WVSSAC Releases Wrestling Modifications

[admin]

The WVSSAC has released the wrestling modifications for both high school and middle school.

http://wvmat.com/temp/20WrestlingModifications.pdf

[WP1992]

Will start date be delayed or stay the same?

[aacoach30]

Start date 11/16/20

[WP1992]

So no change so far. Dolan mentioned in an earlier article that season could be slightly delayed.

[timamos]

I feel for the kids/coaches/parents/fans. Eliminating tournaments will effectively kill some programs as hosting a tournament is the fundraiser that pays for everything. I don’t know how many will be able to travel to duals and pay officials 2x per week with no tickets being purchased.
Looking for positives: will this bring back the occasional mid day dual in front of the student body? You know the governor’s color by numbers won’t allow the rest of us to attend so hopefully coaches and administrators figure out a way to get students and parents in to watch & cheer.
For those expecting equal treatment for wrestling, quite honestly I am surprised they are letting wrestling happen at all. If you review the decisions made on route 47 regarding Wrestling the past few years it is apparent that folks there lack a basic understanding of or simply dislike the sport.
Random thought:
The 56 athlete max is odd, they do not cap the football (or wrestling) teams at 28 each.

[JustSomeone]

I feel for the kids/coaches/parents/fans. Eliminating tournaments will effectively kill some programs as hosting a tournament is the fundraiser that pays for everything. I don’t know how many will be able to travel to duals and pay officials 2x per week with no tickets being purchased.
Looking for positives: will this bring back the occasional mid day dual in front of the student body? You know the governor’s color by numbers won’t allow the rest of us to attend so hopefully coaches and administrators figure out a way to get students and parents in to watch & cheer.
For those expecting equal treatment for wrestling, quite honestly I am surprised they are letting wrestling happen at all. If you review the decisions made on route 47 regarding Wrestling the past few years it is apparent that folks there lack a basic understanding of or simply dislike the sport.
Random thought:
The 56 athlete max is odd, they do not cap the teams at 28 each.

That 56 number is also odd when you consider that middle school has 15 weight classes. A quad with 4 full teams = 60 kids, not counting JV. At first, there was nothing mentioned about that number and i believe the first memo sent to coaches made no mention of MS likely going over the 56 limit. Likely someone brought that up and it was changed last minute before this was sent out. Just shows how out of touch the WVSSAC is.

[Pottstd]

Basically every sport is facing many of these same issues, at least in terms of buget considerations. While football is usually a large money generator (at least in comparison to other sports) it also costs the most money to conduct. Now schools will do what they have to to keep football programs going, but that is not true of other sports (volleyball, baseball, softball, soccer, swimming, etc.). None of these sports generate much more interest and certain not any more money than wrestling. There may be some schools that derive some money for a unique sport due to being particularly good at it or having a big following (this used to be the case w/ University HS and lacrose), but that is untrue from school to school. I obviously dont have an answer for this problem, but if this season runs the risk of killing wrestling programs, then if the schools, county boards, state, and communities are unwilling to allocate more money to athletic programs across the board then it runs the risk of killing other sports as well since none of them are money makers. I dont foresee this being the case and I think solutions will be figured out moving forward.

[mike.carman]

I feel for the kids/coaches/parents/fans. Eliminating tournaments will effectively kill some programs as hosting a tournament is the fundraiser that pays for everything. I don’t know how many will be able to travel to duals and pay officials 2x per week with no tickets being purchased.
Looking for positives: will this bring back the occasional mid day dual in front of the student body? You know the governor’s color by numbers won’t allow the rest of us to attend so hopefully coaches and administrators figure out a way to get students and parents in to watch & cheer.
For those expecting equal treatment for wrestling, quite honestly I am surprised they are letting wrestling happen at all. If you review the decisions made on route 47 regarding Wrestling the past few years it is apparent that folks there lack a basic understanding of or simply dislike the sport.
Random thought:
The 56 athlete max is odd, they do not cap the teams at 28 each.

