Why Freestyle is the Future for Girls Wrestling
The scholastic girls community grew to a record breaking 65,000 participants last year. High school girls will lead another historic season in 2024-2025 when they battle their way through brackets in 46 girls state wrestling championships. They will compete with new rules influenced by NCAA Men’s Wrestling and adopted by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
At the same time girls wrap up their regular season events in January, women’s NCAA leaders will gather for their 4-day annual convention. Which is why my attention will focus on their vote to approve women’s collegiate freestyle to become the NCAA’s 91st championship sport.
When they vote for approval it sets the stage for important questions about the future of female wrestling such as: Can girls and women’s wrestling become a more independent sport? and Does freestyle offer females their best opportunity to have a streamlined development and competition system from youth through college with one style of wrestling?
A novel wrestling model is taking shape in the US driven by females. For 48 years I’ve held a vision of what my sport could become for girls and women. I’m grateful to Katherine Shai and LuchaFit for allowing me to share it with you.
A Vision Rooted in the Past
I turned out for my high school boys wrestling team in 1986 in Washington. I fell in love with the sport and remained with the team through the remainder of high school. Despite the numerous challenges wrestling became my top sport of choice.
I graduated from high school in 1989 and, unbeknownst to me, that same year 5 women represented the United States at the Senior Women’s Freestyle World Championships in Switzerland. The following year, I competed in the first US Women’s World Team Trials in Vallejo, CA organized by Lee Allen and Joan Fulp. This was the first time I came face to face with other female wrestlers. It was life-changing to step in the circle with them, slap hands and compete. Freestyle brought us together and provided our pioneering group a way to forge future opportunities.
From the moment I met those women, I’ve dreamt of a future where every girl that laces up wrestling shoes knows she’s in a system built intentionally for her to succeed; not borrowed and colored pink. I’ve wanted girls to experience wrestling as a sport designed for them by women.
The thread tying my vision together has always been freestyle.
Why Freestyle for Girls’ Wrestling?
Womens collegiate wrestling was intentionally built on freestyle.
Our origin story is much different from the turn of the 19th century college leaders that developed US men’s folkstyle. The pioneering women’s college teams charted a course for freestyle in the 1990’s. Freestyle is the competitive system collegiate women want. Their supporters and leaders are steadfast in championing their choice.
In 2022, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) launched women’s collegiate freestyle onto the championship podium. The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) is working towards championship consideration, and the NCAA is positioned and ready to vote for women’s collegiate freestyle at their convention in January 2025.
The crowning of our first NCAA women’s freestyle national champions will be an epic moment in US wrestling history, and a major achievement for all female wrestlers and supporters. It will also cast a focus on the relationship between women’s collegiate freestyle and scholastic girls wrestling. How will scholastic and youth wrestling meet this moment?
We have reasons to be optimistic, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association is the first NFHS association to approve freestyle for their girls state championship in 2024-2025 and USA Wrestling is testing NFHS rules modifications for select girls folkstyle events this year.
The Future of Women’s Wrestling: Freestyle at Every Level
A development and competition pipeline for girls at every age and level based on one competitive style should be the norm. Instead they inherited a 3-style maze from their male peers: folkstyle, freestyle and greco roman. It comes with a charged debate from the wrestling community that pits folkstyle, freestyle, greco roman and their organizations against one another. Girls and women are stuck in the crossfire.
The new NFHS rules (e.g., 3 point takedown adapted from college) illustrates that men’s collegiate folkstyle is the driver in US education based wrestling and the authority in the scholastic/collegiate folkstyle relationship. Similarly, girls need us to shape a system that can provide them a strong scholastic/collegiate freestyle relationship driven by women’s collegiate freestyle.
If the NCAA is primed to ink freestyle into the women’s collegiate rulebook, what do we need to think about?
Will high school girls become permanently tethered to NCAA Men’s Folkstyle wrestling?
Will women's collegiate coaches no longer recruit folkstyle dominant athletes?
The majority of HS girls are convinced they cannot transition to freestyle and turn down recruiters and higher education opportunities. How do we fix this?
There is no urgency or motivation to develop coaches, officials and organizations dedicated to girls if they remain in a 3-style system.
If scholastic folkstyle is the default, how do we build the necessary scholastic/collegiate freestyle partnership for females?
Will females remain in the shadow cast by men’s collegiate wrestling, where the mainstream public cannot value and invest in them?
Closing Thoughts
Females are significant contributors to the sport of wrestling. They saved Olympic wrestling from the brink of extinction. They are returning wrestling to college campuses, and resuscitating high school participation.
Wrestling owes it to them to support a freestyle system from youth through college determined by their collegiate women’s leaders.
I have faith that the best sports family in the world can drive girls and women’s wrestling to new heights.
