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How do we recruit more girls at the HS/MS level?

CropDuster507

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Jul 13, 2015
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I know not everyone here is necessarily "involved" with wrestling, past fandom. Maybe a few here have some insight, though.

How do we recruit more girls to youth/HS wrestling? I started a girls group in our club this year. Numbers were less than 10. It was the first year of MN sanctioning the Girls State Tournament. Most girls were like, JUST getting introduced to folkstyle wrestling... And then I had them come in once a week as long as I could get them in during the spring. It will grow, as more girls get involved in the sport, I have little doubt.

I'm not a HS coach, and I'd wager that as a sport, we're more likely to get a higher participation rate from the school contact point than a club coach (maybe I'm wrong, but this is from my previous experience). A few HS in my area went hard on recruiting girls athletes and saw the fruits of their labor. Some didn't see much success in bringing in new girls athletes, and I won't speak on their efforts because I ain't them and I'm not trying to juggle administration, grades, wrestling, and coaching everything else in young peoples' lives. Shit is hard, man.

Anybody have previous experience or intel? I noticed a lot of the girls athletes in our area that tried wrestling for this inaugural season were soccer and players. There's a certain contact/cardio/resiliency in that that I think carries over. Perhaps, I'm making this too complicated and we just need to recruit them how we'd recruit any boys athletes? I find myself in a constant pendulum swing of "Treat them like the boys. They deserve that experience, and that's why they are here." OR "Girls athletes are different, and we should celebrate and meet them at those differences to help them grow in the sport."

Thoughts? I'm currently quarantining. Brain is racing a bit.
 
I know not everyone here is necessarily "involved" with wrestling, past fandom. Maybe a few here have some insight, though.

How do we recruit more girls to youth/HS wrestling? I started a girls group in our club this year. Numbers were less than 10. It was the first year of MN sanctioning the Girls State Tournament. Most girls were like, JUST getting introduced to folkstyle wrestling... And then I had them come in once a week as long as I could get them in during the spring. It will grow, as more girls get involved in the sport, I have little doubt.

I'm not a HS coach, and I'd wager that as a sport, we're more likely to get a higher participation rate from the school contact point than a club coach (maybe I'm wrong, but this is from my previous experience). A few HS in my area went hard on recruiting girls athletes and saw the fruits of their labor. Some didn't see much success in bringing in new girls athletes, and I won't speak on their efforts because I ain't them and I'm not trying to juggle administration, grades, wrestling, and coaching everything else in young peoples' lives. Shit is hard, man.

Anybody have previous experience or intel? I noticed a lot of the girls athletes in our area that tried wrestling for this inaugural season were soccer and players. There's a certain contact/cardio/resiliency in that that I think carries over. Perhaps, I'm making this too complicated and we just need to recruit them how we'd recruit any boys athletes? I find myself in a constant pendulum swing of "Treat them like the boys. They deserve that experience, and that's why they are here." OR "Girls athletes are different, and we should celebrate and meet them at those differences to help them grow in the sport."

Thoughts? I'm currently quarantining. Brain is racing a bit.
Treat them like individuals. They're not all going to have the same motivations, goals, etc., even when compared to other girls. Same for the boys.
 
Treat them like individuals. They're not all going to have the same motivations, goals, etc., even when compared to other girls. Same for the boys.
This makes a lot of sense. Even in my small sample size, many had different reasons for trying the sport this year and came from varied backgrounds. Appreciate the feedback.
 
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As a mom, I would say recruit the moms. I am all about girls participating in whatever sport they want, but I never would have thought of wrestling for my daughter when she was young. She is 20 now, so maybe things have changed in terms of general knowledge of girls’ wrestling, but getting moms on board and knowledgeable can only help. Outreach to B&G’s clubs, Ys, and Girl Scouts could help you reach them in elementary school. That’s about all I have, and may be way off base since I am strictly a PSU fan and not someone with wrestling expertise.
 
