An official shortage at the high school level throughout the country has been well documented in recent years.

Wrestling has proven to be no different.

At Thursday’s MIAA Wrestling Committee meeting, committee representative Nate Monteiro spoke of the increasing difficulties in scheduling officials for dual meets on Wednesday night. Monteiro spoke of traveling to Concord-Carlisle (3:30 p.m.), Wayland (5 p.m.) and Marlboro (7 p.m.) to officiate three meets in order for the matches to go off.

“With the low number of officials, we just can’t survive,” Monteiro said. “On a Wednesday night, there were 69 dual meets and we had 76 officials and 19 were not available. There is going to have to be some adjustments or we’re just not going to be able to cover Wednesday night meets.”

MIAA wrestling committee liaison Phil Napolitano has seen the trend and is hoping that his proposal can help alleviate the concerns down the road. His proposal, which was unanimously accepted by the commitment, would remove some of the language in Rule 84.2.4, which states that a double-dual, triangular, quadrangular or tournament meet must be scheduled on a day preceding a non-school day (Friday, Saturday, the day before a vacation or holiday, or during school vacation periods).

Allowing schools the ability to schedule those types of matches on a week night would certainly go a long way in making things easier for the officials. Like all other MIAA rule changes proposals, it would have to go through the normal channels before it reaches the Board of Directors for final approval. If accepted, the rule change would go into effect in time for the 2025-26 wrestling season.

The committee introduced a pair of new tournament directors. Ryan Madden will run the Division 1 tournament, while Andy Meier takes over Div. 2. The venerable Scott Tremlett remains as the Div. 3 and All-State tournament director.

“We are in great hands with them,” said Wakefield athletic director Brendan Kent, who doubles as the MIAA Wrestling Committee chairman. “We are very fortunate to have Andy on board and Ryan has hosted many tournaments when he was the athletic director at Milton. We are very grateful to them for jumping on board.”

The postseason starts with the sectionals on Feb. 10. They will be contested at the following sites: Div. 1 North (Methuen), Div. 1 South (Taunton), Div. 1 Central/Metro (Newton South), Div. 1 West/Central (Springfield Central), Div. 2 North (Burlington), Div. 2 South (Stoughton), Div. 2 Central (Bellingham), Div. 2 West (Northbridge), Div. 3 North (Tewksbury), Div. 3 South (Foxboro), Div. 3 Central (Ashland) and Div. 3 West (Mt. Greylock).

The action resumes the following week (Feb. 16-17) with the two-day state tournament. Newton South will host the Div. 1 tournament, Algonquin will handle Div. 2 and Wakefield will be the venue for the Div. 3 states. The All-States will be contested at Salem, Feb. 23-24, with the 58th annual New England Wrestling Championship returning to the Providence Career and Technical Academy, March 1-2. The inaugural New England Girls Wrestling Championship will also take place that weekend.

In addition to the New Englands, there will be a girls divisional state championship for the first time. The top four girls in each weight class will qualify for the girls All-State championship. Any girl who chooses to compete in the mixed-gender state tournament would automatically qualify for the Girls All-States if they decide to go that route.