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Hydration test poses hurdle for wrestlers
Home News Tribune Online 12/14/05

By PATRICK BUGANSKI
STAFF WRITER

Anew test has been added to the certification process for high school
wrestlers this year.

All wrestlers must now pass a hydration test before stepping onto the
mats. According to the NJSIAA, the new standards are to help discourage
crash diets to get down to weight, but many coaches are expressing
concern.

"The problem with the hydration test is you don't know until you
get there," East Brunswick head coach Glen Pazinko said. "It's
something that takes time for coaches and kids to understand what's
good and bad for hydration."

In a last-ditch effort to drop weight, many wrestlers resort to not
drinking, deciding to wait until after the weigh-in to binge on all the
water they want. They wont be able to do that this year, or at least for
certification, where their lowest healthy weight class is determined and
set.

Mostly concerned with the new restrictions will be the lower weights,
although even a heavyweight can easily fail for not being hydrated. For
schools where numbers can be a problem, getting a 103 pounder on the
mats can be hard enough and the new tests should make it even harder.

Fewer kids will wrestle up because many will have no choice but to be
certified at a higher weight than they might have been able to get away
with last year after a day or so of laying off the liquids. That's
another thing coaches are crying foul about.

"My concern is for the 103 pounders," said Perth Amboy head coach
Mike Giordano, who described the new testing as "an absolute
nightmare."

"If he's 105, he has to go to 112 and get pounded, literally
pounded."

Giordano added that he knows the good intent is there, citing three
deaths of collegiate wrestlers in the fall of 1997 related to dropping
weight.

"They're trying to implement a college system in a high school
system and you just can't," Giordano said.

Many coaches expressed concerns about their athletes getting certified
at higher weights.

Despite the concern, not too many waves were kicked up. While many
coaches reported a small number of kids failing the test which, for
many, took place on Sunday.

"It was a stressful event to say the least," Giordano said
afterward.

For those that failed the hydration test and those that couldn't
attend on Sunday, a series of make-up dates and added chances to pass
are in place. Starting yesterday and going through tomorrow, athletes
can be retested for $5 at predetermined sites. Also, for those that
simply could not attend the original date, a written statement as to why
the wrestler could not attend must be submitted to the state.