As a mom, I would say recruit the moms. I am all about girls participating in whatever sport they want, but I never would have thought of wrestling for my daughter when she was young. She is 20 now, so maybe things have changed in terms of general knowledge of girls’ wrestling, but getting moms on board and knowledgeable can only help. Outreach to B&G’s clubs, Ys, and Girl Scouts could help you reach them in elementary school. That’s about all I have, and may be way off base since I am strictly a PSU fan and not someone with wrestling expertise.
This is also super good intel! Glad you shared.
This is great stuff to get the younger generation introduced to our sport, and I'll absolutely add it to my list! Ultimately, I think the biggest area of growth will be youth girls wrestling. I'm definitely seeing it in our rocks & sticks area of MN.

My overall goal is to look for ways that MS/HS's have successfully recruited new girls athletes to wrestling, so that I can share it with coaches in our area. We've all heard of the wrestling coach sitting outside of basketball tryouts after kids get cut, offering free clinics, etc. I just wondered if anybody had seen/heard/experienced something girls-specific to get them interested in it. Like the above poster said, everyone's motivations are different. But some things just move the youth culture.

And I did a poor job putting it into words at 12am lol.
 
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I know not everyone here is necessarily "involved" with wrestling, past fandom. Maybe a few here have some insight, though.

How do we recruit more girls to youth/HS wrestling? I started a girls group in our club this year. Numbers were less than 10. It was the first year of MN sanctioning the Girls State Tournament. Most girls were like, JUST getting introduced to folkstyle wrestling... And then I had them come in once a week as long as I could get them in during the spring. It will grow, as more girls get involved in the sport, I have little doubt.

I'm not a HS coach, and I'd wager that as a sport, we're more likely to get a higher participation rate from the school contact point than a club coach (maybe I'm wrong, but this is from my previous experience). A few HS in my area went hard on recruiting girls athletes and saw the fruits of their labor. Some didn't see much success in bringing in new girls athletes, and I won't speak on their efforts because I ain't them and I'm not trying to juggle administration, grades, wrestling, and coaching everything else in young peoples' lives. Shit is hard, man.

Anybody have previous experience or intel? I noticed a lot of the girls athletes in our area that tried wrestling for this inaugural season were soccer and players. There's a certain contact/cardio/resiliency in that that I think carries over. Perhaps, I'm making this too complicated and we just need to recruit them how we'd recruit any boys athletes? I find myself in a constant pendulum swing of "Treat them like the boys. They deserve that experience, and that's why they are here." OR "Girls athletes are different, and we should celebrate and meet them at those differences to help them grow in the sport."

Thoughts? I'm currently quarantining. Brain is racing a bit.

As a male myself, I would have never tried wrestling if it wasn't for Middle School/Junior High School gym class. The girls' classes were doing other sports when we were learning the basics of wrestling. If you can somehow get it introduced to girls at this level it may stick with some of them. The trouble might be finding qualified girl's gym teachers that can teach the basics. I have been out of school for a couple of generations, so there may be more crossover of the male/female gym classes and teachers than there was when I was in school.
 
I coached a club in Hawaii while stationed there. Girls wrestling is big there and has been sanctioned in HS decades before it was cool. Our mid level girls in 2008-2010 were getting scholarships. This travels the parent circles pretty fast.

With the college expansion in Womens wrestling happening, scholarships will need to be filled. This will drive participants.
 
I think with central mountain most of the girls are exposed to wrestling early and just needed the opportunity to wrestle. Not to mention we had a great role model in Sara McMann who did well with college and Olympic wrestling. Can't wait for it to grow. You can never go wrong with more high school wrestling
 
As a male myself, I would have never tried wrestling if it wasn't for Middle School/Junior High School gym class. The girls' classes were doing other sports when we were learning the basics of wrestling. If you can somehow get it introduced to girls at this level it may stick with some of them. The trouble might be finding qualified girl's gym teachers that can teach the basics. I have been out of school for a couple of generations, so there may be more crossover of the male/female gym classes and teachers than there was when I was in school.
When I was coaching at a HS, we did this. I did it poorly, as a young, fired up coach in a city who couldn't care less if wrestling existed, but it is a thing.

Most PE classes are coed here, and I think this would absolutely be a great contact point for all girls to have exposure to the sport.

Appreciate everything, all. Compiling and reflecting on it.
 
