plans. We may still end up with one or two more to signings to be added to the list we're running on the RoadToSyracuse.com home page.
On the subject of football's National Letter of Intent Day, today was the first time I could recall seeing or hearing multiple comments from major media types about what a monument to excess the first day of scholarship commitments has become -- a sentiment you won't hear me dispute.
Jen Floyd Engel of FOXSports.com, who has an offbeat writing style that might be a bit of an acquired taste for some readers, fired off some pretty good commentary on the subject.
"If 40-yard times are worthy of praise, 4.0s should be, too," she wrote. "If an athletic scholarship is worthy of a Signing Day, so are academic ones. The nerds are putting in long hours in what amounts to their gyms — biology labs and libraries and computers.
"What I propose is a National Academic Signing Day, a random Wednesday in May when kids accept non-sports scholarships and announce what universities they plan to attend. I mean, who is in charge at these schools where a free football ride justifies a party while a full ride to Princeton or Duke for excellence in writing or biology or mathematics does not? If we want to preach the value of education, we have to actually value it."
