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There seems to be a lot of focus on growing the sport of wrestling in our state, but I see nobody even remotely mentioning increasing the participation of female wrestlers. I think that this could be a big way to increase interest in the sport. Everywhere that I have coached we have had at least one female wrestler, but I have always heard the same complaint..."Competing against boys is unfair" and quite frankly, I think we all can agree that it is.

The National Wrestling Coaches Association, MaxPreps and USA Today, to name a few, have all written articles that noted that girl's wrestling is a growing sport. Several states now have girl's divisions that specifically give girls a shot to compete against peers. Also, there are now 30 colleges that have a women's wrestling team and there is evidence that when a college starts a female wrestling team the team has 30 members within 3 years, which is some pretty strong evidence that there is interest in the sport among females.

Just a few weeks ago I talked to a girl on our team and asked if she ever wrestles out of season and she told me that she would if there was an all-girls tournament, but there was no point when she always has to face boys. I imagine that this is the sentiment of all girls who wrestle in our state.

Pros of a girls division:

- Helps fulfill Title IX requirements that there be a girls sport for every boys sport in a school
- Potentially doubles student interest in the sport by allowing girls to compete vs. girls instead of boys
- Also doubles parent interest since their little girl won't be getting mauled by a boy week in and week out
- Increases opportunities for girls earn athletic scholarships

Cons:
- I haven't thought of any yet

I know the "nay-sayers" will point out the lack of overall numbers of female wrestlers right now. I see that as a minor issue. Start spreading the word that there will be a girls only division at the state championships starting two years from now and I imagine we will see a significant jump in female wrestlers in a very short period of time.

Don't even get me started on the positive publicity our sport would get if we became the first state in our region to promote girl's wrestling with a girl's state championship. Currently only Washington, Hawaii, California, Texas, and Massachusetts have high school girl's state championships.

I agree. With the popularity of women's sports on the rise and especially women's MMA, I think this is the perfect time.

The Brooke Classic runs a separate tournament (lower bracket) in another gym for wrestlers who lose in the first round of the big tournament. They had a girl place 1st in that tournament! Congrats Samantha!

106 Samantha Miller (Parkersburg South), 2-1, 1 pin, 1st place lower bracket

I totally agree with needing more girls events in our area. In the 4 years my daughter has wrestled the numbers of girls in youth wrestling have grown tremendously. I would be interested in helping to bring more girls events to the area. Hope to see a girls division for high school states in 2 years. But if not Z hangs pretty well with the boys!

Pwzmom wrote:I totally agree with needing more girls events in our area. In the 4 years my daughter has wrestled the numbers of girls in youth wrestling have grown tremendously. I would be interested in helping to bring more girls events to the area. Hope to see a girls division for high school states in 2 years. But if not Z hangs pretty well with the boys!

Youth wrestling would actually be a great place to start. There are significantly more girls wrestling in youth leagues than in middle or high school.

Efforts aimed at increasing the number of females in wrestling is a great idea.

Last year there was a youth girls state event near lewisburg but I haven't seen anything this year. One all girls event in wheeling this year.

coach_williams wrote:
The National Wrestling Coaches Association, MaxPreps and USA Today, to name a few, have all written articles that noted that girl's wrestling is a growing sport. Several states now have girl's divisions that specifically give girls a shot to compete against peers. Also, there are now 30 colleges that have a women's wrestling team and there is evidence that when a college starts a female wrestling team the team has 30 members within 3 years, which is some pretty strong evidence that there is interest in the sport among females.

Just a few weeks ago I talked to a girl on our team and asked if she ever wrestles out of season and she told me that she would if there was an all-girls tournament, but there was no point when she always has to face boys. I imagine that this is the sentiment of all girls who wrestle in our state.

Don't even get me started on the positive publicity our sport would get if we became the first state in our region to promote girl's wrestling with a girl's state championship. Currently only Washington, Hawaii, California, Texas, and Massachusetts have high school girl's state championships.

