Team Insight

division. Hildebrandt grew up in Granger, IN. In a twist, girls' high school wrestlers in Indiana are so competitive that many of them are still competing against their male counterparts. "We have also had a few girls make it to the boys' wrestling state finals this year," Claussen says. "While none of the girls have won state championships, they certainly compete with a great deal of intensity. ey don't like to lose on the mat." And Hildebrandt's Olympic gold-medal winning performance will most likely inspire more young girls from Indiana to start wrestling. "Anytime you have an Olympics, there's going to be an uptick in participation, especially in a sport like wrestling," Claussen adds. Wrestling is growing in popularity in the greater Wilmington, DE, area, too. As a result, Al's Sporting Goods is busy selling the sport, especially in the weeks leading up to the high school season. But in Delaware, the wrestling business is predominantly for boys. "We sell lots of wrestling footwear, singlets, head gear, knee pads, and mat tape," reports owner Bob Hart. Meanwhile, in Battle Creek, MI, wrestling sales are limited to one major item at Jack Pearl's Sports Center. "We don't sell many wrestling uniforms, footwear, head gear, or singlets, but we do sell lots of mat tape," says store manager John Miller. In Texas, wrestling is a popular sport in the larger high schools in the bigger cities such as Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and El Paso. "Right now, participation in high school wrestling is stable for both boys and girls," reports Dan Carey, owner of Carey's Sporting Goods in Fort Worth, TX, who points out that Texas has high school state championships in wrestling for both boys and girls. And in south Florida, the wrestling business is steady for boys and picking up for girls, according to Joel Dunn, salesman at Baker's Sporting Goods, based in Jacksonville, FL. "I find wrestling to be a super specialized sport, but we sell singlets, head gear, shoes and mat tape," he says. teaminsightmag.com September/October 2024 ~ Team Insight • 13 Inside The Wrestling Numbers According to the SFIA's Wrestling Single Sport Report, of the 2.1 million wrestling participants in the U.S., nearly 80 percent are male. Of those 2.1 million, 535,000 are considered core participants who wrestle 26 or more days a year — that is slightly more than 25 percent of all wrestlers. Of those 535,000 core participants, 85 percent are male; 53 percent are between the ages of six and 17; and 44 percent come from a household whose annual income is at least $75,000 a year The largest geographic concentration (20 percent percent) of these core participants is the South Atlantic section (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware).

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