I was talking to a girl at practice the other day who was not half bad at wrestling and I asked her if she considered wrestling in college. Like many high school wrestlers, she really had not given it thought thinking that she could not possibly be good enough to wrestle in college. This is a big problem I see in high school wrestling. It is the overwhelming opinion of most wrestlers and coaches that wrestling is only for high school and that college wrestling is reserved for the elite top placers in their state. This is far from true especially for strong wrestling states like California.
The reality is that there are nearly 400 college programs in America with at least 30 women’s programs and more opening up every year. The vast majority of the programs are not Division 1 top programs. There are many levels of wrestling in college including competitive club programs like NCWA and NAIA. This means that every year there are up to 400 spots per weight class opening up across the nation for every freshman who wrestled in high school. A state like California will have 60 wrestlers in a weight class compete for the championship in any given year but maybe 40 of them are seniors in High Schools. At the same time, many wrestlers who would have qualified may have been great wrestlers but only wrestled one or two years in high school, or missed qualification by only a couple of points or had an injury or some other reason why they were not top placers. So that’s many more spots for wrestlers in college than there are competitors at a state championship.
At the same time, with so many wrestlers, it is hard to get noticed unless you get the college to notice you. This means the wrestler needs to do a little work by researching what schools are out there and contact the coaches at the schools they are interested in attending. This is little more than finding the program online and sending an email about yourself, stating your interest in the program and your wrestling experience.
Now why should a high school wrestler think of wrestling in college? Well, first because if they like wrestling and competing in high school, they will enjoy competing and wrestling in college where the level of wrestling is higher and more competitive but also more rewarding. Often times a high school program will only have a few standout wrestlers and these standouts will have a chance to be part of a program where they are among other hard-working wrestlers.
The other reason is money. Many colleges are small and not well known. This means that they recruit via athletics and have scholarships set-up for athletes. Sometimes colleges are well known but not a lot of wrestlers apply to them when in reality a decent high school wrestler with good grades has a higher chance of attending a good school with a wrestling program than if they applied without using their wrestling experience. This means that a good high school wrestler might be missing out on good college aid.
At the same time, athletics have shown time and again that they help students succeed academically. Athletics provide structure and discipline and community to college students who might be away from home for the very first time and struggle with finding community and consistency to do well in college. Wrestling community is well known for tight bonds and a team is a perfect place for a wrestler to find community and maintain discipline that will translate into success in the classroom.
Lastly, I think college wrestling is not just a missed opportunity for high school wrestlers who with a little bit of work in their junior year can setup themselves for free money and wrestling in college. It is also a missed opportunity for high school coaches for recruitment. Many athletes join sports teams thinking that they will play baseball or football in college. They never consider that they might be able to also wrestle in college. But those sports are highly competitive considering the number of people who go for those spots. If more students heard about fellow students getting commitments to college and scholarships who are not state placers, they would be more likely to try wrestling helping the sport grow, especially at schools in low and middle-class neighborhoods.
So if you’re a coach, parent or wrestler reading this post and you never thought about wrestling in college, give it a thought, it just might be one of the best decisions you ever made.
Henry-Wrestling 