For those who wrestle on the varsity level, you may have to find yourself a new weight class.

The National Federation of State High School Assocations gave the go-ahead to make wholesale changes in the weight divisions.

Instead of 13 divisions, there are 14. Instead of the lightest weight class at 103, it’s being bumped up to 106.

In all, only four of the 13 weight classes from a year ago are staying the same — 145, 152, 160 and 285.

The 10 new ones are 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 170, 182, 195 and 220. Other than the 215 weight class, there hasn’t been this many changes since the 1988 season.

Personally, I’ve always been in favor of moving the lightest weight classes up. When I was in high school — I didn’t wrestle but my brother did — 98 pounds was the lightest bracket.

Ninety-eight pounds.

I can see a handful of small kids at that level, but for a 15-16 year-old that still seems pretty light.

My brother, after building his weight into the 130s for football his senior year, had to drop weight to compete for a spot on the varsity wrestling team.

He had hopes of taking the 103-pound spot, but a junior on the team, who had wrestled at 98 pounds as a sophomore, decided to move up and he was really good.

So, my brother dropped all the way down to 98 pounds just in time for wrestling season.

Not a pretty sight to see. You couldn’t drop that much weight these days with the rules in place, but he loved wrestling and that was the only spot he could take.

He had a strong season, but he looked so weak. A senior wrestling at 98 pounds is not a good idea.

So, I was glad it was moved up to 103 years ago and it’s even better now that it’s up to 106.

“They’ve looked to change the weight classes a number of times,” said Butler coach Scott Stoner.

Stoner believes the idea of the newer weights can benefit a program, just certain ones, however.

“Last year, we had 16 kids between 119 to 145 pounds,” Stoner said. “A team like ours, where we have had success, it could hurt to a degree. If we happen to have a lot of kids at the top, we’ll be OK, but that usually comes in cycles.”

The difference in weight goes between six to eight pounds through the first nine weight classes, then jumps to 10, 12, 25, then up to the heavyweight (285) division.

“The idea appears great, but then there are a lot of programs that have trouble putting a full slate of wrestlers out there,” Stoner said. “We’ve taken several matches with some medium-size or growing programs that may have to forfeit three, four, five bouts per match.”

I like the idea of the new format, especially at the lighter weights, but how teams adjust will determine the direction of their respective programs.