The NHSCA national championship tournaments are being held this weekend in Virginia Beach, Va.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – The 32nd annual National High School Coaches Association will hold their annual national championship tournament this weekend at the Virginia Beach Sports Center and more than 120 Connecticut wrestlers will be competing.
There are 124 high school wrestlers and 19 middle school wrestlers from Connecticut registered to compete in the tournament that runs from Friday, April 23 through Sunday, April 25.
Attendance onsite is limited but fans can watch the tournament live on FloWrestling.com (subscription required) or follow it online at FloArena.com.
Last year’s tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic, enhanced health and safety protocols will be in place throughout the event to ensure a safe environment for the athletes and coaches.
Everyone in the building – athletes, coaches and spectators — will be required to wear a mask, even when the athletes are warming up. The wrestlers will be allowed to compete without masks. People in the building will get two warnings to wear their mask and will be ejected from the facility with three strikes.
Coaches, athletes and spectators will enter the building from different entrances.
Mats will be cleaned throughout each session and NHSCA will have dedicated volunteer staff to clean the mats.
Thirty-three seniors from Connecticut have registered to compete in the tournament along with 38 juniors, 26 sophomores, 19 freshmen and eight girls. It is just a bit lower than the 139 wrestlers from Connecticut that signed up to compete in 2019.
The top eight finishers in each weight class in each tournament earn All-American honors. Fifteen wrestlers from Connecticut earned All-American honors the last time the tournament was held in 2019. Danbury’s Ryan Jack won a Junior National Championship at 126 pounds and was named outstanding wrestler of the tournament.
Jack is the most recent of six state wrestlers to win a NHSCA national title.
It wasn’t much of a wrestling season in Connecticut in 2021. Teams were limited to non-contact drills and conditioning for most of the season. Contact drills were only allowed in the last eight days of the winter season.
There were no dual meets or tournaments. Several Connecticut wrestlers were able to compete at the Spartan Combat New England tournament in New Hampshire earlier this month.
