Wrestling season kicked off Saturday November 19. What a casual fan may not realize is that the struggle to maintain weight throughout the season began as well.

   In wrestling, unlike other sports, competitors are sorted into weight classes. When wrestlers are at the top of their weight class they have an advantage.

    “Cutting a lot of weight is an advantage because you’re a lot bigger than the other guys, and it’s always good to be bigger. But you have to be able to balance it so that you don’t run out of gas,” said wrestling coach Tom Knotts.

    When cutting weight, wrestlers can gain an advantage according to Knotts and members of the wrestling team.

    “The purpose [of cutting weight] is so that you can be in that weight class.” sophomore wrestler Sam Wertz said, “The goal is to be as close to the top of the weight class as you can be. I want to be as heavy as possible without going over.”

    Being bigger often means that wrestlers are stronger, have more leverage and are harder to handle or knock down according to Knotts.

    “It’s like with boxing and football, the bigger guys have more leverage, they tend to be stronger, there’s just more options. The bigger you are the harder it is to deal with you,” said Knotts.

    While the topic of a person’s weight may not be important to an everyday person, weight plays a major role for many athletes, including wrestlers.

    “I would say if you [cut weight] the right way, it’s not that detrimental to your health, but if you do it the wrong way, you can hurt your body,” said Wertz.

    The key to cutting weight for wrestling is exercise and diet according to sophomore wrestler Dalton Huffman.

    “You need to burn more calories than you take in,” said Huffman.

Cutting weight can lead to disastrous side effects if done incorrectly, Knotts said.

    “Wrestlers usually cut weight wrong,” said Knotts, “You’re supposed to reduce your calories, and do it over a long period of time and reduce fat. Then, cut water the last 24 hours. But usually they just starve themselves, work out and try to do it all through water loss. Which is the wrong way to do it.”

    Although cutting weight does mean shaving some calories off of wrestlers’ diets, they still need adequate amounts of food and nutrients to get to get through the day.

    “You definitely need that daily supply of food, because a lot of people think that if you want to lose weight you have to eat way less- which part of it is eating less- but you still need fuel every day,” said nutrition and wellness teacher Shannon Jacobs.

    Many observers are concerned about how cutting weight affects wrestlers. However Knotts refutes this statement and claims that it is entirely healthy.

    “I think that wrestling is about being tough mentally and physically. And I’ve seen kids cut a lot of weight and people say, ‘Well that’s not good for you.’” Knotts said. “But if you go through all the pain and suffering that they go through, it makes you tough. And you don’t break mentally, and it increases your will to win.”