That 56 number is also odd when you consider that middle school has 15 weight classes. A quad with 4 full teams = 60 kids, not counting JV. At first, there was nothing mentioned about that number and i believe the first memo sent to coaches made no mention of MS likely going over the 56 limit. Likely someone brought that up and it was changed last minute before this was sent out. Just shows how out of touch the WVSSAC is.

the 56 competitor limit is for HS. It is 60 for Middle School. 56 = 14 weight classes * 4 teams and 60 = 15 weight classes * 4 teams. 4 teams is the limit that can be in attendance at one time. According to Wayne Ryan, I had a conversation with him Friday, this will hold true with tournaments as well. They are planning on holding a state tournament but with these restrictions. I did not ask if they would limit brackets to the 56 rule, but if so, that would mean that only regional champions would attend states for a 4 man bracket in each weight class. Not sure how that would translate to regionals though. Have a feeling, they will be looking for the coaches committee to figure it out.

[aacoach48]

Are WV teams able to attend tournaments in Ohio?

[mike.carman]

Are WV teams able to attend tournaments in Ohio?

The document does not address that but I would guess there would be some type of quarantine on a return from an out of state tournament or one that is not in compliance with these rules. Just my interpretation though and not official.

[admin]

I just spoke with one of the coaches on the committee. First of all, teams can weigh in as many wrestlers on their team as necessary. This allows for substitutions, bumping up a weight, getting more than one wrestler mat time at the same weight, etc.

Hopefully this example will help clarify the 56 max (or 60 max in middle school): This is primarily intended to help those schools who have small teams. A school with 3-4 kids on their team could attend a quad with 3 schools who have full teams and 1 school who has a partial team. The two schools with partial teams could combine their teams. Then, even though there would 5 schools at the event, there would still only be 4 "teams" wrestling.

Any number of small teams could combine into one full team that would wrestle the other three teams. As long as the event remains a quad (or less) and there are no more than 56 wrestlers (or 60 in middle school) competing in each round, all is well.

Note that the modifcations document states that the competition is "limited to Duals, Tris, and Quads OR a maximum of 56", with the key word here being, "or".

Case in point: At the South Classic last year, Paden City combined with reserves from some of the other teams to make a team. The Paden City wrestlers were joined by wrestlers from Firelands, Indian Valley, Parkersburg South, Riverside, and Woodrow Wilson. This allowed Paden City to compete as a team. This is the same concept that is aimed for in the WVSSAC modifications document.

Indian Valley 66 Paden City/Reserve Team 18
106 Brent Bosley (PS) p. Hunter Albright (IV), 1:52
113 Ryan Martin (PS) p. Austin Fornash (IV), 3:32
120 Tyler Beckley (IV) p. Jasop Spragg (PC), 0:14
126 Remington Myers (IV) p. Alan Talbott (PS), 1:14
132 Gavin Hostetler (IV) p. Ike Fordyce (PS), 0:38
138 Vincent Meese (IV) won via forfeit
145 Brayden Parsons (IV) won via forfeit
152 Braxton Lake (IV) won via forfeit
160 Randy Hughart (HH) p. Easton Cook (IV), 0:35
170 Jacob Armstrong (IV) p. Donevan Clark (PC), 1:38
182 James Slocum (IV) p. Mason Stanley (F), 2:59
195 Thane Stocker (IV) p. Mathew Holderby (Riv), 0:48
220 Sam Quillin (IV) p. David Savol (IV), 1:57
285 Owen Quillin (IV) p. Tristan Stiffler (WW), 5:08

[forthekids]

Are WV teams able to attend tournaments in Ohio?

The document does not address that but I would guess there would be some type of quarantine on a return from an out of state tournament or one that is not in compliance with these rules. Just my interpretation though and not official.

Mike,
I asked that question. The Answer is NO they can not. Don't know what OVAC is going to do. Was told they are trying something different,

[mike.carman]

I just spoke with one of the coaches on the committee. First of all, teams can weigh in as many wrestlers on their team as necessary. This allows for substitutions, bumping up a weight, getting more than one wrestler mat time at the same weight, etc.