If the only thing holding her back is a lack of an all girl's tournament then Be sure to tell the girl on your team about the opportunities at Fargo. If she has a decent week she will get on the women's college radar. She will meet and live with other female wrestlers from all over the US for a week. Call George Shore in Urbana Ohio, he runs an all girl's club that travels to regional and national tournaments.

There is a tournament in Tennessee at Science Hill High School in Jonson City. They run a separate jv and girls tournament at the same time as the varsity tournament. I would highly recommend it to any team with girls. The Science Hill Girls Wrestling team has won titles.

Yes Tennessee is very much ahead of the curve, being from there I know a little bit about it. They have a girls state tournament it started either in late 2000s or early 10s. I think 09 as my sister was going to compete but decided not to and be the boys manager so she wouldn't get hurt for softball. There is not any reason we couldn't run a separate tournament in Huntington.

Unfortunately, just like most male wrestlers in our state, most female wrestlers can not afford a trip to Fargo or Tennessee. I agree those are great opportunities if a girl has family support and financial ability and can go, but my focus is more so about growing the sport in our state. Our sport needs more publicity and more interest and I think a little more focus on girls getting in the sport would generate both.

coach_williams wrote:Unfortunately, just like most male wrestlers in our state, most female wrestlers can not afford a trip to Fargo or Tennessee. I agree those are great opportunities if a girl has family support and financial ability and can go, but my focus is more so about growing the sport in our state. Our sport needs more publicity and more interest and I think a little more focus on girls getting in the sport would generate both.

I agree with what you are saying. With that said, there is not enough interest to support a separate program for girls, right now. As much as I would love for there to be one. I have 2 daughters and 4 sons. 3 of my sons wrestle. My daughters have grown up around the sport and enjoy watching very much. They have never expressed an interest in competing, however. My oldest daughter never wanted to compete because she did not want to wrestle boys and quite frankly, I didn't really want her to either. I know that is a little old fashioned but I have always felt that once boys and girls hit a certain age, the sport is a little too intimate for coed competition.

Having said that, I think we should take a page from the movie "Field of Dreams". "If you build it they will come."

Girls wrestling will be small at first but it will catch on just like basketball, softball and other sports.

mike.carman wrote: Having said that, I think we should take a page from the movie "Field of Dreams". "If you build it they will come."

Girls wrestling will be small at first but it will catch on just like basketball, softball and other sports.

Taking a page from the movie "Old School" I am against Girls Wrestling. It killed my boy Blue and judging from the age of some of the officials, it is liable to do the same to them!

mike.carman wrote:

coach_williams wrote:Unfortunately, just like most male wrestlers in our state, most female wrestlers can not afford a trip to Fargo or Tennessee. I agree those are great opportunities if a girl has family support and financial ability and can go, but my focus is more so about growing the sport in our state. Our sport needs more publicity and more interest and I think a little more focus on girls getting in the sport would generate both.

I agree with what you are saying. With that said, there is not enough interest to support a separate program for girls, right now. As much as I would love for there to be one. I have 2 daughters and 4 sons. 3 of my sons wrestle. My daughters have grown up around the sport and enjoy watching very much. They have never expressed an interest in competing, however. My oldest daughter never wanted to compete because she did not want to wrestle boys and quite frankly, I didn't really want her to either. I know that is a little old fashioned but I have always felt that once boys and girls hit a certain age, the sport is a little too intimate for coed competition.

Having said that, I think we should take a page from the movie "Field of Dreams". "If you build it they will come."

Girls wrestling will be small at first but it will catch on just like basketball, softball and other sports.

Let me clarify, I am not suggesting a girls division or separate program. Simply a girls state championships. In my mind (where some scary things happen), it would be simple. For the first few years, just to promote the idea, all female wrestlers would qualify for girls states. I don't think we have more than 16 girls per weight class in the state anyway, so this should be easy. In fact, until the number of girl wrestlers increase it may be necessary to merge some weight classes to make sure there are not classes with just one or two wrestlers. Once interest builds enough that brackets are filling up then regions could start hosting a girls regional qualifier.

I don't even think it should happen immediately. We should take a year or two to promote the idea of a girls state championship and to draw in and train female wrestlers. The first girls states could happen in 2019 or 2020.

