Change is on its way for high school wrestling as the National Federation of State High School Associations Wrestling Rules Committee has approved the first major adjustment in weight classes in 23 years.

The change creates an upward shift in the overall scale of weight classes, creating an extra class in what has been traditionally known as the upper weights, and the loss of another class in the lower weights.

There will still be 14 weight classes for the 2011-12 season. But now they will be as follows, starting three pounds heavier in the lowest weight class: 106 (pounds), 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 182, 195, 220 and 285.

Four classes will remain the same: the three middle weight classes – 145, 152 and 160 – and the largest weight class, 285. However, the middle weight classes are now seventh, eighth and ninth in the order, when they were eighth, ninth and 10th.

“The first thing is, this is probably the first time in the history of high school wrestling that weight classes were based on data collected,” said Ohio High School Athletic Association Associate Commissioner Henry Zaborniak. “What they were able to do was track how many kids at a certain school were wrestling at which weight classes, how many forfeits in which weight classes, things like that. We ended up with a tremendous amount of good data.”

That data was combined with input from those closest to the sport to come up with the new weight classes.

“We probably had 2,500 coaches, and at least that many officials, and many school administrators give their input on this before the change was made. They were thrilled we kept 14 weight classes, as there were some who thought there should be less classes.

“It appears the rules committee did a great job of taking all concerns into consideration.”

Graham coach Jeff Jordan disagrees.

“Honestly, I hate the new weight classes,” said the Falcons’ 10th-year head coach. “It’s just another big guy you have to search the hallways to get. They ended up taking out the 140 weight class. In my opinion, that’s where the majority of the wrestlers at.

“It’s going to hurt our team.”

It might hurt smaller, Division III schools even more.

“I talked to a lot of D-III schools and it is going to hurt the smaller schools, which have enough trouble filling weight classes. And usually, it’s the upper weight classes,” Jordan said. “Wrestling is the sport where you can take the lightest guy who probably can’t make the football or basketball team and make him a successful athlete. Now there will be less room for the smaller guy.

“The big D-I schools, they have a big amount of upperweights. But Graham and schools like us around the area, they just don’t have many guys from 180 on up.”

The NFHS stressed the changes were all about evening out the overall number of wrestlers across the weight classes.

“The change in weight classes resulted from a three- to four-year process utilizing data from the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Optimal Performance Calculator,” said Dale Pleimann, chair of the NFHS Wrestling Rules Committee.

“The rules committee was able to analyze data from almost 200,000 wrestlers across the country, with the goal to create weight classes that have approximately seven percent of the wrestlers in each weight class.

“The results of the last survey of each state association indicated that the majority of states favored a change, and the committee listened and acted accordingly.”

The last wholesale shift in weight classes occurred in 1988, when the lowest weight class was increased from 98 to 103 pounds. In 2002, the number of classes went from 13 to 14 when the 215 class was added. In 2006, the 275-pound class was increased to 285.

“Whether I’m happy with it or not, I have a lot of confidence in the amount of work that went into developing the weight classes,” said Zaborniak. “I feel good that the best thing has occurred for the kids participating.”

According the NFHS, wrestling is the sixth-most popular sport for boys at the high school level with 272,890 participants in 10,363 schools during the 2009-10 season. And 6,134 girls were involved in wrestling in 1,009 high schools.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0364.