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Has anyone had a chance to see the upcoming classifications that were released today? Very interesting for our sport. Age of the small schools having a chance in winning a state title keeps shrinking in my opinion. And I'm not sure why there are only 29 AAA schools. They may as well do away with regional tournaments. Again, just my opinion.

From The Charleston Gazette:

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/article/20 ... /151119429

Class AAA
School Enrollment Grades 9-12
Cabell Midland 1,965
Morgantown 1,808
Parkersburg 1,798
Huntington 1,658
Parkersburg South 1,576
Musselman 1,525
Jefferson 1,515
Wheeling Park 1,514
Woodrow Wilson 1,351
Martinsburg 1,313
Capital 1,275
University 1,264
Spring Mills 1,252
Hurricane 1,237
Hedgesville 1,228
Riverside 1,207
Preston 1,205
Washington 1,172
Greenbrier East 1,171
George Washington 1,098
John Marshall 1,082
Spring Valley 1,050
Buckhannon-Upshur 1,037
Hampshire 1,036
Princeton 1,018
St. Albans 1,012
South Charleston 968
Brooke 963
Ripley 933

Class AA
School Enrollment Grades 9-12
Lincoln County 871
Winfield 861
Oak Hill 851
Shady Spring 849
Elkins 833
Fairmont Senior 811
Robert C. Byrd 780
North Marion 775
Herbert Hoover 770
Bridgeport 762
Nitro 759
Lewis County 757
Logan 757
Point Pleasant 751
East Fairmont 746
Nicholas County 720
Berkeley Springs 719
Wayne 715
Mingo Central 699
Chapmanville 694
PikeView 693
Scott 682
Philip Barbour 680
Bluefield 675
Keyser 670
Roane County 668
Sissonville 637
Grafton 636
Westside 633
Weir 628
Independence 628
Braxton County 580
Frankfort 566
Liberty (Harrison) 564
Lincoln 562
Liberty (Raleigh) 557
Poca 552
Clay County 551
Oak Glen 544
Wyoming East 542
James Monroe 524
River View 498
Petersburg 486
Man 460

Class A School Enrollment Grades 9-12
Ravenswood 433
Tyler Consolidated 422
Mount View 420
Sherman 416
Magnolia 414
Williamstown 413
Webster County 412
Tolsia 410
Ritchie County 409
Moorefield 406
Summers County 401
Greenbrier West 392
South Harrison 391
St. Marys 391
Richwood 383
Tug Valley 366
Doddridge County 342
Buffalo 341
Midland Trail 338
Tucker County 333
Fayetteville 326
Pocahontas County 310
Valley (Fayette) 302
Wirt County 301
Calhoun County 293
Pendleton County 276
Gilmer County 271
Wheeling Central 257
Tygarts Valley 247
Wahama 246
East Hardy 243
Cameron 240
Clay-Battelle 230
Montcalm 218
Charleston Catholic 210
Hannan 196
Madonna 179
Valley (Wetzel) 177
Meadow Bridge 165
St. Joseph 152
Notre Dame 145
Van 140
Paden City 115
Bishop Donahue 107
Hundred 106
Parkersburg Catholic 106
Trinity 103
Greater Beckley Chrisitan 94
Union 68
Paw Paw 65
Harman 36
W.Va. Deaf 30
Pickens 15
W.Va. Blind 13

The classifications starting in 2016-2017. Looking at the regional maps, AAA will have 29 teams and AA-A will have 66 teams

AAA 29 Teams
Region 1
Brooke
Wheeling Park
John Marshall
Parkersburg High
Parkersburg South
Morgantown
University
Preston

Region 2
Buckhannon-Upshur
Musselman
Jefferson
Martinsburg
Hedgesville
Washington
Hampshire
Spring Mills

Region 3
Woodrow Wilson
Greenbrier East
Princeton
South Charleston
George Washington
Riverside
Capital
Ripley

Region 4
Cabell Midland
Huntington High
St Albans
Spring Valley
Hurricane


AA-A 66 Teams
Region 1
Oak Glen
Weir
Madonna
Wheeling Central
Cameron
Magnolia
Tyler Consolidated
St Marys
Ritchie County
Bishop Donahue
Clay-Battelle
North Marion
Fairmont Senior
East Fairmont
Doddridge County