Girls states would not need to be a separate event. They could actually happen in conjunction with states and the bouts could simply be mixed into the boys states matches.

Has there ever been a girl that won a state championship? I was thinking that sometime in the 90s a girl from maybe Wirt had either won it or was close.

WVwrestle4 wrote:Has there ever been a girl that won a state championship? I was thinking that sometime in the 90s a girl from maybe Wirt had either won it or was close.

Erica Dye finished as runner up for Wirt County.

Had to go back and look up the year. It was 2002.

I have had two females on my middle school team over the last 2 to 3 years. One of them competes fairly well and has a winning record this year with multiple pins. However, she will most likely not be wrestling in high school due to many of the issues presented here. I have no doubt that if what Coach Williams proposes was actually in effect- she would be wrestling next year.

Since 1994, the number of women who wrestle in high school has grown from 804 to 13,900.

California, Guam, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington sponsor a girl’s state high school championship.

- See more at: http://www.nwcaonline.com/growing-wrest ... RR2D8.dpuf

Virginia just held their first High School State Sanctioned Girls State Wrestling Tournament this past weekend. Girls Wrestling is growing it's time for all States to realize that and help the growth to continue.

See let's get this in motion I have two more years before my little one gets to high school!

I say let it happen, let the WVSSAC get involved could always let them make more money. Rules are the same formats are the same. If they would approve it you would see a lot of young girls do it.

Does anyone remember a girl who wrestled in the late 80s through maybe the early to mid 90s by the Name of Kim Trusty? That girl was absolutely tough as nails. I'm pretty sure Jason Trusty was a younger brother or maybe cousin. I'm telling you, she could compete with the best in the state but she kind of disappeared in JR high school.

Since you mentioned it, yeah, I remember her.

I was coaching Preston's youth team at the time. She pinned Preston's Chris Wilson in a youth tourney once. A few years later Chris went on to win the AAA 135 Championship in 1998.

There was also a tough young lady who wrestled for Buckhannon Upshur around 2006/2007 named Brittany Woodall. She qualified for the state tournament a couple years, but ran into Brooke's Dan Felton early both years. She had a lot of muscle and was a very attractive young lady. She has went on to become a doctor and is currently working, I believe, in Texas.

The young lady that sticks out in my mind is Brooke Alton from Lewis county. My oldest son wrestled for Greenbrier East at the time and we were at the 2010 region 3 regionals. Our 135 pounder Matt Surgeon was about to wrestle her and I warned him to not take the match lightly just because he was facing a girl. He gave me a little grin that told me he was doing exactly that. He ended up beating her 10-6, but the untold story is that she had him in a cowboy on his back and was inches away from pinning him when the 3rd period ended. Had she had just 15 or 20 more seconds she would have gone on to states and he would have been eliminated.

It is also key to note that Brooke defeated the higher seeded Dustin Cooper from Nicholas county by a score of 9-5 and she lasted until :23 seconds left in the 2nd period with Bridgeport's Tommy Brunswick who placed 4th at states that year.

James wrote:http://fox13now.com/2017/02/01/utah-teen-fights-for-a-spot-on-her-junior-high-team-in-federal-court/

That is crazy! The article says that the school district quoted Title 34 as saying girls can not participate in contact sports. I have never heard of this and I see nowhere in it where it discusses sports at all. Sounds to me like there is a chauvinist at their school.

coach_williams wrote:Unfortunately, just like most male wrestlers in our state, most female wrestlers can not afford a trip to Fargo or Tennessee. I agree those are great opportunities if a girl has family support and financial ability and can go, but my focus is more so about growing the sport in our state. Our sport needs more publicity and more interest and I think a little more focus on girls getting in the sport would generate both.

I know what you are saying coach and I don't mean this to sound quarrelsome, but I hope that you also recognize that your argument / excuse is circular and leads to a downward spiral.

