Coaches, guidelines help wrestlers manage weight

Sycamore wrestler Jake Lancaster heads to the center of the floor Thursday before the start of a wrestling meet at Kaneland High School in Maple Park. Rob Winner - rwinner@daily-chronicle.com

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Losing 12 pounds in 10 days might seem like an insurmountable task.But for Sycamore High School’s Jake Lancaster and other wrestlers around the nation, it has become a routine they face like a formidable opponent on the mat.

Some do it for an opportunity to see action in dual meets instead of sitting on the bench. Others shed pounds to move down a weight class because it gives a wrestler a competitive edge over a lighter opponent.

But how they lose that weight has changed significantly in recent years.

After three deaths in the span of a month in 1997 in collegiate competitions, regulations and restrictions on how a wrestler can lose weight were implemented at the collegiate and high school levels. Because of those rules, coaches believe, the lives of many wrestlers have been saved.

“We’re educating kids on eating healthy, to make the proper decisions on losing the weight,” Sycamore High School coach Chauncey Carrick said. “It’s all about making good decisions in what you put in your body and how you get rid of it. We want these kids to be healthy.”

And for wrestlers like Lancaster, it’s all about following the rules set by his coaches and the Illinois High School Association.

“People don’t understand this sport and say that what we go through and how we do it is unhealthy,” Lancaster said. “What they don’t realize is that I’m at my healthiest during the season. It’s all about discipline.”

In 10 days, Lancaster shed 12 pounds off his 183-pound frame by eating a low-calorie diet and hitting the gym. On Dec. 30, he wrestled in the 189-pound weight class at the Lincoln Invitational. Ten days later, Lancaster hit his target goal of 171 pounds, which is where he plans to wrestle for the rest of the season.

Lancaster, who is the No. 9-ranked wrestler in the state at 189 pounds, according to www.Illinoismatmen.com, said he wanted to lose weight because he noticed he wasn’t as strong as some of the wrestlers at his previous weight class.

“I was losing some matches because of size,” Lancaster said. “This was something I wanted to do. I feel at home at 171.”

Coaches at the local and national level believe that rapid weight loss can be a scary situation, especially when done the wrong way. DeKalb High School coach Mike Pater said that he leaves the decision of dropping weight classes to the individual, and that the coaches never pressure a student into dropping weight.

“It’s all their move,” Pater said. “If they believe they can do it, then we will let them. We will never let them do something they are not comfortable with.”

Tragedy strikes

In the past, wrestlers attempting to shed weight have gone to great lengths to make sure they would hit their target in order to be cleared for competition. Wrestlers believed, and some still do, that losing pounds to compete in the lowest possible weight class offered an advantage over lighter opponents.

But the wrestling world saw the landscape quickly change after three deaths in a one-month span in 1997. The first was Nov. 7 of that year, when Campbell University freshman Billy Saylor died of cardiac arrest after riding an exercise bike and refusing liquids as he tried to lose six pounds.

Twelve days later, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse senior Joseph LaRosa died of heat stroke after dressing in a rubber suit and riding a stationary bike. And Dec. 9, 1997, Jeff Reese, a junior at Michigan, died of kidney failure and heart malfunction while wearing a rubber suit and riding a stationary bike.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association responded quickly: Nearly a month after the deaths, restrictions were implemented on the ways wrestlers could lose excess pounds. New regulations banned the use of laxatives, emetics, diuretics, excessive food and fluid restriction, self-induced vomiting, hot rooms greater than 79 degrees, hot boxes, saunas, steam rooms, vapor-impermeable suits, and artificial rehydration techniques.

The NCAA also moved up weigh-ins, which had been held the day before a match, to no more than two hours before competition, so there was less time for competitors’ weight to fluctuate.

IHSA makes a change

The IHSA started its weight management program in 2005. The move came on the heels of an announcement from the National Federation of State High School Associations, which demanded that each state association have a plan in place to deal with the way students lose weight.

The NFHS made weight management mandatory “a year or two after the IHSA instituted its program,” IHSA Assistant Executive Director Matt Troha said.

The IHSA’s program mandates a minimum weight class a wrestler can compete in throughout a season based on the wrestler’s percentage of body fat. Male wrestlers can go no lower than 7 percent, and female wrestlers can’t fall under 12 percent.

A wrestler takes a skin fold measurement before the beginning of the season to determine his or her body fat percentage. If a wrestler’s body fat percentage falls exactly into one of the weight classes, that wrestler can wrestle at that weight class or higher. If it falls between two weight classes, that wrestler rounds his or her weight up and can compete at no lower than that level.

If a wrestler’s body fat percentage were to fall below the minimum percentage, he or she would have to wrestle at that weight class for the entire season, at which no weight loss would be allowed.

The IHSA also has a urine test to make sure that a wrestler who is weighing in is not dehydrated. Other provisions include how much weight a wrestler can lose per week.

Both Carrick and Pater lauded the IHSA for the changes.

“The IHSA has done a great job with the weight management,” Carrick said. “It’s all about the kids’ health. They need to be eating right and doing what is best for their health.”

What they teach

Though there probably are still wrestlers at the high school and collegiate levels who bend the rules, local coaches said they have rules in place to ensure that their team members aren’t dehydrating or starving themselves.

DeKalb’s five-page wrestling handout notes, in bold and underlined, that “at no time should your son not eat or starve himself or use a dietary supplement.” The Barbs’ coaching staff talks to the team about eating healthy and “cutting out junk” that doesn’t enhance the wrestler’s performance.

“The rules have done a great job for the sport,” Pater said. “We are keeping kids healthy and making sure they are not losing too much weight too quickly. It also cuts out the yo-yo dieting.”

Carrick preaches to his Sycamore wrestlers about working out regularly while eating a healthy diet that eliminates candy, soft drinks and other “garbage that they shouldn’t be eating,” the longtime Sycamore coach said.

“You need to be doing things the right way, eating healthy, drinking water. If they do it the right way, then they will see the right results,” Carrick said.

Lancaster said Carrick’s teaching, as well as following the rules set by school staff and the IHSA, helped him meet his 12-pound goal in 10 days.

“You always have to watch what you put in your mouth,” Lancaster said. “The rules [the IHSA] put in place have been a big help. It’s all about growing and learning when you are at the high school level.”

Lancaster entered Thursday’s dual meet against Kaneland High School as a 171-pound wrestler for the first time this year after spending the first two months of the season at 189.

The drop in weight was noticeable during his match against the Knights’ Zach Ganz. Lancaster, who won 16 of his first 20 matches at the 189-pound level, jumped to a 2-0 lead before ending the match with a pin over Ganz.

Lancaster cannot weight less than 163 pounds because of the body fat test he took at the beginning of the season. But he said he doesn’t plan to move any lower than his new 171-pound level.

“This is where I feel comfortable at,” Lancaster said. “Things just felt smooth out there for me. I feel a lot better being here than I did at 189.”

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