Region 2
Petersburg
Grafton
South Harrison
Frankfort
Lincoln
Keyser
Philip Barbour
Liberty Harrison
Notre Dame
Berkeley Springs
Braxton County
Moorefield
Bridgeport
Robert C Byrd

Region 3
Liberty Raleigh
Independence
Nicholas County
Greenbrier West
Meadow Bridge
Fayetteville
Wyoming East
Richwood
Webster County
Pikeview
Bluefield
Midland Trail
Mingo Central
River View

Region 4
Calhoun County
Ravenswood
Williamstown
Parkersburg Catholic
Sissonville
Wahama
Wirt County
Clay County
Roane County
Herbert Hoover
Poca
Buffalo
St Joe Central


Moving from AAA to AA

Region 2
Lewis County
Elkins

Region 3
Oak Hill
Shady Spring

Region 4
Lincoln County
Winfield
Nitro
Logan
Point Pleasant

Wow, with the number of A and AA teams is it time to go to 3 classes? How many of the single A schools in the new classification have wrestling? Is there enough to warrant expanding to 3 classes? I have to believe that would spark interest and growth in the smaller schools. AA will have solid competition and of course the AAA schools, even though there only 29, will be loaded.

this all blows my mind. With this setup, there is no reason for wrestling not to expand to 3 divisions.

baxter841 wrote:Wow, with the number of A and AA teams is it time to go to 3 classes? How many of the single A schools in the new classification have wrestling? Is there enough to warrant expanding to 3 classes? I have to believe that would spark interest and growth in the smaller schools. AA will have solid competition and of course the AAA schools, even though there only 29, will be loaded.

I think he only listed schools with wrestling programs. I know there are several high schools that would land in AA/A Region 1 like Paden City HS, Hundred HS and Valley HS if they had a wrestling program.

I am torn on dividing AA/A. Most of those schools can't field a full team. Dividing the division just increases the frequency in single A sized schools that your wrestlers have a bi which will decrease interest, not increase it.

Region 4 will be a two day tournament with that many teams. Or will the move some teams to even it out some?

aaacoach82 wrote:Region 4 will be a two day tournament with that many teams. Or will the move some teams to even it out some?

Are you talking about AA/A Region 4? That is the smallest region in AA/A.

He is correct Coach Williams. If my math is correct, if the teams that were reclassified were dropped directly from the AAA region they are presently assigned to, to the corresponding AA/A . That would put Region 1 AA/A with 14 teams, Region 2 with 15 teams, Region 3 with 16 teams, and Region 4 with 18 teams. There will be region reassignments coming in the future I would think.

18 teams if all teams fill a weight class that would be a 32 man bracket. That would have to be wrestled in two day with the 5 match rule. Right? I too see them realining the regions again. But who would move the new ones coming in or the one closest to the other region area's

I know the results would hurt some feeling up north but I say combine them

No way do we need 3 classifications. One cannot simply look at the number of teams. If anything, all classifications should be combined.

Add a 3rd classification for the team tournament.
Combine all three for the individual state tournament and add a Sectional Tournament
and a District Tournament before the state tournament.

ebpioneer was just showing you whats left in each AAA region, My guess is the AAA regions will under go a major overhaul to balance the competition level.

In AAA, we will see state tournament brackets with less than 16 wrestlers.

Bearhugger wrote:In AAA, we will see state tournament brackets with less than 16 wrestlers.

Not necessarily. They run the region tournament to 5th and 6th. Have a blind draw lottery to determine region fill same day as regions. Then if region A only has 3 106's, the lottery would determine which regions 5th place 106 gets the at large fill to states. This would make wrestlers compete harder for 5th and 6th to have at large opportunity. Did it with another states junior high tournament for years.

JW this idea of using a 5th or 6th from some other region to fill forfeits was proposed over 15 years ago. The powers that be nixed the plan. Perhaps now they will look again at the suggestion. It makes sense even for the A-AA tournament.

I want to add that forfeits started showing up in the mid 1980's with no solution presented except that it would be too cumbersome to figure out a way to fill the slots.