Women's State?

[DrBaker 497]

I'm listening to a podcast on women's college wrestling at NAIA. How far away is Ky from having a women's state tourney?

[halfhalfhalf 121]

Been trying to push it all year I’ve been told Khsaa is watching the #s. 

 

I recommended that we do an invitational along side the state tourney much like TN did.

 

its simple if We build it; they will come approach would work. 

[Stephens 31]

As of this high school season, we had 46 high school girls and 52 girls total represented in the OPC hydration/body fat testing.  

This weekend there were 9 cadet/junior women and about 15 girls overall.  We are taking a dual team to compete nationally and taking a team to Fargo as well. 

My hope is that as the numbers increase KHSAA will look and move forward.  I remind myself that it's not about KHSAA not liking women's wrestling or having an agenda in that regard, but that they are slow to add ANY sports to the table.  

I would like to see an invitational added to one of the bigger tournaments like WCI or the like.  I honestly don't think we are at the level to be represented at the boys state tournament yet (we will be someday).  Once we can fill at least an 8 man bracket (that's 112 girls at least) then I think we have the right to ask for a seat at the table.

I am excited to see what the numbers look like at the May 19th freestyle state tournament as well as the camps and clinics that are being offered.  

I have personally seen the explosion that happens when girls wrestling is separated and it is a great thing to watch.  It will happen here in Kentucky, its just a matter of building the numbers to open that door. 

For current girls wrestling information in the state, events, clinics, etc. go the Kentucky Female Wrestling on facebook. We keep that pretty updated

Shirley Stephens

USA Women's State director

[halfhalfhalf 121]

43 minutes ago, Stephens said:

As of this high school season, we had 46 high school girls and 52 girls total represented in the OPC hydration/body fat testing.  

This weekend there were 9 cadet/junior women and about 15 girls overall.  We are taking a dual team to compete nationally and taking a team to Fargo as well. 

My hope is that as the numbers increase KHSAA will look and move forward.  I remind myself that it's not about KHSAA not liking women's wrestling or having an agenda in that regard, but that they are slow to add ANY sports to the table.  

I would like to see an invitational added to one of the bigger tournaments like WCI or the like.  I honestly don't think we are at the level to be represented at the boys state tournament yet (we will be someday).  Once we can fill at least an 8 man bracket (that's 112 girls at least) then I think we have the right to ask for a seat at the table.

I am excited to see what the numbers look like at the May 19th freestyle state tournament as well as the camps and clinics that are being offered.  

I have personally seen the explosion that happens when girls wrestling is separated and it is a great thing to watch.  It will happen here in Kentucky, its just a matter of building the numbers to open that door. 

For current girls wrestling information in the state, events, clinics, etc. go the Kentucky Female Wrestling on facebook. We keep that pretty updated

Shirley Stephens

USA Women's State director

We cannot build anything in the current format KHSAA has for us near the TN border. We have the option to go to TN and compete in girls tourneys  but KHSAA says we have to use a varsity date for it. It's unfortunate they will not make an exception to this. 

But until they decide to allow that, we will continue to grow but not as fast it could

[DrBaker 497]

3 hours ago, Stephens said:

As of this high school season, we had 46 high school girls and 52 girls total represented in the OPC hydration/body fat testing.  

This weekend there were 9 cadet/junior women and about 15 girls overall.  We are taking a dual team to compete nationally and taking a team to Fargo as well. 

My hope is that as the numbers increase KHSAA will look and move forward.  I remind myself that it's not about KHSAA not liking women's wrestling or having an agenda in that regard, but that they are slow to add ANY sports to the table.  

I would like to see an invitational added to one of the bigger tournaments like WCI or the like.  I honestly don't think we are at the level to be represented at the boys state tournament yet (we will be someday).  Once we can fill at least an 8 man bracket (that's 112 girls at least) then I think we have the right to ask for a seat at the table.

I am excited to see what the numbers look like at the May 19th freestyle state tournament as well as the camps and clinics that are being offered.  

I have personally seen the explosion that happens when girls wrestling is separated and it is a great thing to watch.  It will happen here in Kentucky, its just a matter of building the numbers to open that door. 

For current girls wrestling information in the state, events, clinics, etc. go the Kentucky Female Wrestling on facebook. We keep that pretty updated

Shirley Stephens

USA Women's State director

These ladies are lucky to have you. Can the freestlye state champs be billed as State Champs?

[CoachC 115]

37 minutes ago, DrBaker said:

These ladies are lucky to have you. Can the freestlye state champs be billed as State Champs?

Absolutely!!

[Wrestledad 69]

I would like to add a little too Stephens post. Some positives from Saturday at the Bullitt Freestyle Tournament. We had 4 or 5 that were at the tourny from far western Calloway County that had never been seen by some of us in the central Kentucky area. I can't speak for those that showed, but the obvious thing that has to be recognized is the area that these ladies are spread across. How do you let others know that they aren't the only ones? How do we come together, as a group, to share information? In our world today one answer would be social media. There are some that are using this venue and trying to make it more visible. Coaches, parents, and wrestlers can help with this.

Another positive was seeing another young lady from a very good wrestling school here in the state. For me, I couldn't remember seeing a girl in her age group wrestle for this school. She said she wrestled up to 6th grade and stopped, she appeared to be of high school age now. She was wanting to wrestle again and that the tourny was her first freestyle. Several of the ladies that were there and even the boys were wrestling freestyle for the first time. My point being, what helped her decide that she wanted to wrestle again? From my experience with my daughter, coach encouragement is a big thing. Another thing could be knowing that there are other girls doing the same thing as her. 

I've said this before but I am saying it again, all girl tournament exposure. Going to a National is awe inspiring. The numbers are huge and the competition is even bigger. California brings multiple teams to these events. I believe they brought at least 4 teams to Oklahoma. These are fully rostered teams with some of the countries best competitors. Some of these teams are more than capable of beating our states best male teams, and I only say this to give you a measurement of the quality of competitor. Go to a "local" tourny in Indiana, Ohio, or Tennessee, or close by. Even these tournaments have large numbers of quality wrestlers that show. Expose your daughters or wrestler to the growing sport.

There are also negatives that I see on this forum that are talked about from time to time. Also,negatives that are unspoken that are things which have to be overcome. One thing that I have heard consistently is mainly from coaches. They talk about how they were against a girl coming on their team and how they had never coached a girl before. All it takes is the one that comes in and shows the heart of a wrestler to change this view. I've heard one tell a story about being encouraged by his wife to give this particular wrestler a chance. Long story short, he did and is now doing great things for the female sport. Another, had a young female join his team in his first year of coaching that proved to him that she was there for the right reasons. He and other coaches on this team encourage these young ladies to come out and give it a try now. What kind of opportunities are being passed up by not giving these ladies their chance?