Takedown Report

2018: A year of wrestling news worth celebrating

TDR Editor’s Notes ; Author Mark Palmer is correct in his well written article with a summary of the many good events of progress in wrestling this past year.
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Most of us are inundated with what seems like never-ending waves of negative news stories ‘year round. However, as we look back at 2018, there were news events in amateur wrestling definitely worth remembering … and celebrating.

Growth of high school wrestlingParticipation levels for both boys and girls in high school actually went up this past year when compared to the previous year. According to the NFHS, a total of 262,126 student-athletes participated in high school wrestling in the U.S. — 245,564 boys, and 16,562 girls — for the 2017-18 school year. By comparison, during the 2016-17 academic year, a total of 259,391 high school students wrestled nationwide –14,587 girls, and 244,804 boys. That translates into an overall increase of 2,735 more athletes involved in wrestling this year vs. last year, with 760 more boys and 1,975 more girls taking to the mat.

Growing numbers of college wrestling programs …
High school athletes wishing to continue wrestling in college will find more opportunities in the new year, thanks to decisions made by a number of schools to add wrestling to their varsity sports roster — including a handful of women’s wrestling programs. Here are the new programs InterMat reported on in 2018 which are expected to take to the mat in fall 2019:

Arizona Christian University, an 800-student private school located in Phoenix, not only announced the formation of a new men’s mat program, but also has hired a coach to head up the program, Travis Patrick. 
Rest of the story at https://intermatwrestle.com/articles/21060

January 4, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized