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Girls Team Illinois
IL Girls Survey (HS)
IL Girls Survey (kids)
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IKWF Girls Participation Survey results:
In 1989, the U.S. started participating in the Women's Freestyle World Wrestling Championships. Since then womens wrestling has been one of the fastest growing sports in the United States and the world. It has been an official olypmic sport for the last two Summer olympics. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) has shown a steady increase in female participation in high school wrestling over this time. Four states have officially sanctioned girls only wrestling teams at the high school level (HI, TX, WA, OR). Eighteen states do not report girls participation in wrestling including the state of Illinois. This survey was introduced to gather supplemental information to the similar HS survey that was sent out. The HS survey was intended to 1) see how many are participating 2) gauge whether the interest/growth is there to take the next steps in forming girls only teams.
There are 277 IKWF clubs in state of Illinois this year. An email was sent to all that an email address could be found for. The first two tables below identify where the responses came from by region. (skip to conclusions)
Num | Region |
14 | North Chicago |
14 | South |
13 | West |
12 | Central |
11 | West Chicago |
9 | Central Chicago |
8 | North |
3 | South Chicago |
Below are the survey questions with the responses received (skip to conclusions):
1. Did you have girls go out for your wrestling team this year?
2. If so, how many?
Total Girls |
Clubs w/Girls |
Total Clubs that Responded |
110 |
42 |
84 |
Avg Girls/Category: |
2.62 |
1.31 |
3. Have you had girls on the team in previous years?
4. Is this an increase, reduction, or about the same as last year?
Below are select responses to the two optional comment boxes that were part of the survey (skip to conclusions):
Optional: If you have had girls in previous years how many/when? (please answer off the top of your head we are not requesting a lot of thought/work on this)
- This is our first year. Our girl got her first pin at our first meet on Saturday.
- 2 girls 2008-09 & 2 girls 2007-08. From what we know from history the team was apparently the first in the state to have a brother/sister combo both qualify for state in the same year (early/mid 90's?)
- We have had the same four girls in our club for a while now.
- 1 girl for the last 4 seasons, 2 girls this season
- 3 girls in 2009 season, up to 5 in 2010
- This is our first year as a club but the club was started to promote girls wrestling. The other club in our city doesnt believe in girls wrestling.
- I have always had girls wrestling on our team. This may be the first year in ten years I haven't had any. In our local area of St. Louis (on the Illinois side) we have probably 30 throughout all the local clubs.
- Girls are NOT allowed to wrestle for the program. This is a boys club and has been for 53 years. We are however TRYING to change that, we attempted it once this year already and the motion did not pass! We hope to change that rule and maybe next year girls will be allowed!!
- We have had about 3 or 4 girls compete in the last 2 years
- We are pretty consistent at about 5 of 80 athlete are females.
Optional: Do you have any comments about the growth of girls wrestling, their participation against boys, the need for more girls only opportunities (bracketing or tournaments) or the need for girl only teams in Middle School and High School?
- It's hard to get them into an all girls only bracket at tournaments. There just aren't enough girls. They keep up pretty well when they are young but tend to struggle as they develop. All girls teams would be great if you could have enough girls to compete. Maybe you could get more girls if they (and their parents) know they wouldn't be wrestling boys.
- At the youth level, I think its good to have the mix. I have experienced the younger they are the more equal they are. As they get older, high school level, I feel there should be girls only brackets or tournaments. It is much more difficult for most girls to compete with boys at this age and is awkward for both. For the boy, it is a lose lose situation (for the most part). If they win, then they just beat a girl-no real recognition. If they lose, then they just got beat by a girl. This is difficult for boys to overcome (for the most part). Girls wrestling is important and should be showcased with other girls to allow the girls to receive the recognition they deserve.
- I am all for girls being able to wrestle. If you could get enough girls out for the sport, I think an all girls team is the way to go.
- The attitude of most parents is that it is ok for girls to wrestle with boys up until middle school, after that they seem to think it is not appropriate.