As a father of a son and two daughters I can tell you boys and girls are not the same, or more specifically very few of them are the same. If you ever watched a third grade playground you can easily see the difference. Let's say there are 100 third graders evenly split between boys and girls. You'll find that 46 - 47 boys are in the middle of the play yard running around like wild people. Mixed in with boys, if you look carefully, you'll find a couple of girls running with them and playing whatever game the boys are playing. Meanwhile, you'll find 48 girls standing around the perimeter chatting, playing hopscotch, or sitting on benches and you'll find a couple of boys standing around with the girls. It's just the way it is.

I don't have a strategy for increasing the number of girls participating in wrestling but I'm sure you don't treat them the same way. In my opinion, young girls like to play sports for the "social" aspect. Somehow you've got to change the "individual" aspect of wrestling into a "team/social event" aspect. If you could come up with a way to make the girls feel like they are part of team instead of an individual everyone i looking at and judging you'd be very successful in generating numbers.
 
We have to introduce it to them somehow... to include boys. One of the best ways is in the school system... getting to speak in front of the student body with a well planned speech. Spark the interest and see who comes around. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to get in front of the student body these days. There is so much to be said of the merits gained from wrestling... have to communicate and relate to an internal spark!
 
As a father of a son and two daughters I can tell you boys and girls are not the same, or more specifically very few of them are the same. If you ever watched a third grade playground you can easily see the difference. Let's say there are 100 third graders evenly split between boys and girls. You'll find that 46 - 47 boys are in the middle of the play yard running around like wild people. Mixed in with boys, if you look carefully, you'll find a couple of girls running with them and playing whatever game the boys are playing. Meanwhile, you'll find 48 girls standing around the perimeter chatting, playing hopscotch, or sitting on benches and you'll find a couple of boys standing around with the girls. It's just the way it is.

I don't have a strategy for increasing the number of girls participating in wrestling but I'm sure you don't treat them the same way. In my opinion, young girls like to play sports for the "social" aspect. Somehow you've got to change the "individual" aspect of wrestling into a "team/social event" aspect. If you could come up with a way to make the girls feel like they are part of team instead of an individual everyone i looking at and judging you'd be very successful in generating numbers.
This doesn't appear to be science, and also ignores social science.

Gymnastics is as tough as wrestling and is clearly an individual sport (including all training). It requires a commitment commensurate with wrestling to perform at a high level.

As a Uncle with 5 nephews and 7 nieces who as a set have largely been raised in 3 different states (the majority In PA), I can definitely say participation in any sport is driven by parental support and opportunity to participate at an early age. This involves family commitment and typically requires a community recreation organization.

A family's willingness to commitment is influenced by the social norms of their culture, and limited by their financial standing. A young girl's willingness to participate in a sport outside of her peer group's norms may require extraordinary parental encouragement to overcome peer pressure. Self-confidence is learned behavior.

The way to increase MS/HS girls participation in wrestling is giving full support all ES-aged daughters, nieces, grand daughters, and friends' daughters whenever they express an early interest, and support girls participation in wrestling at the local Rec Council level. And maybe donate to Wrestle Like A Girl. In this way, social norms might evolve, but there's no guarantee.
 
Having coached/wrestled alongside other girls, I’ve mostly seen girls give wrestling a try whose family has some ties to the sport. I had a two female teammates in HS/MS whose brothers both wrestled. They were introduced by being around the sport and being encouraged to give it a try. The same goes for 2 of the girls I’ve coached over the years. Both had siblings in the sport and were encouraged by their parents and us as coaches to give it a try. One of my female wrestlers originally started wrestling because her dad said she had to do 2 years of wrestling before he’d sign her up for tackle football.

Like any couple, my fiancé and I have talked about having kids (she wants all boys). We’ve both agreed that if we were to have a girl or girls, we’d sign them up for wrestling for at least a couple of years just so they can have a base for self defense should someone later give them a reason to use it.

These, along with the suggestion of a student body assembly, are viable avenues for introducing and encouraging more girls to try the sport imo.
 
As a male myself, I would have never tried wrestling if it wasn't for Middle School/Junior High School gym class. The girls' classes were doing other sports when we were learning the basics of wrestling. If you can somehow get it introduced to girls at this level it may stick with some of them. The trouble might be finding qualified girl's gym teachers that can teach the basics. I have been out of school for a couple of generations, so there may be more crossover of the male/female gym classes and teachers than there was when I was in school.
Great idea, but I don't think many schools teach wrestling in gym anymore. I was told by our administration that they stopped for liability reasons.
 