Hopefully this example will help clarify the 56 max (or 60 max in middle school): This is primarily intended to help those schools who have small teams. A school with 3-4 kids on their team could attend a quad with 3 schools who have full teams and 1 school who has a partial team. The two schools with partial teams could combine their teams. Then, even though there would 5 schools at the event, there would still only be 4 "teams" wrestling.

Any number of small teams could combine into one full team that would wrestle the other three teams. As long as the event remains a quad (or less) and there are no more than 56 wrestlers competing in each round, all is well.

Note that the modifcations document states that the competition is limited to "limited to Duals, Tris, and Quads OR a maximum of 56", with the key word here being, "or".

Case in point: At the South Classic last year, Paden City combined with reserves from some of the other teams to make a team. The Paden City wrestlers were joined by wrestlers from Firelands, Indian Valley, Parkersburg South, Riverside, and Woodrow Wilson. This allowed Paden City to compete as a team. This is the same concept that is aimed for in the WVSSAC modifications document.

Indian Valley 66 Paden City/Reserve Team 18
106 Brent Bosley (PS) p. Hunter Albright (IV), 1:52
113 Ryan Martin (PS) p. Austin Fornash (IV), 3:32
120 Tyler Beckley (IV) p. Jasop Spragg (PC), 0:14
126 Remington Myers (IV) p. Alan Talbott (PS), 1:14
132 Gavin Hostetler (IV) p. Ike Fordyce (PS), 0:38
138 Vincent Meese (IV) won via forfeit
145 Brayden Parsons (IV) won via forfeit
152 Braxton Lake (IV) won via forfeit
160 Randy Hughart (HH) p. Easton Cook (IV), 0:35
170 Jacob Armstrong (IV) p. Donevan Clark (PC), 1:38
182 James Slocum (IV) p. Mason Stanley (F), 2:59
195 Thane Stocker (IV) p. Mathew Holderby (Riv), 0:48
220 Sam Quillin (IV) p. David Savol (IV), 1:57
285 Owen Quillin (IV) p. Tristan Stiffler (WW), 5:08

So how does that apply to bracketed tournaments?

[timamos]

Coaches and parents please be smart and request that your athletic director obtain a written clarification from the WVSSAC before acting on the scheduling/participation advice given on a forum (from me or anyone else). The explanation on this thread appears to be good news but it is not completely consistent with what is written in the actual Modifications Memorandum. Be careful. My experience has led me to trust the wrestling officials in West Virginia. They are good guys who genuinely care about the kids and the sport. Unfortunately, the WVSSAC does not always defer to the experience and opinions of our wrestling officials (See 2017 State Tournament and departure of Dr. Welker).

Why get it in writing?

A young man who has Olympic aspirations (in another sport) learned a very difficult lesson last year. His young/inexperienced coach called the WVSSAC and asked for an opinion about participating in an outside event and was given an answer complete with the penalty for violation of the rule. The coach and athlete recognized that participating in a particular outside event would further his Olympic dream and also catch the eyes of college coaches, so sitting out the next meet would not be a huge deterrent and he (with the blessing of his coach) acted consistent with the WVSSAC's advice. When an opposing school turned the young man/school in to the WVSSAC, the athlete was disqualified from competition for the remainder of the year. The coach went back to the same executive assistant, interestingly enough, there was not a denial that the wrong information was relayed, but the assistant suffered a sudden and irreparable case of amnesia regarding the details of the conversation. The WVSSAC website explicitly states that it will only give binding opinions to Athletic Directors/Principals. Cost the swimmer a state title.

Why question the rules?

I'm familiar with a wrestler who was invited to participate in Who's Number One. The original answer from the WVSSAC was no. Rather than take the fight public, I started asking about the basketball players participating in AAU and Travel, the baseball players participating in numerous all star tournaments on hand selected teams. They could not articulate a rational difference. The situation never came to a showdown because the WNO opponent was injured and couldn't participate.

