Coaches Debate Value of Dual Championship

The debate whether to participate could be more heated than the actual competition in the Southern Section dual-meet championships Saturday.

Some coaches, saying the duals offer little more than an increased chance of injury to wrestlers, either withdraw their teams from the tournament or compete with junior varsity wrestlers.

Other coaches relish the opportunity to win a section title and, perhaps more importantly, wrestle a few extra matches.

“We love the duals,” said Coach Arnold Alpert of Temecula Valley High. “We just love to wrestle. We’ll wrestle any time, any place, in any format.”

The dual meets decide a team champion in each division. Teams advance by compiling the most points in a dual meet, consisting of matches in 14 weight classes.

In contrast, team scores in the individual championships are calculated based on how far wrestlers advance in their respective divisional bracket.

Both formats decide section titles, but the top five finishers in the individual championships advance to the Masters meet and earn the opportunity to go on to the state championships.

Winning a dual-meet championship does not qualify wrestlers for any further competition.

“It’s not that I don’t like [the duals],” said Coach David Ochoa of Covina Northview. “But at this point in the season, I’d rather be wrestling for something that counts, not banging heads with some of the best teams the week before the individual championships.”

Ochoa said the risk of injury in the duals is not worth compromising a wrestler’s chance of winning a more prestigious individual title.

He said a bad day in the duals could adversely affect a wrestler’s seeding in the individual championships.

Alpert is unconvinced that duals increase the risk of injury.

He said a majority of wrestling injuries occur in practice.

“Heck, you could get hurt going to the shower,” Alpert said.

Rob Wigod, Southern Section assistant commissioner, surveyed coaches about the possibility of eliminating the duals, but said 88% of those responding favored keeping them.

He is hopeful top teams will participate and is weighing the possibility of penalizing teams that do not.

“I suppose [the Southern Section] does have the power to penalize those teams,” Wigod said. “It could adversely affect their individual status, for example.

“But we have to be careful not to penalize kids for a coach’s actions.”

Location, location: The six dual-meet divisional championships Saturday begin at 11 a.m., with the finals expected to begin at 7:15 p.m. Locations are as follows:

Division I, Santa Ana College; Division II, Rosemead High; Division III, Lakewood High; Division IV, Ventura High; Division V, Upland High; Division VI, Palmdale Highland High.

Peter Yoon