Our school district started a girls program last year. It blew up... 20+ girls. I think introducing it as a school sport is key. A lot of parents seemed to think differently about girls wrestling once the school got involved as it made them feel thst it really was a girls sport.

Our team had kids ranging from cheerleaders to power lifters. Pretty cool to see it gel.
 
Everyone seems to be focusing on the bottom up approach, which has a lot of merit. But we also must increase our support for existing scholastic and college programs and encourage more institutions to explore the possibilities. Support for the USA team athletes also needs to increase. The more exposure, support, endorsements, etc that the USA women's team receives could open some eyes. I noticed a drop-off of posters for the U20 championships once the MFS concluded, which is too bad because some of our next WFS stars were competing, just as they were in the MFS and Greco, too.
 
:"

"How do we recruit more girls at the HS/MS level?"​



Here's a question: What makes you think this is in your control?

A smart clergyman once told me, "there are things you need to let to happen, you can't make them happen".

I have a reasonably athletic niece, now a freshman in college. She played field hockey for her one year of jr. high/ four years of high school. She was "recruited" by friends.

I noticed a couple of things about her participation in the game.

First was that it was a social event for her and her team. When they gathered before the game it was social, when they played it was social, when they scored it was social. That was 70% of her motivation. They had games where they painted paw prints on each others' faces.

Second was there was a marked difference between her first two years and the last. When she was new and developing both in the game and physically, she was affirmed and encouraged by her coach. She pointed out one of them and I noticed the difference. There was a considerable drop off in her reports of "positive feedback" after her sophomore year. Retention is as important as recruitment

Part of it was that the "serious" girls had physical trainers and gym memberships and that's when I think the women were separated from the girls. The difference on the field was obvious. The fluidity of movement, the endurance, the ball being hit with a loud crack were obvious. If I realized she was going to be a starter, but not a superstar, surely her coaches did-and unfortunately, it was really obvious the coach didn't affirm non-superstars. She didn't go out on the field to check on an injured player, either.

By the end, she was going through the motions, asking to be taken out of games.

The point is, every young person has different motivations and abilities, even if girls and boys exhibit group tendencies. The attraction to me was that wrestling would provide an opportunity to engage in combat. I can't imagine anybody on my wrestling team glitter-painting insignias on each others' faces. Male or female, the sport has to offer the individual person something.

You have to realize not everybody is going to want to participate. This niece is disgusted by wrestling, with minimal exposure coming from a friend whose cousin was good enough to be one Robbie Howard's tournament victims. But the reason is more than the sweat and the indignities of having your face and hands in strange places. She saw me watching an interview once and immediately detested the idea of something that caused cauliflower ear.

As time goes on, I think more girls will participate, especially girls that are of smaller stature and at a disadvantage for basketball. It will have to be organic, as opposed to engineered-and the female participation rate will find its own level.
 
This doesn't appear to be science, and also ignores social science.

Gymnastics is as tough as wrestling and is clearly an individual sport (including all training). It requires a commitment commensurate with wrestling to perform at a high level.

As a Uncle with 5 nephews and 7 nieces who as a set have largely been raised in 3 different states (the majority In PA), I can definitely say participation in any sport is driven by parental support and opportunity to participate at an early age. This involves family commitment and typically requires a community recreation organization.

A family's willingness to commitment is influenced by the social norms of their culture, and limited by their financial standing. A young girl's willingness to participate in a sport outside of her peer group's norms may require extraordinary parental encouragement to overcome peer pressure. Self-confidence is learned behavior.

The way to increase MS/HS girls participation in wrestling is giving full support all ES-aged daughters, nieces, grand daughters, and friends' daughters whenever they express an early interest, and support girls participation in wrestling at the local Rec Council level. And maybe donate to Wrestle Like A Girl. In this way, social norms might evolve, but there's no guarantee.
An uncle? Ok. :rolleyes:
 
To those of you who have shared: thank you. I'm compiling ideas, trends, anecdotes, etc to share with coaches that I'm connected with to recruit and retain girls/womens wrestlers. I figured some here would have different experiences than I have with girls wrestling, thus I could learn.
 
