JV Wrestlers

I have a son in 8th grade who plays both basketball and wrestles.  I was talking with another parent in the same situation and I asked him if his son was going to wrestle or play basketball in High School.  He stated that if his son could make varsity, he would wrestle.  If not, he would rather play basketball.  The point is, JV basketball players have a game every day that the Varsity does, and some of them are swing players who also play on Varsity.  Wrestling does not have enough REAL matches for our JV's.

We need our JV wrestlers.  They will someday be our Varsity wrestlers.  The training for wrestling is as hard as any sport and the rewards are few if you are not on Varsity.

I believe that ALL teams that attend a tournament should be able to wrestle ALL their wrestlers.  It appears that this was the situation at the Southern Maine Classic and I commend those that put together this tournament.  I noticed that Noble was listed as having a D team.  This means that they must have had 4 kids in one weight class.  Many other teams had B teams.  Weigh ALL the kids in and let them wrestle.  All kids on a team, even the JVs, would have a chance at a medal.

Wednesday's are great for dual meets.  Saturday should be tournament day.  If your school doesn't yet have a tournament, start one.  There are a lot of tri and quad meets during the year.  Turn these into mini tournaments.  If your gym has enough room for two mats, have a six team tournament.  If only one mat is available, have a four team tournament.  If there are three or less wrestlers in a weight class, use a round robin chart so that all will get at least two matches.  Let JV's wrestle as B, C, etc. teams.

We've got to get the JV's involved, or we will lose them.  I would like to see this allowed at the Regionals also, but that will be discussed at another time.

Harry Smith 02/16/04