Takedown Report

Local coaches excited about addition of wrestling at Shenandoah University

WINCHESTER — Sherando wrestling coach Brian Kibler fondly remembers his father taking him to several James Madison University wrestling matches in Harrisonburg when he was a kid. The 2002 Strasburg High School graduate went on to wrestle for JMU in college, but the young children who watched him compete never had the chance to wrestle for the Dukes like he did. A year after his JMU career ended in 2006, the school announced it was shutting down the program. Starting next year though, a lot more kids in the Shenandoah Valley will have the chance to wrestle collegiately nearby like Kibler did.

Shenandoah University announced that it will make wrestling its 22nd intercollegiate sport starting with the 2020-21 school year in a news conference on Monday at the James R. Wilkins, Jr. Athletics & Events Center. “Those kinds of things stick in the heads of kids,” said Kibler of what it meant to him to attend local college matches. “The more you see it, the more you’re around it, and the higher level you’re around, the better it is for your area.” Naturally, local high school coaches couldn’t be happier that SU is adding a wrestling program. Most colleges elect not to sponsor teams in the predominantly male sport mainly because of Title IX requirements. According to the NCAA, in 2018 only 22 percent of all colleges fielded wrestling programs.
More schools are adding wrestling in recent years, as there were only 217 in 2010. But that’s a far cry from the 1980s. In 1982 (the first year available for NCAA sponsorship date), 48 percent of colleges fielded wrestling teams, and in 1985 8,572 people participated. Wrestling teams are larger now than they were in the 1980s, and wrestling participation has increased steadily since 2005, when there were 5,939 competitors. Last year’s total of 7,239 participants is still less than the 1985 total, though. Rest of the story at https://www.winchesterstar.com/nvdaily/local-coaches-excited-about-addition-of-wrestling-at-shenandoah-university/article_00fea89f-f96c-5cea-ad18-f4b701c7b04e.html?mc_cid=782ee73f35&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

September 30, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized