Oh my. Don't get me started on youth wrestling. (Like anyone actually cares what I think anyway)
Although I would like to hear how they do it in PA, especially at Young Guns.
Pennsylvania prep wrestling
- Thread starter Wahawk56
- Start date
Oh my. Don't get me started on youth wrestling. (Like anyone actually cares what I think anyway)
Although I would like to hear how they do it in PA, especially at Young Guns.
North Allegheny, Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Shaler, Fox Chapel, and Woodland Hills are all suburban schools. The first 3 do not even have Pittsburgh addresses (NA is in Wexford; Mt Lebo and USC are the names of suburban towns). The others might have Pittsburgh addresses, but that doesn't mean they're actually in the city (Pittsburgh is a very midwestern city in that regard).
Pittsburgh Central Catholic is in the city but is not part of the city league (District 8), is instead part of WPIAL (D7) along with the suburban schools. And it draws students from the suburbs.
The others are city schools and are part of D8. To the extent that they "have" wrestling, they're underdeveloped programs. Every year they travel to Erie for NW Regionals, instead of staying at home for SW Regionals, because they can't compete with the D7 schools -- it would be like Bambi vs. Godzilla.
I can't speak to PA, but I'm extremely familiar with neighboring NJ. Here is what we had. Our local youth program was for grades 2 through 8. We had two practices each week, but we contracted a local club to run a 3rd practice each week. We usually had between 100 and 120 kids in the program in a town of about 25,000. Some kids did nothing outside of this rec league.
Our team was in a rec league with 50 other teams. Each Saturday we had meets between 3 or 4 towns in which kids were matched against opponents of similar size, weight, age, and skill level. At the end of the season we had five "District" tournaments, with the top 2 kids from each of the districts advancing to the "Region" tournament, which was essentially the league championships. A handful of towns also hosted an annual invitational tournament at some point during the season. So a typical rec kid practiced 3 nights a week, got in 10 or 12 matches on Saturdays, and wrestled in 3 or 4 tournaments. In season.
In addition, about 15 of the better towns formed a "dual league". The league had 18 weight classes, with no age restrictions -- so you could have a 3rd grader going against an 8th grader if they were the same weight. You typically had 6 or 7 dual meets, which were pretty competitive with some very strong wrestling. This league also had a tournament at the end of the year, and each weight's league champion also wrestled in an all-star meet against another league.
Of course, USA Wrestling also hosted a series of state qualifying tournaments, as well as an individual youth state championship. I'd say 30% to 40% of our kids would at least try to qualify for states. If you failed at one qualifier you could try again at another.
So a reasonably competitive kid might wrestle 50 or so matches in season, much of which was against very good competition.
Of course, the hyper-competitive kids would also attend one or more clubs, and might also get private lessons. Using my son as an example, we had about six quality clubs within 30 minutes, and he liked to go once a week to a different club, just to mix things up. That was from about 4th grade through 7th grade. At that point he upped it to twice a week, and his last year in high school we also took private lessons from a local DIII coach. Some of these clubs were very, very good. He rolled around with some really good kids, like Joey McKenna and David McFadden; and my son was just a fairly competitive kid -- the top kids wrestled at clubs 3 or 4 days a week and took privates starting in 4th or 5th grade.
I know in Eastern PA it was similar.
My internet says they all have Pittburgh addresses. No big deal, but I never had a clue that Pittburgh was so complicated.
Fox Chapel Area High School
611 Field Club Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15238
Mt Lebanon Senior High School
155 Cochran Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15228
Upper Saint Clair High School
1825 Mclaughlin Run Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15241
North Allegheny Ihs
350 Cumberland Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15237
Woodland Hills Junior Senior High School School
2550 Greensburg Pike, Pittsburgh, PA 15221
Shaler Area High School
381 Wible Run Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15209
http://www.greatschools.org/pennsylvania/pittsburgh/schools/?gradeLevels=h
611 Field Club Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15238
Mt Lebanon Senior High School
155 Cochran Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15228
Upper Saint Clair High School
1825 Mclaughlin Run Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15241
North Allegheny Ihs
350 Cumberland Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15237
Woodland Hills Junior Senior High School School
2550 Greensburg Pike, Pittsburgh, PA 15221
Shaler Area High School
381 Wible Run Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15209
http://www.greatschools.org/pennsylvania/pittsburgh/schools/?gradeLevels=h
well here is what i see and this probably ruffles people around our state...but i dont care...There are TWO distinct levels of wrestling...the ELITE club wrestlers and the average wrestler out for the team and having a season after football and before track or baseball begins. The elite guys will be club wrestling and most go year around...where as the team guys will start in November and finish at the conclusion of the season. The TEAM guys are the MAJORITY of the guys who wrestle in PA. The team guys are great guys and they make high school sports fun and interesting...they do their best and sometimes pull off the upsets that make the sport a thrilling watch....the Elite guys are great kids as well...but they usually draw forfeits or fill ins at the dual meets because of their reputation and have to look elsewhere...IE..the club teams and Club Disney trips and on and on to find quality competition...its really NOBODIES FAULT...it just happens. As more and more kids become specialized less and less stick with multi sport choices...what i mean is the elite wrestler stops playing football because he wants to be a better wrestler and not get hurt in football. It HARD to convince a kid to lose weight on a weekly or daily basis for the toughest sport out there...or to eat and lift and enjoy an off season training for football...both sports share SOME kids but specialization now...and if the little kids who crowd our gyms every weekend didnt burn out before high school our numbers would be OVERWHELMING....thats a parental choice...some kids wrestle 100 to 150 matches a year...in the ELEMENTARY...just mind blowing.