Another example? Immediately before COVID hit, a graduating senior who does not play a spring sport was invited to participate in the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic (formerly known as the Dapper Dan). The tradition there is that a guest coach will sit in the corner alongside one of the athlete's former high school coaches. The response of the WVSSAC was that if the high school coach sits in his corner, then the WVSSAC will count that as an out of season contact day for next year's team. I tried to explain that a few years ago WV sent an entire team to the Dapper Dan to wrestle against the WPIAL and surely they didn't ding every coach who helped out? I have learned that the easiest way to make a point is to bring the situation back to something they do like/understand, so I put on my detective hat to find that the assistant executive director who dreamed up this rule interpretation/penalty had personally coached multiple all star events (for graduating seniors). When I asked if his former high school would be vacating titles for what must now be annual rules violation, his interpretation of the rule changed and the high school coach could sit beside Askren in March. COVID canceled the tournament.

Be careful and get everything in writing.

[timamos]

Note that the modifcations document states that the competition is limited to "limited to Duals, Tris, and Quads OR a maximum of 56", with the key word here being, "or".

So how does that apply to bracketed tournaments?

Mike,
See my previous post about never using one of my ideas without getting written approval from the WVSSAC but taking the previously posted coaching committee clarification at face value then the word OR apparently allows you to do more than duals/tris/quads. So in theory you can host 56 participants on any given day. Organize a Friday seven weight/eight man bracketed tournament for 106-145 followed by a Saturday eight man bracketed tournament for 152-285. The wrestlers are not wrestling or weighing in on consecutive days. This gives your wrestlers the "feel" of staying overnight and ignoring the distractions of a hotel (if your budget allows and that's the desired experience you want to create before the state tournament comes around) as well as the feel of wrestling a bracketed tournament and fighting through consolations after a tough loss.

[matcoach90]

So when will we get any info on regionals and states... how that might work?

[Matofficial]

I said to myself I wasn’t going to comment on any of ignorance that took place in the rules interpretation meeting on Sunday but those that know me know that’s not going to happen. Ok here we go. Let’s start with weigh ins. Weigh ins for duals, tris and quads require they take place one hour prior to wrestling. Ok this is Covid I get you have to make changes. Let’s say South visits Cabell Midland. This year’s rules says weigh ins will take place at the school before the team leaves for CM. I don’t think we can make it in an hour. No big deal it’s Covid. So the weigh ins will be observed by a school administrator and that person signs the weigh in sheet. The coach takes it to CM. All wrestlers weigh in together in other words you start at 106 through 285. They must wear a singlet. South was chastised by the WVSSAC because they followed this exact format in Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania because we had a girl weigh in. The complaint only applied in WV. In other words we have been conducting that weigh format for three years. Now back to the genius weigh in procedures. Upon South arriving at CM the team will report to the referee and strip down to their underwear so an unqualified person such as a referee can conduct a thorough skin check. It goes on and on. The asst Director says he can’t make any changes to the rules ( who made this to begin with? Principals? I doubt it) a few minutes after saying he can’t make changes he states that he will work on changing the handshake rule. New rule again Covid says no handshakes at anytime. They wasn’t sure how they were going to indicate a winner since the ref can’t touch the wrestler. It was suggested at this meeting that maybe they should raise the arm band of the winner that matches the wrestlers leg band. I am sorry if I offended anyone and yes I did keep my opinions , well most to myself about what poor thought processing that has taken place. I do realize that in favor of the WVSSAC all of this could change. I will make one compliment. They did do a good job getting through a bad situation when we had two have the Valtrax States, so let’s hope someone comes to their senses and makes some minor irrelevant changes. By the way why are all of the surrounding states allowed to attend tournaments but not WV. Is Tim they don’t care about wrestling?

[Pwzmom]

How will the girls state tournament be held?

