There has always been a lot of controversies all throughout WPIAL rankings in all different sports. Schools are currently ranked by the number of students attending each school. As of now, there is A, AA, AAA, AAAA, and AAAAA. Some schools, however, defy these rules. For example, Aliquippa’s football team has just been named to the AAAA section after dominating their section for so many years, regardless of how many students attend their school.

In wrestling, the controversy is high. New castle not only is a new program, but they are also  students away from wrestling in the AA section rather than AAA. Pennsylvania itself has been voted the #1 hardest state to wrestle in since the beginning of time. Of all the sections in Pennsylvania, WPIAL AAA is one of the most sought after for being the grittiest, hardworking, toughest section in the country. Many star wrestlers have came out of here such as Spencer Lee who wrestles for Iowa (Franklin Regional native), Jason Nolf from Penn State (Kittanning native), Penn State’s Vincenzo Joseph (Central Catholic native), and Ohio State’s Luke Pletcher (Latrobe native). These four WPIAL natives along with three others were all named NCAA Division 1 Championship All Americans.

As you can see, the WPIAL AAA practically breeds national champions. The New Castle Wrestling Teams consists of 11 student-athletes, however 4 are injured so that leaves them with a roster of 7. In wrestling it takes 12 to fill up a roster, so by default if the canes lose as much as 2 matches they would lose the meet overall against a full team (which most teams in this conference have).

In a conference full of teams like the Cannon McMillan “Big Macs” and the South Fayette “Lions” how is a new team like the Canes supposed to find success? The Canes are currently 10 students over the limit for the AA conference but New Castle also factors in Vo Tech students when in all actuality, there is only one Vo Tech student on the team, but he does still reside in New Castle. On top of this, there are teams like Burrel who have been dominating AA for years and should be moved up to AAA. The Cane’s wrestling team will have a hard time finding success in the AAA conference which is why a move down to AA would be much more beneficial for everyone.

Below are all of the schools within WPIAL district 7, Section 4, along with their enrollment numbers in correspondence with wrestling…

• Canon McMillan (628 students)
• Moon (479 students)
• West Allegheny (395 students)
• Chartiers Valley (394 students)
• Trinity (384 students)
• South Fayette (362 students)
• Montour (350 students)
• Ambridge (312 students)
• New Castle (307 students)
• Waynesburg Central (231 students)

As you can see, the real outliers in this section are Ambridge, New Castle, and Waynesburg Central. Waynesburg however, is only in this section because they dominated AA for years, and they continue to dominate at AAA. Other than them, Ambridge and New Castle are the real stragglers in this section. New Castle is only 10 students above the limit for the AA section. This season, the only team that New Castle defeated in the section was Ambridge, the other struggling AAA team.

District 7 AAA as a whole consists of 23 teams and their enrollment numbers as followed from greatest to least…

• North Allegheny (1089 students)
• Hempfield (817 students)
• Seneca Valley (865 students)
• Armstrong (635 students)
• Butler (728 students)
• Mount Lebanon (651 students)
• Canon McMillan (628 students)
• Moon (479 students)
• West Allegheny (395 students)
• Chartiers Valley (394 students)
• Trinity (384 students)
• South Fayette (362 students)
• Montour (350 students)
• Thomas Jefferson (341 students)
• Indiana (340 students)
• McKeesport (335 students)
• Greensburg Salem (328 students)
• Knoch (324 students)
• Ringgold (315 students)
• Ambridge (312 students)
• New Castle (307 students)
• Belle Vernon (305 students)
• Waynesburg Central (231 students)

As you can see, out of all of these teams, New Castle is still in the bottom three teams, one of them still being Waynesburg. Individually, New Castle sees some success in the wrestling post-season; sending four wrestlers to the WPIAL tournament last season, and all four of them returning to season this year. As a team, however, the Canes have only won one section match this season to Ambridge. If New Castle were to move down to AA next season, they still may not be a high caliber team because of their current roster size. They only have a little over half of a roster so matches always come right down to the wire.

When New Castle has wrestled AA teams like Blackhawk and Laurel the outcomes were so much better than they have been in AAA. The Canes defeated Blackhawk 42-36, and they fell to Laurel 54-16. Of that 54-16 loss, 42 of Laurels points were forfeited as a result of New Castles lacking weight classes. Taking away forfeits, the score would have been 15-12, with New Castle winning the meet. The Blackhawk meet was filled with forfeits as there were nine total forfeits of the twelve matches in a wrestling meet.

These statistics all show how AAA is not a fitting home for the New Castle Wrestling Team. AA would much better fit the team and give everyone a much better chance for success. The average amount of students is a AAA school is 475 students; New Castle has 307, 168 students under the average. New Castle would have a home in AA. The current statistics just show how unfair some of the placements for wrestling are and the only people that they are affecting are the athletes.