I live in the Pittsburgh area and follow wrestling. None of the schools listed above are in Pittsburgh. They are all suburban schools, mostly 1/2-3/4 hour drive to Pittsburgh. The city of Pittsburgh has some wrestling, but has only had wrestling for several years and has little youth wrestling as do most city schools. The city has a zip code mostly 151--, whereas the suburban schools will be 152-- zip codes.
I went to the school's website and copied these Pittsburgh addresses. I'm not flying out to PA to check it out. I think my error is that many of the suburbs simply have Pittburgh addresses.
For instance the address for Fox Chapel Area High School is 611 Field Club Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15238. But the school is discribed as being located in the suburb of O'Hara Township, Allegheny County, PA.
I have a kid on and have helped coach some current Iowa youth dual teams and can tell you that the PA teams (grades 2nd-6th) pretty much dominate everyone on those levels. Occasionally, an Iowa or California team will give them a good meet but PA teams typically win most of these big dual team tournaments. So, they have plenty of kids coming up in the pipeline to continue doing what they are doing on the HS level.
Nobody denied PA is a large wrestling population base, just said it's smaller than the total state population base.
To put it a different way: Philly and Pittsburgh have wrestling in the same sense that PD3 has humility -- gotta dig hard to find it but exists in trace amounts.
FYI, Google Maps will help with the in/out question -- just type Pittsburgh and it will show the city boundary. Open a 2nd window and search for the school. Chances it will be readily apparent, and easier than looking up addresses on each school district's website.
I'm done with my Exploring Pittburgh phase - gotta move on. Nice city though.
It's relative. Pennsylvania population is roughly 12.8 million. 6 million are in the Philly metro region. Pittsburgh metro is roughly 2.3 million.
A lot of the Pittsburgh debate has been over the true city center (district 8) verses the Pittsburgh region (D7/ WPIAL) which includes the schools listed above.
The other issue is that in terms of high school sports in Pennsylvania- football is the most popular by far. Basketball is second with soccer/ track/ hockey/ wrestling next. Their ranking of which is #3 depends on where you are in the state.
So in the Allentown- Bethlehem- Easton region (north of Philly) wrestling is #3. In south central PA it may be 4th or 5th. In Philadelphia wrestling is basically not even on the radar. As you head into a select few suburban districts it can become more popular.
It may exist at most high schools but it's not a factor in the sports scene outside of a few hot pockets of interest. So, while the state has 12.8 million, you're really only talking about areas of (guessing) 4.5 million or so (?) where wrestling is considered big and followed in large numbers.
Last edited:
True, that number does include South Jersey. In any event- Philadelphia, Montgomery, Chester, Delaware, and Bucks counties (immediate Philly suburbs in PA) population is 4 million. Add the more distant suburban regions of Berks and Lancaster counties and you're at 5 million. Regardless, the original point is unchanged.
Last edited:
Philadelphia's population is in the 1.6 Million range. Pittsburgh is at about 350,000.
My address is Allentown, PA, but I actually live in South Whitehall Township, part of the Parkland School District. It is just the way the USPS has done addressing here.
Don't focus on the City of Pittsburgh.
Instead, check out all the amazing HS programs in Westmoreland (east) & Washington (south) counties in the Pittsburgh far suburbs to rural stretches.
In Westmoreland County alone you have Spencer Lee, Nico Megaludis, Luke Pletcher, Jimmy Gulibon .... what's that ? 14-15 PIAA titles. And probably another 2 dozen excellent college wrestlers in the last 5 years.
Instead, check out all the amazing HS programs in Westmoreland (east) & Washington (south) counties in the Pittsburgh far suburbs to rural stretches.
In Westmoreland County alone you have Spencer Lee, Nico Megaludis, Luke Pletcher, Jimmy Gulibon .... what's that ? 14-15 PIAA titles. And probably another 2 dozen excellent college wrestlers in the last 5 years.
