FCI Staff Writer Sacramento 
fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com Vladimir-Vasiltvich-Shutterstock-photo-credit-Editorial-use-
July 24, 2022,
Texas is well-known for fantastic steaks, powerful cattle ranches, elite high school football and now you can add another category to the Lone Star State’s resume.
Surging girl’s freestyle wrestling.
According to dallasobserver.com, “The rise of female high school wrestling is undeniable. In 1999, Texas became one of the first states in the country to sanction high school wrestling for women, but thanks to big-name MMA fighters like Ronda Rousey and growth at the summer Olympics during the late 2000s, the number of girls competing in high school wrestling has never been higher.”
We’ve heard good things about girls wrestling in Texas for some time.
There are a number of organizations that are ensuring that girl’s wrestling continues to have great publicity along with that success.
Wrestling Texas is the ONLY media source for rankings, results, and commentary on the sport of Amateur Wrestling in Texas. https://www.facebook.com/wrestlingtexas/
We are impressed by another group as well.
The team at txusaw.com educate, “Texas USA Wrestling, Inc. (TXUSAW) is a volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of amateur wrestling, the world’s oldest organized sport. TXUSAW consistently strives to provide wrestling opportunities and help Texas’ amateur wrestlers achieve their full potential. TXUSAW provides many well-planned activities and tournaments featuring all three wrestling styles throughout the calendar year for all ages and genders. The primary function of the State Association is to promote and develop all styles of wrestling.
TXUSAW strives to educate the community with regard to the many values which wrestling instills upon its participants and how wrestling’s experiences last a lifetime. Texas USA Wrestling is the state affiliate to USA Wrestling, the national governing body for the sport of wrestling in the United States. The State Association serves as liaison between individual participants and the national organization.”
The region joins other states who have a wealth of girls participating in this great sport.
Other states that have girls wrestling associations are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
In the larger picture, this ground swell of activity has helped women’s wrestling become an NCAA designated Emerging Sport.
NCAA Emerging Sports for Women are intercollegiate women’s sports that are recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, but do not have sanctioned NCAA Championships.
The important news regarding this was posted by americanwomenswrestling.com, “On June 17th, NCAA Division 1 joined their D2 & D3 counterparts by adding women’s wrestling to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women. The sport was added along with Acrobatics & Tumbling. … Women’s wrestling must reach 40 varsity programs to reach championship consideration by the NCAA governance structure.”
From scholarships to other financial opportunities it is beneficial to be designated as an NCAA emerging sport.
At the NCAA website they add, “The Emerging Sports for Women program was created in 1994 based on a recommendation from the NCAA Gender Equity Task Force.
An NCAA survey conducted in the early 1990s showed that 20 years after Title IX was passed, female students had about 30 percent of the athletics participation opportunities offered by NCAA institutions. In 2016-17, female students had 44 percent of athletics participation opportunities but made up 54 percent of the complete undergraduate population on NCAA campuses.
The purpose of this program continues to be to grow meaningful intercollegiate sport participation opportunities for female student-athletes in sports that have the potential to reach the required number of varsity teams to be considered for NCAA championship status.
The Emerging Sports for Women program is managed by the Committee on Women’s Athletics. The committee oversees the application process for applicant emerging sports and recommends to each division through the NCAA governance structure to add or remove sports from the NCAA’s Emerging Sports for Women program. The NCAA governance structure for each division determines which sports are Emerging Sports for Women and votes to establish a National Collegiate Championship or division championship for sports that satisfy legislated requirements.”
Very informative. Good to know.
Also on August 26, 2019 USA Wrestling educated, “The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) has released its 2018-19 High School Participation Survey, and the sport of wrestling has grown in all five categories reported.
The biggest jump within wrestling came in girls wrestling, which grew for its 30th straight year. The number of schools with girls wrestling climbed to 2,890, an increase of 539 schools. This marks a 22.9% increase from the previous year.”
As research indicates, the expansion is very real and extremely powerful.
Popular too.
We will keep an eye on Texas.
If you love fully competitive girl’s freestyle wrestling, we suggest you do as well.
They have a way of doing things big down there.
The leaders at wrestlingtexas.com speak to that, expressing, “In raw participation numbers for girls wrestling, Texas also outdoes all other states but California. Texas had a total of 4,421 girl’s wrestlers behind only California which has 6,014 according to a 2019 NFHS report. Only one other state reported having over 1,000 girl’s wrestlers at the time.
On the college level, Texas has the current best program in women’s college wrestling. Wayland Baptist University is currently ranked as the #1 NAIA program in the country, and Texas Wesleyan who is fairly new to the wrestling scene is ranked #12.”
In times past FCI has communicated to Wayland Baptist and their Athletic Department was extremely helpful in updating us with information.
We understand that California is ahead of schedule and in most ways ahead of the girl’s wrestling pack in the United States, in terms of the numbers of girls participating and their great achievements on the mats.
But keep an eye on Texas. They are gaining fast.
They always have a way of being famous for doing things big. Huge, as a matter of fact.
Given how girl’s wrestling is becoming more popular there, we expect much larger news regarding this emergence, emanating for Texas.
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OPENING PHOTO fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com Vladimir-Vasiltvich-Shutterstock-photo-credit-Editorial-use-
https://wrestlingtexas.com/texas-has-a-strong-claim-as-the-best-state-for-womens-wrestling/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Emerging_Sports_for_Women
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/inclusion/ncaa-emerging-sports-women-process-guide
https://www.newsweek.com/ncaa-womens-wrestling-acrobatics-tumbling-emerging-sports-1442082
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
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