[matcoach90]

I said to myself I wasn’t going to comment on any of ignorance that took place in the rules interpretation meeting on Sunday but those that know me know that’s not going to happen. Ok here we go. Let’s start with weigh ins. Weigh ins for duals, tris and quads require they take place one hour prior to wrestling. Ok this is Covid I get you have to make changes. Let’s say South visits Cabell Midland. This year’s rules says weigh ins will take place at the school before the team leaves for CM. I don’t think we can make it in an hour. No big deal it’s Covid. So the weigh ins will be observed by a school administrator and that person signs the weigh in sheet. The coach takes it to CM. All wrestlers weigh in together in other words you start at 106 through 285. They must wear a singlet. South was chastised by the WVSSAC because they followed this exact format in Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania because we had a girl weigh in. The complaint only applied in WV. In other words we have been conducting that weigh format for three years. Now back to the genius weigh in procedures. Upon South arriving at CM the team will report to the referee and strip down to their underwear so an unqualified person such as a referee can conduct a thorough skin check. It goes on and on. The asst Director says he can’t make any changes to the rules ( who made this to begin with? Principals? I doubt it) a few minutes after saying he can’t make changes he states that he will work on changing the handshake rule. New rule again Covid says no handshakes at anytime. They wasn’t sure how they were going to indicate a winner since the ref can’t touch the wrestler. It was suggested at this meeting that maybe they should raise the arm band of the winner that matches the wrestlers leg band. I am sorry if I offended anyone and yes I did keep my opinions , well most to myself about what poor thought processing that has taken place. I do realize that in favor of the WVSSAC all of this could change. I will make one compliment. They did do a good job getting through a bad situation when we had two have the Valtrax States, so let’s hope someone comes to their senses and makes some minor irrelevant changes. By the way why are all of the surrounding states allowed to attend tournaments but not WV. Is Tim they don’t care about wrestling?

They aren't allowed to shake hands, but they will have essentially touched every other part of each other's body, including their hands, throughout the match. LMAO! Yep, you just can't make this stuff up.

[aacoach141]

I said to myself I wasn’t going to comment on any of ignorance that took place in the rules interpretation meeting on Sunday but those that know me know that’s not going to happen. Ok here we go. Let’s start with weigh ins. Weigh ins for duals, tris and quads require they take place one hour prior to wrestling. Ok this is Covid I get you have to make changes. Let’s say South visits Cabell Midland. This year’s rules says weigh ins will take place at the school before the team leaves for CM. I don’t think we can make it in an hour. No big deal it’s Covid. So the weigh ins will be observed by a school administrator and that person signs the weigh in sheet. The coach takes it to CM. All wrestlers weigh in together in other words you start at 106 through 285. They must wear a singlet. South was chastised by the WVSSAC because they followed this exact format in Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania because we had a girl weigh in. The complaint only applied in WV. In other words we have been conducting that weigh format for three years. Now back to the genius weigh in procedures. Upon South arriving at CM the team will report to the referee and strip down to their underwear so an unqualified person such as a referee can conduct a thorough skin check. It goes on and on. The asst Director says he can’t make any changes to the rules ( who made this to begin with? Principals? I doubt it) a few minutes after saying he can’t make changes he states that he will work on changing the handshake rule. New rule again Covid says no handshakes at anytime. They wasn’t sure how they were going to indicate a winner since the ref can’t touch the wrestler. It was suggested at this meeting that maybe they should raise the arm band of the winner that matches the wrestlers leg band. I am sorry if I offended anyone and yes I did keep my opinions , well most to myself about what poor thought processing that has taken place. I do realize that in favor of the WVSSAC all of this could change. I will make one compliment. They did do a good job getting through a bad situation when we had two have the Valtrax States, so let’s hope someone comes to their senses and makes some minor irrelevant changes. By the way why are all of the surrounding states allowed to attend tournaments but not WV. Is Tim they don’t care about wrestling?

