Mar 1, 2015 4 min read

There is really no way to sugarcoat it.

The wrestling in this area dramatically slipped this year.

Just a couple of years ago, Canon-McMillan High School was on an historic run in the sport, winning five state team titles over three years and becoming the first Class AAA team to win four consecutive WPIAL Team Tournament titles.

The Big Macs dominated both tournaments, team and individual, and crowned a half dozen champions in that period.

Their success seemed to hide the overall drop in production from Washington and Greene counties. With all the key participants graduated from those Canon-McMillan teams, the weakness of Class AAA wrestling in this area was exposed.

Only four wrestlers – two each from Canon-McMillan and Waynesburg – qualified for the PIAA Class AAA Championships, which begin Thursday at the Giant Center in Hershey.

None from Peters Township, Trinity, or Ringgold qualified.

To make this decline more pronounced, the PIAA expanded the state brackets to 20 in each weight class, up from 16 last year. So four more wrestlers were included in each weight and District 7 received one more qualifier to the state tournament in each weight class.

Even with that expansion, area teams could advance only four, which most certainly has to be the most unsuccessful performance in the sport’s history. My records do not go back far enough to be sure.

It wasn’t much better in Class AA, where a dozen Washington-Greene wrestlers advanced to the state tournament. While that number might look impressive, remember the tournament was expanded and the Southwest Region had a sixth qualifier added, one more than last year.

Local teams had four champions last year, compared to just two this year. And 15 advanced to the state tournament, three more than this year.

Maybe no school had more of a head-scratcher of a regional tournament than McGfufey, which saw all five competitors eliminated. And this after the Highlanders dropped from Class AAA this season.

One can point to a number of reasons for this slump.

Here are my three:

Declining numbers: Nearly every school in the Washington-Greene area is losing enrollment. The number of male athletes is dropping, making it harder for schools to field teams. That leads to more forfeits, especially in, but not exclusive to, Class AA schools. Some dual meets this season featured as many as 10 forfeits or uncontested bouts.

Wrestling is hard: Of all the sports, wrestling takes the most sacrifice, and that drives athletes to other sports. Being on a football team, an athlete is working with 10 others on the field at one time. In basketball, he is one of five. Wrestling is just you and your talents against an opponent and his talents.

3. Specialization: Some athletes choose to play one sport, and only one sport, passing on an opportunity to become a more well-rounded athlete. I imagine a football player who is 6-5 and 280 pounds might not see the benefits of risking injury in another sport. But how many of those type of players are out there? Everyone has their motivations, but I would quickly tire of a sport that I played or prepared for year-round.

This area has historically been a great producer of wrestling talent. Now, it takes a back seat to Westmoreland and Allegheny counties; the results of the weekend show that.

Interestingly, this might be a productive state tournament. At least four wrestlers have legitimate shots at winning a state title. Two of them, freshman Gavin Teasdale of Jefferson-Morgan and senior A.C. Headlee of Waynesburg, are among the top wrestlers in the country.

This past weekend shows how far the sport has fallen in the area. It can certainly rebound, but it would be hard to find anyone who believes that will happen soon.

Assistant sports editor Joe Tuscano can be reached at jtuscano@observer-reporter.com