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He should feel like a complete a-hole, a presumptuous one.

A couple of months before my sister died, she called me and said "you know, I grew up with two big brothers, but my little girl has no big brothers. If something happens to me, be my daughter's big brother." I said "yeah sure, I will" having no idea that promise would come due, just thinking my sister's "mommy gene" was on overdrive.

I had no idea that a couple of months later, my life would match any earthly hell scape I thought possible, when my apparently healthy sister who I had just reassured would be rocking on her chair complaining about her spoiled grandchildren if she just eased up on the gas, simply died, three hours after complaining of back pain.

There was a reason, but no cause and her best friend's MD husband described it as something for the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Now, maybe you tussle your nieces' and nephews' hair and toss them a 20 on their birthday, but that's not my relationship with this young lady. In order that she would be connected to me and my wife, we made sure we were close, because we wanted to make sure that if something happened to her father, we had a long record of support and involvement to make a case for guardianship. That meant annual trips to the Farm Show, Santa Trains, including her on family vacations, and establishing a healthy trust account. I bought her field hockey equipment.

I never had a daughter, and while I would never try to take her father's place, I made a promise and I'm keeping it-I just bought her first semester's books. Luckily, my wife and I have the ability to do this, in part thanks to my Penn State education. I couldn't love her more if she was my own.

When a niece (or nephew) is the last piece of your sister or brother, the relationship changes.

Now be glad you weren't a such an a-hole in person. Resolve to do better. Not everybody is as understanding and forgiving as me.

Oh yeah, by the way there is no such thing as a "social science". I know this, because I have an economics degree and that's referred to as the "queen of social sciences".

 
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I teach in an exercise science department and teach the PE Teacher education majors courses. It is a fact that girls are less physically active than boys. This has been duplicated in study after study using accelerometers to track activity patterns during recess, at home etc. Also, both boys and girls tend to choose stereotypical “gender appropriate” activities in elementary school unless given a lot of encouragement to try something different. This was actually my Masters thesis topic. Having said that, introducing children at a young age to activities they may not have considered can help. By middle school age, though, kids are less concerned about the “gender appropriateness” of an activity and choose sports that look fun, have opportunities to make friends etc. Increasing opportunities for children to experiment in a variety of activities can help them decide what they do and don’t like.
 

Do You Know the Factors Influencing Girls’ Participation in Sports?​

https://www.womenssportsfoundation....rs-influencing-girls-participation-in-sports/


Yes, and it's not something inherent difference between little boys and little girls.
This article is referring to high school sports, not youth sports. I think the OP was trying to increase ways to get girls to participate earlier, not have them begin wrestling in high school.
I teach in an exercise science department and teach the PE Teacher education majors courses. It is a fact that girls are less physically active than boys. This has been duplicated in study after study using accelerometers to track activity patterns during recess, at home etc. Also, both boys and girls tend to choose stereotypical “gender appropriate” activities in elementary school unless given a lot of encouragement to try something different. This was actually my Masters thesis topic. Having said that, introducing children at a young age to activities they may not have considered can help. By middle school age, though, kids are less concerned about the “gender appropriateness” of an activity and choose sports that look fun, have opportunities to make friends etc. Increasing opportunities for children to experiment in a variety of activities can help them decide what they do and don’t like.
 
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Do You Know the Factors Influencing Girls’ Participation in Sports?​

https://www.womenssportsfoundation....rs-influencing-girls-participation-in-sports/


Yes, and it's not something inherent difference between little boys and little girls.

I'd suggest that if you want to understand why girls participate in sports or don't participate in sports, talk to them. Go to their games and support their training, practice and play. It requires actual commitment, and opening your wallet. As opposed to googling the pet project of some 70's fossil activist.

It's hilarious that they are celebrating 50 years of Title IX and still complaining.

Item 3 is the founder projecting. That goes two ways. Imagine being a male figure skater. If there's a stigma about female competitors, it's when they stop looking female. Lydia Valentin clean and jerked 147kg. Compare her to the crossfitter @ 3:00 in this video.