I see a lot of complaining but not a lot of solutions. We all have something about this situation we don't like or agree with. Everyone who is involved in wrestling is on that list, including me. But at the same time can we at least give the folks some credit for trying to make this happen? I didn't think we'd even have a season this year but to my surprise we have people working extremely hard to figure this thing out. If you have an issue with something then by all means voice it, but also remember to voice the solution just as loud.

[KDunbar]

Just for fun..... So to keep social distance are they going to have the chairs for the team of wrestlers 6 feet apart (even though they are in close body contact almost every day without masks)? Not counting seating for the coaches, that would stretch about 78 feet (84 feet in Middle School...see, I was thinking). Now if you did 2 rows 6 feet apart, that would reduce it down to 39 feet (42 feet for MS). One could go with the pod idea and you could get it down to about 24 feet. However, what if some of the wrestlers actually practiced in different pods with wrestlers closer to their own weight class, wow, that still does get complicated. Then, if you take the Paden City scenario put forth above, well you'd just have to probably scatter the team randomly throughout the gym. Now with the gym bleachers not really being used you could place the teams there, as long as you put little directional arrows on the ground and steps for them to follow and emptied out each row at a time so they didn't pass right in front of each other. Or you could have them rotate seats like in volleyball to keep from passing by too close. However each wrestler would have to have cleaning supplies (their own individual supplies) to clean off the seat just vacated.
Now for the hand shaking afterwards between the wrestlers (I'm just curious, are they still able to shake hands before the match as usual, after all at that time they have never, ever been in contact with one another since essentially before the COVID problem began?) it would seem a no brainer that the only issue after a match would be the referee actually touching the wrestlers. Of course this is the same referee who has been on and quite possibly touching the mat that two sweaty individuals have been all over for (possibly) quite some time, unmasked no less (the wrestlers of course, not the official if he so chooses the appropriate black mask, I personally would have thought it should be black and white striped and not so ordinary). One solution, we could just let him don some non sterile gloves for the occasion, you know, the ones all the food handling people wear so they don't get their hands dirty so they can touch everything under the sun and not even feel or know what slime they have on their hand as they handle your food (plus, more money for the glove company and thus stimulating the economy). Then there's those fake hands on sticks that you can get and we could let the wrestlers us them. The biggest problem I see with that is that each wrestler would have to have there own individual fake hand on a stick and they would not fit well in gym bags.
Actually my biggest concern is the frequent use of the words "frequent" or "frequently" associated with the concept of cleaning. For example, for my sons the idea of how frequently it would be appropriate to clean the bathroom would be about once a year (maybe), while for my daughters it would be closer to something like every other day. Not sure where the WVSSAC falls between those time references.
For those of you talking about this with a concern for wrestling, I apologize. Like you, I too am taking this seriously.... but they make it hard so to do so.

[shaggy71]

Winter Sports Requirements, Recommendations and Modifications

As occurred for fall sports, the OHSAA staff has developed sport-specific requirements, recommendations and modifications for schools when conducting interscholastic competition in winter sports. Links to the sport-specific requirements, recommendations and modifications for winter sports are available here:

Basketball: http://bit.ly/BKRecs

Bowling: to come

Gymnastics: http://bit.ly/GYMRecs

Ice Hockey: http://bit.ly/IHRecs

Swimming & Diving: http://bit.ly/SDRecs

Wrestling: http://bit.ly/WRRecs

[Matofficial]

Aacoach141. I hope you were not pointing me out as complaining. I was just giving the facts ! I do have easy solutions to a lot of things the WVSSAC does. All you have to do is have common sense, care about the sport and possibly look around at what other states are doing. I certainly can resolve everything but there are things that have easy fixes. If you are serious and have a couple of hours I can give you the details!

[mike.carman]

Note that the modifcations document states that the competition is limited to "limited to Duals, Tris, and Quads OR a maximum of 56", with the key word here being, "or".

So how does that apply to bracketed tournaments?

