To: North Carolina Wrestling Coaches

From: North Carolina Wrestling Coaches Association

Re: NCHSAA Spring Board Meeting

 

The 2007 Spring Board of Directors meeting of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association is now complete and there are some major rule changes for high school wrestling. It must be noted that this information is being released prior to the minutes of the NCHSAA meeting and full details on these changes are unknown at this time. Known changes for the upcoming 2007-2008 wrestling season are as follows:

 

Double elimination will be in effect for all rounds of the NCHSAA regional tournaments. The NCHSAA is granting a two-year trial statewide to study this format.

 

Midyear hydration testing and midyear weight certification are eliminated.

 

North Carolina will now follow the weight management program of the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA).

 

The 2 pound growth allowance may be moved to an earlier date in January.

 

The number of matches per season will be restricted. No more than 55 matches will be allowed prior to the Conference Tournament. Two day, “double duals” are being limited to no more than one per season.

 

Again, full details about these rule changes and their implementation are not currently available. Hopefully, many of you are excited about full wrestle-backs in the regional tournament and the end of midyear weight certification. When the NCWCA was created last fall, these were among the most pressing issues that wrestling coaches felt needed to be addressed by the NCHSAA. The NCWCA, after conducting surveys this February, presented the desires of the majority of NC wrestling coaches to the NCHSAA.

 

The NCWCA realizes that many coaches are unhappy about the limitations of matches for the upcoming year. In February, The NCWCA Board of Directors was notified about the NCHSAA’s desire to limit matches and the NCHSAA did encourage the NCWCA to make suggestions about how match counts could be limited. The NCWCA Board of Directors’ position was that matches should not be restricted until the NCWCA and the state’s wrestling coaches had an opportunity to research the issue and express their opinions, but the NCHSAA wanted immediate action and was not open to this option. Under these circumstances, and in very short time, the NCWCA Board of Directors felt that match counts and/or restricting “double duals” would be better received by coaches than limiting teams to no more than 15 events in a season or limiting all tournaments to no more than five matches, even over a two day period.

 

One year ago we faced the controversy of midyear hydration testing. This was a rule that we dealt with for one season and a positive change occurred because a consensus was reached on the issue among NC’s wrestling coaches. The issue of match limitations is also controversial and will provide a tremendous challenge for reaching a consensus among ourselves. We encourage all coaches to provide feedback to the NCWCA and welcome all opinions and ideas. We also would like to discourage the NC wrestling community from sending negative responses to the NCHSAA. Negative calls, letters, and emails could hurt the efforts of the NCWCA to effectively push for rule changes in the future.

 

North Carolina Wrestling Coaches Association Board Members

           

Ed Duncan       Mike Raybon   Billy Baker       Tom Marsh      Jerry Winterton        

Scott Goins      Greg Frey         Mark Harris     Bobby Shriner  Mike Kendall