sportstyle

FUN FACT During the current school year, Louisiana will become the 45th state association to sanction a girls' state high school wrestling championship. The sanctioning includes competing in 12 weight classes with girls' wrestling as adopted by the NFHS Wrestling Rules. W hile wrestling doesn't have the huge participation numbers of football, baseball and basketball, it does gen- erate worldwide attention every four years while being included within the Summer Olympic Games, which was certainly the case in Paris this past August. Chad Clark, senior VP at Cliff Keen Athletic, attended the Paris Games and reports that the atmosphere inside the wrestling arena was strong and vibrant. "I can tell you that the crowds for wrestling were terrific and the wrestling community from around the world came out in full force," he says. Back in the U.S., according to the latest participation figures from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), there are 1.9 million wrestlers. Of those, 1.9 million 309,447 are high schoolers, based on the most recent research from the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). And, of those, 83.8 percent (259,431, to be precise) are boys. e promising number is that the balance of the high school wrestlers – more than 50,000 – are girls. And wrestling is becoming a more lucrative category for team dealers specifically because of this expanding female participation. In Iowa, wrestling is a major sport for high school boys and girls and, according to the NFHS, there are 6952 boys and 2935 girls wrestling competitively in the Hawkeye state. A significant percentage of them are purchasing their gear and apparel from Iowa Sports Supply in Cedar Falls, IA. "We have a strong wrestling business as we take care of all the basics in the sport," says owner Lisa Ellis. And nearby in Indiana a similar surge is primarily due to the steady growth in participation by girls. "High school girls have been wrestling in Indiana for roughly 20 years," reports Doc Claussen, GM of Coaches Corner, based in Terre Haute, IN. "For the last two years, we've had a state finals for high school girls' wrestling in Indiana." As a high school wrestling official in Indiana for more than 25 years, Claussen has seen first- hand how girls' wrestling has blossomed in the Hoosier state. Girls' high school wrestlers in Indiana are so competitive that many of them are still competing against their male counterparts. "We had a few girls make it to the boys' wrestling state finals this year," Claussen says. 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. n TEAM / SPECIALTY SPORTS GRAPPLING WITH WRESTLING sportstylemag.com • sportstyle September/October 2024 • 37 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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