Why Wrestle?
"As a young man, I participated in wrestling, and later had the privilege of helping others experience the sport as both a teacher and a coach. Wrestling has played a vital role in developing our nation's young people. No sport demands more in courage, discipline, and perseverance."
Dennis Hastert,
Fmr. Speaker of the US House of Representatives
- Indigenous to your geographic area
- Wrestling provides opportunities for all sizes and promotes diversity
- Opportunity for regionally competitive program
- High school participation trends
- Academic achievement of scholastic/collegiate wrestlers
- Modest cost for establishing a program
- Wrestling's outstanding Americans
- Wrestling has weight classes from 106 lbs. to 285 lbs. so all students of any size have an opportunity to compete.
- Historically, wrestling is a "blue collar" sport that attracts student-athletes from diverse socio-economic backgrounds.
- Wrestling is one of the few sports that provides opportunities for the blind and physically handicapped.
- On the 2004 U.S. Men's Olympic Freestyle Team, six of the seven athletes were minorities.
- The National High School participation rate for wrestling has shown an increase the last six years. (In 1999, scholastic wrestling had the fourth largest growth of all boys' sports nationwide).
- Since 1994, the number of women participating in high school wrestling has grown from 804 to 7,351.
- Since 1994, the number of high schools that sponsor wrestling has grown from 8,559 to 10,407.
- Combined total of male and female wrestling programs is 11,622.
- Since 1994, the number of high school participants in wrestling for boys and girls has grown from 222,429 to 281,083.