1. Can't afford to travel so athlete stays home, instead choosing to wrestle 4 months per years for the high school team (if male) or not wrestle at all (many of the females)
2. Out of state colleges don't recognize WV as a wrestling powerhouse and do not send coaches/scouts to our State tournament / flo does not cover the state tournament (population is a big factor in this)
3. Of the in state colleges who do attend, none of them offer women's wrestling
4. Student athlete does not receive offers and ends up not going to college or incurring student loan burden from paying full price
5. Wrestling career ends and student athlete always wonders "what if"

I do not have the answers but I will tell you that I sent my son to Fargo last year. My son along with most of the other kids took it upon themselves to do fundraising to pay for the trip. Coach Archer and the assistants are very aware of the costs and are always trying to reduce the burden (thank the Obama/Clinton war on coal for the increase in cost last year). As a parent I viewed Fargo as an opportunity to make money. If a kid has a good showing out there he or she will get attention from schools. Spending a thousand dollars is a significant investment but when compared to college expenses I think that same grand would be about the equivalent of buying books for a semester. So even if a school only offers to pay for books during your 4 years at school (yes I recognize that a scholarship offer is a year by year deal) then you spent $1000 going to Fargo (of which you fundraised most or all) and you received $8,000 to $10,000 over 4-5 years in book money. The place is crawling with coaches who desperately want to find a diamond in the rough. I think the kids who understand that this is a fun trip but it is also an opportunity to meet coaches and sell yourself do well regardless of whether they make the podium or not. My son and several of his friends gambled a thousand dollars of their own money with the hopes of parlaying that money into somewhere between $10k (5 years of books) to $250,000 (5 years full ride).
The opportunities for female wrestlers out there appeared to be much more readily available than for male wrestlers.

The real cost of fargo for my family was not sending my son. He took care of nearly all of that through fundraising. I can be a control freak and I wanted to be there physically to watch and share in the experience. It was expensive for me and my wife to go and I agree with Coach Williams if his contention is that not all families can afford to take off a week and fly to Fargo. We couldn't so we cut some corners, flew to Minnesota and rented a cheap car to drive the rest of the way. We stayed at an economy motel. We didn't go on vacation anywhere last year. I do not regret it at all.

So my counter point to Coach Williams is that if you have a female or male wrestler who is not willing to work to make the trip possible then Coach is right, financial ability does limit many/most west Virginia wrestlers and that is unfortunate because even with the institution of a Girls state tournament (which I support by the way), the scholarship opportunities will be slight for males and non-existent for females in WV. Tell a kid that it is ok to dream and it is ok to take a bet on himself/herself.

@timamos While I realize I pointed out the financial aspect (primarily because I know that the female wrestlers I have worked with can not afford it) my bigger purpose in this thread was to discuss promoting female wrestling in our state. The pure and simple reality of finances is a small part of the issue. What happens if a female wrestler raises the funds and goes to Fargo and does well? Then what? She returns to WV where she has to face male wrestlers 99% of the time and if she even makes it to states is guaranteed to face male wrestlers. So much is discussed on here lately about leveling the playing field for JV wrestlers or splitting the regions up to make sure wrestlers from a certain area get to states, but nobody seems to take notice that we have some female wrestlers who, in spite of getting beat up on week after week by male wrestlers, still keep coming back year after year and nobody seems to notice or care that they have it more unfair than anyone else.

I also have a feeling that people are much more willing to give to help Braxton get to Fargo than they would be to give for a female wrestler with a 4-27 record to get there.

I talked to Laurie Fisher from Eastern Greenbrier's youth wrestling program about the subject of a separate state tournament for female wrestlers earlier this season. Laurie, who has a daughter who is an excellent wrestler and right around middle school age, planned to present the WVSSAC with a proposal on a girls' state tournament. One of the things that we discussed was that girls wrestling around the country, including at the college level, is entirely freestyle. It wouldn't take a lot of work to add weights for a girls' state tournament, but it wouldn't, to me, make a lot of sense to have the girls compete in folkstyle. It would be like trying to promote girls' softball by making the girls play baseball. There have been a lot of really tough girls come through our youth program and there are a number of girls among the entrants in our conference tournament this weekend. It would be nice if there was a place for them to compete at the end of the season.