Mike,
See my previous post about never using one of my ideas without getting written approval from the WVSSAC but taking the previously posted coaching committee clarification at face value then the word OR apparently allows you to do more than duals/tris/quads. So in theory you can host 56 participants on any given day. Organize a Friday seven weight/eight man bracketed tournament for 106-145 followed by a Saturday eight man bracketed tournament for 152-285. The wrestlers are not wrestling or weighing in on consecutive days. This gives your wrestlers the "feel" of staying overnight and ignoring the distractions of a hotel (if your budget allows and that's the desired experience you want to create before the state tournament comes around) as well as the feel of wrestling a bracketed tournament and fighting through consolations after a tough loss.

Tim,
Speaking from personal experience, I don't think getting things in writing would do any good anyway. It has been my experience that the SSAC makes arbitrary and contradictory rulings all the time. When explaining a rules violation, they never specifically explain what part of the rule was violated in their opinion and keep their answers purposely vague so they can waffle back and forth. If you get something in writing, be careful that every contingency is addressed. Failure to do so could result in a really bad situation. Also, a good attorney is advised.

[mscoach4]

I guess we need to be thankful that there will at least be some wrestling(barring a school shutdown like we saw in March). As we have seen in football there are going to be some disruptions in conjunction with the states color code map that comes out on Saturdays at 5. I can see that schedules will be practically useless and probably be on a week to week basis with schools arranging matches weekly as the color map permits. A few months ago I doubted that the ultimate skin to skin contact sport would take place without a good vaccine. If spectators are not permitted I can see a market for live streaming developing like never before which might help schools recoup at least some of the lost $ from tourneys. I know I will be happy to see some wrestling either live or by streaming.

[KDunbar]

I saw on the "What's New" section the clarifications regarding split tournaments, as had been postulated and discussed on here.

Neither that update nor the initial list of "regulations" mention anything about travel out of the state for matches. It may have been addressed on the forum, but I couldn't find it. Is there actual information on those restrictions? I'm guessing the sites teams might be traveling to would likely have their own "COVID" ratings posted to determine whether it was "safe" to travel to those locations. Since school systems even in WV are varying their classroom attendance per each individual county's school board, I'm not sure it would be any more risky to attend small matches/tournaments out of state and not sure it would make much sense to quarantine from travel to a city in Ohio (for example) any more than a city in WV. Point Pleasant has about 8 teams coming in to wrestle from 3 different states (VA, OH, PA). I think that's great, but is that going to be allowed. If it wasn't for the spectator restrictions I would be attending these events.

Finally, upon rereading these regulations, it does not appear to actually address wrestler's handshakes before or after the match with each other. It only prohibits handshakes at any time with officials and coaches and the official actually touching and raising a hand to indicate the winner after the match. This would allow the traditional and required handshake before and after the match, which common sense would dictate would not need to be prohibited.

[Pottstd]

Regarding the handshake questions, I believe the rule was enacted for two reasons. 1) as people have noted to prevent the wrestlers from shaking hands with the opposing coaching staff/ref., and 2) to stop full team handshakes at the end of a dual, etc. where the kids line up and shake hands with the entire opposing team, coaches, trainers, and whoever else jumped in line from the opposing team. Thus, every wrestler from each team would not have contact with ever wrestler from the other. While poorly worded, I do not think the new regulations/guidelines were intended to be read as the wrestlers who actually wrestled each other could not shake hands before or after the match.

In the long run, at least we are having a season, and a season that will keep things decently close to a regular season. With more information coming out from other states (Michigan requiring facemasks at all time, even practice and during wrestling; Illinois and a few other states moving wrestling to April-June; and New Jersey having a season but cancelling the individual state touranment) I think we should be happy with what we have been given. We will get a state tournament, and the wrestling community has been able to pull together and come up with some creative ideas and adjust to get matches for the wrestlers. I'm certainly not saying it couldnt be better, but all in all it could certainly be alot worse.

[KDunbar]

Just for clarification, in my post above, the "before and after the match" handshake was referring to the ones between the individual wrestlers at the time of their match with each other, and not between entire teams at any time.

Any feedback on clarification regarding WV teams competing with out of state teams, either in WV or in another state?