District 4 Class AA — thanks to the efforts of goldsmith Rick Mahonski — recognized Midd-West coach Dale Franquet prior to the finals. Franquet, a prison guard at Allenwood, was attacked by an inmate and lost an eye in the fracas. He courageously fought off the assailant and credited his wrestling background as saving his life.

He received a standing ovation from the near capacity crowd.

Those planning to attend the PIAA Championships in Hershey next weekend should make sure to purchase a program. The cover is artwork designed by former Yough wrestling coach Bob Weaver (not the Olympian from Easton). Weaver has also done amazing drawings of Dan Gable and David Taylor and will be at the PA Chapter Hall of Fame banquet to make a special presentation to the Neil Turner family.

All season long Joe Walker has kept me updated with records of the Wildcat wrestlers including their career records. He has made special note that Taylor Weaver (138 pounds) needs one more win to reach the magic 100-win mark. Our wrestling community is fortunate to have someone like Walker to track our athletes. Good luck to Taylor in getting No. 100 and moving on to states.

Virginia had their state championships last weekend. What was special was the results of the 106 victor. His name is Adonis Lattimore, and what is special is that he was born with no legs and a deformed hand, Rather than see all the negatives, this young man adopted the National Wrestling Hall of Fame mantra of “wrestling is for everyone.” How wonderful is that?

Back home, District 2’s Lake-Lehman produced the first female district champion: Lexi Schechterly (106). She secured a fall in the finals and was named the Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament.

One of our own girl wrestlers Leeah Eisenhower is one of three Central Mountain cheerleaders selected for the Big 33 football game. Erica Dion and Cassidi Greendoner will join Eisenhower as part of the Maryland cheer squad.

The game is set for Monday, May 30, at Bishop McDevitt’s Rocco Ortenzio Stadium in Harrisburg, Dauphin County. Kickoff is 2 p.m. Have fun ladies.

Northeast Regionals involving several Jersey Shore wrestlers in Class AA take place this weekend. The Class AA tournament will be held at Williamsport, and the Class AAA tournament will be held at Bethlehem Liberty. The action in Williamsport will begin Friday at 5 p.m. Saturday start time is 9 a.m with the semifinals beginning at approximately at 10:30 a.m. Fifth- and sixth-place bouts begin at 4:15pm; third- and fourth-place bouts begin at 5 p.m.; the parade of champions starts at 6:15 p.m.; and the championship finals are set for 6:30 p.m.

The Class AAA Northwest Regionals start Friday at 5:30 p.m. at the Altoona Field House. Saturday’s action (semifinals) will start at 12:30 p.m. Finals are at 6 p.m. Third- and fourth-place bouts will run simultaneously with the finals.

We’ll be streaming the full tournament on therecord-online. Williamsport, Mifflin County, State College and Clearfield are the favorites. Central Mountain should finish fairly high and Bellefonte will also make their presence known.

Brackets can be found on my wrestling website: https://www.pawrsl.com/pa/index.html and you can follow the results on Flo Arena.

Next season, Clearfield and Bellefonte move to Class AA, further diminishing the field and the lustre of the tournament, not to mention a further decline in attendance. Bold moves need to be made.

The Class AA Southwest Regional has been moved from the Kovalchick Center at Indiana (Pa.) to what I hear is a fantastic facility for a high school venue. The site is the AHN Arena at Peters Township High School.

Starting time on Friday is 4:30 p.m. for the pigtails. Quarterfinals are slated for 8:30 p.m. On Saturday, action will begin with consolations at 9 a.m.; semifinals will begin tentatively at 12:30 p.m.; and the medal round will take place on four mats at 5:15 p.m.

Bald Eagle Area wrestler Grace Stem will participate in the 48th Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic on Friday, March 25, at the AHN Arena at Peters Township High School. Her opponent is Isabella Mir from Centennial High School in Las Vegas. Mir is one of the top female wrestlers in the nation. Her father is two-time UFC champion Frank Mir. Stem’s grandfather is Lew Craig, BEA’s first ever PIAA champion.

Two former locally-affiliated outstanding collegiate wrestlers did very well in the United World Wrestling Championships at Yasar DOGU. Chance Marsteller finished as runner-up to fellow American Jordan Burroughs at 79 kilograms (174 pounds) and Nico Megaludis — back after three years of no wrestling — won a bronze at 61 kilograms (134.5). Marsteller, of course, was an all-American for LHU and Megaludis was a former NCAA champion for Penn State.

Two former grapplers of note are in our area are Ed Ott, former World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates’ catcher, living in Montgomery; and Ty Hall, former Montgomery state champ and solid LHU wrestler, living in Lock Haven.

I will hopefully, get them both to out May 11 wrestling breakfast. More on that later.

Suggestions made in a Sunday night Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Committee meeting were the following:

1 — Instead of using the current system that every competition counts on your team schedule points, assign the points to the individual wrestler. This would allow the coach to enter a tournament such as the Powerade with wrestlers who have more than a two-and-out, while permitting the others to enter a more equally-competitive tournament. Bob Greenly of Milton and the organization’s secretary, points out that Ohio does this with great success.

2 — Have each district institute a JV tournament prior to the annual district championships. Then allow the top 2-3 finishers to enter the regular districts.

3 — Expand from two to three classifications. Greenly pointed out that football has six.

As Forrest Gump said, “I may not be a smart man, but…” I would support the first two as they make sense to me. However, I think the third is going in the wrong direction. Site complications (the last-minute change from using the Indiana (Pa.) facility for Southwest Regionals to Peters Township), the dwindling number of PIAA referees, the watering down the level of competition and more expense are all negatives. Rather, I think it may be time to consider going back to one classification with a 32-person state bracket.

California has just a single classification. We get the best at the states and we truly have the top 8 in our commonwealth. The Class AAA-would-dominate objectors might reflect on the Zain Retherfords, the Bobby Crawfords, the Cole Matthews, the Terry Williams, the Shorty Hitchcocks, the Bruce Wallaces, the Bonomos, and Jimmy Martins, and look back at the old Challenge of Champions results.

The best is the best, no matter what classification.

I have opposed the current 20-person bracket that had been sold as a trial-for-one-year experiment then was lobbied by the PWCA to keep in place. Basically, it was instituted to mollify the stronger districts who were hurt by the district having the largest number of schools with wrestling getting the fourth spot in a 16-bracket. It has extended the consolation rounds — which are meagerly attended — and on rare occasion does have one of the extras actually place.

As anyone who follows wrestling knows, there are certain districts that are deeper than others. The past many years the WPIAL in Class AAA has had the most champions and place-winners. The PIAA has taken the stance to go by the numbers rather than be accused of politicizing the qualifiers. They are self-imposed by the treat-all-sports-equally concept. That works in theory, but it is not realistic.

The Class AAA Northwest Regional has this year expanded the qualifiers, making a once-elite tournament into an almost open tournament format. Glancing at one weight class, seven of the 14 entrants have losing records. The Class AA Southwest Regional has been reduced to three spots in the state brackets. This Region and the Class AA Northeast Regional have been dominant over the years. More is not always better.

I fully understand that the pandemic has affected some of the thinking. The online ticketing does make the administrative duties somewhat easier and prevents the lines outside the venues, but it is not popular with most fans — especially older ones — and is not conducive to expanding the fan/attendance base.

Let’s rethink the direction wrestling is going. With reduced rosters and multiple forfeits, we do need to consider everything.

No idea is a bad idea.