If Item 4 has merit, it lacks specifics. I'm an analyst, so I believe in granularity. It's not "boy's sports" that get better facilities. It's two boy's sports, specifically football and basketball. Football is the sport where we're expected to spend inordinate amounts for a facility that's used a half a dozen times per year, and equipping a dedicated shrine to York Barbell-or now Rogue Fitness.

I'm all for de-emphasizing football. I'd ban it if I could. It's people cheering for young men to buy call options on CTE/dementia. Think anybody that cheered Tim Shaw are doing anything to help him now?


We aren't mountain goats and shouldn't emulate them. Wrestling allows you to be combative without being barbaric. I wonder how Tim would have done in a blue singlet.
 
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This article is referring to high school sports, not youth sports.
Thanks for the thoughtful response. I read the article as providing a general explanation for the lack of girls in sports.

I think the OP was trying to increase ways to get girls to participate earlier, not have them begin wrestling in high school.

Ok. But the thread title includes "recruit more girls at the HS/MS level." I took it to mean potentially girls with characteristics (mental and physical) that might lead them to enjoy wrestling and perhaps develop proficiency.

I agree that earlier would be much better, and that's why I brought up local rec councils.

I think the article pretty clearly indicates the need to support from youngest to most accomplished levels to have participation in HS.

I'd be curious to understand what defines or creates something as a "stereotypic activity." To me, it sounds like anything defined to be a "stereotypic activity" will have its basis in cultural norms. I further understand the earliest childhood learning is driven by observation and imitation, so I can understand how "stereotypic activities" may come to be.
 
Thanks for the thoughtful response. I read the article as providing a general explanation for the lack of girls in sports.



Ok. But the thread title includes "recruit more girls at the HS/MS level." I took it to mean potentially girls with characteristics (mental and physical) that might lead them to enjoy wrestling and perhaps develop proficiency.

I agree that earlier would be much better, and that's why I brought up local rec councils.

I think the article pretty clearly indicates the need to support from youngest to most accomplished levels to have participation in HS.

I'd be curious to understand what defines or creates something as a "stereotypic activity." To me, it sounds like anything defined to be a "stereotypic activity" will have its basis in cultural norms. I further understand the earliest childhood learning is driven by observation and imitation, so I can understand how "stereotypic activities" may come to be.
Sorry- I missed the part about middle/high school as I automatically went to getting more kids in youth and having the trickle up effect to older kids.

The “stereotypic activity” is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Basically, what I did in my research, was to list a wide variety of sport and activities (including dance, hiking etc). Young boys were much likely to indicate they would try an activity they see on tv or their community as “boys” sports, and young girls were the same. I found little girls much more interested in trying dance/gymnastics/soccer and boys football/ basketball etc. They broadened their interest in other activities as they got older. This was 1994 (yes, I am old!) so I would hope more sports today are seen as “gender neutral.” I don’t think wrestling is there (yet) in most areas.
 
I'm told that you need to be an uncle to understand young girls. 🤣🤣🤣
 
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I'm told that you need to be uncle to understand young girls. 🤣🤣🤣

That's not what I said. I said you need a high level of personal engagement.

Somebody sought to spare you the feeling of being a complete a-hole. I don't believe that's helpful for you.

Golf Foxtrot Yankee, Alpha Hotel
 
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In our case my daughter grew up in the sport. She watched 2 older brothers, kept stats, and basically begged to be allowed on the mat. When Idaho allowed it she jumped in full swing. Girls wrestling is the fastest growing sport in the US. Just expose them. My daughter is now done with her Community College wrestling and helps out with the local clubs and schools. Female coaches are also a plus.
 
In our case my daughter grew up in the sport. She watched 2 older brothers, kept stats, and basically begged to be allowed on the mat. When Idaho allowed it she jumped in full swing. Girls wrestling is the fastest growing sport in the US. Just expose them. My daughter is now done with her Community College wrestling and helps out with the local clubs and schools. Female coaches are also a plus.
It’s gonna absolutely explode, as we get more women coaches who choose to continue involvement in the sport. That’s gonna be fun to watch.
 
Truthfully, I’m somewhat surprised more schools (college and HS) don’t look into fielding Men’s and Women’s programs considering it keeps them well within Title IX compliance and makes them look good from a PR standpoint for progressive minded parents. I realize there are financials to consider as well, but it’s certainly worth considering nonetheless.
 
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