KHSAA WEIGHT CERTIFICATION PLAN

First and foremost, our goal as coaches and wrestling participants has nothing to do with winning and strategy. The fact that an athlete lowering to a certain class might help our team's competitive advantage cannot and must not be a factor in our coaching decisions. Rules changes over the past few years have continued to emphasize that athletes (yes, even people who bulk up all year playing football) are safer and healthier if they wrestle at or near their NORMAL weight, not the weight we happen to have an opening for in our fourteen-class setup.

The following plan shall remain in place until revisions can be reviewed by the Wrestling Advisory Committee at its April, 2000 meeting.

For this season, the following shall be the requirements -

1) Each coach shall ensure that each athlete has a completed wrestling permission form on file with the school. This form is to contain signatures from the athlete, the coach, the parents, and the physician/medical coverage stating the absolute minimum weight for an athlete. With any type of relaxed certification requirement, this is absolutely essential in order to protect the coach and the association from certain forms of liability should an injury or illness occur. This form was detailed at the clinic, was contained in the handout, and is also available on the KHSAA web site (www.khsaa.org/forms).

2) Each athlete shall at the time of the district tournament seeding meeting, have met the National Federation Rules requirement of having at least 50% (half) of their weigh-ins through the year at or below the class at which they are entered for the tournament. For example, if an athlete has weighed in on a certified scale nine times, and three weights are at 145/147, three at 152/154, and three at 161/163, the athlete would be able to enter at 152 (6 weigh ins at or below 152), and one class above (161/163), but could not enter at 145/147.

3) Each athlete shall have made scratch weight prior to January 15 at the class desired. This is scratch weight, without growth allowances or tournament weight increases. For example, if an athlete has continually made weight at 147 throughout the season, but has never gotten a scratch weigh-in at 145, he would have to certify at 152.

We will continue to monitor national trends in this area. Please call me if you have questions. It is especially important as the last few weeks have shown, that you consult this office if you have questions, and not necessarily each other. This has proven to be the path of incorrect and inconsistent answers in the past.

Best of luck down the home stretch.