- It would be nice to see some more opportunities for girls at the kids level but is not always necessary. But by the time girls are in MS/HS there should be a separation of teams by gender; similar to how t-ball, baskeball, soccer, etc do it.
- Have noticed more girls attending ikwf tournaments this year than in years past.
- I think the growth of girls wrestling is a good thing. I think it is good for the sport. What I don't think is good for the sport is boys and girls wrestling each other. I would much rather see boys wrestling boys and girls wrestling girls for the "traditional" obvious reasons too many to mention. However, this is difficult for girls as they would go to youth tournaments and find no one to wrestle their age or weight. Therefore, wrestling boys is their only option. A boys has nothing to gain and everything to lose when wrestling a girl. This concerns me. I think it effects the boys more than girls. Losing to girls results in boys being teased and then them quitting the sport. Of course, when girls get older, they get over-powered by the boys their age; this is also not good for the girls. The girls have been an excellent addition to our team and have never been a distraction. I think we should try to offer as many girl only opportunties as we can. I think it girls only teams in middle school and high school would also be positive provided enough girls went out and then enough area communities also offered the same to afford everyone a chance to compete. This in turn would encourage more colleges to carry womens wrestling, which in turn would help our national womens teams. I personally would enjoy coaching a team comprised of either gender.
- If they offered a "girls"braket at the weekly youth tournaments, you may see more come out for the sport. We have 4 boys that wrestle and we discouraged our daughter knowing she wouldn't have the right body type to be competive in high shcool against boys.
- The current co-ed nature of the sport definitely keeps female participation down. I would love to see girls wrestling grow to the point where it was possible to sustain both a boys and a girls team. To achieve this end, we need to start promoting girls wrestling as an entity separate from boys wrestling.
- We have had girls tournaments in previous years...I think they should be competing against boys though...Personally, girls participation helps the sport overall...more numbers...at the youth level they are as good or better than many of their peers...in high school the advantage wears off because of boys reaching puberty, but a few still do well as is the case of the state champ in my home state of AK...Here in IL, no girl has yet qualified for the state tournament...it is just a matter of time...
- Girls need to have the opportunity to compete against other girls.
- I believe we need girls only teams, My daughter was on a Florida h.s. girls only team, she enjoyed it very much, I dont feel they should have to compete against boys after age 14.
- I believe we need more female opportunities. Having a girls division for kids wrestling could lead to a girls division in high school.
- My oldest son was a 3x state champ and my 7 yr old son took 2nd and 3rd at Tulsa. I also have two daughters that I will not allow to wrestle eventhough they beg me. If an all grils division was created, I would bow to their requests and train them.
- I feel girls can be successful at wrestling. In fact at early ages I have had better luck teaching technique to girls than boys. But when the boys start putting on muscle it is the rare girl that can compete with them. I think wrestling would be a viable sport with girls wrestling girls. The problem is in smaller population areas this is not necessarily an option as the numbers are not available.
- I like seeing girls compete but I don't feel that after a certain age they should be competing against boys. It is a can't win situation for boys.
- I think wrestling is a great sport for boys and girls. I'm sure their are girls that could easily handle some of my wrestlers. I definitely feel there should be girl only opportunities for girls provided that there are enough participants to make it feasible.
- I think if possible a girls state tournament would be cool. I think if womens wrestling is an olympic sport it should be advertised more.
Conclusions
Half of the clubs that responded had girls on their team.If the numbers in the survey were extrapolated out to all teams there woudld be approximately 138 clubs with girls for a total of approximately 362 girls participating. These are good numbers. But what truly comes out of this survey are the comments about boys versus girls being OK at this younger age but seeing many of those participating at this age giving it up before HS because of the disparity that starts to develop physically between the girls and boys. The best comment above was about boys and girls playing t-ball, basketball and soccer together at the younger ages but HS wouldn't think of doing that now days.
Anyone interested in helping out with increasing opportunities for females in the state of IL can contact me or become of fan of the Illinois Girls Wrestling Facebook page.
Please view some of the information I have gathered about the sanctioning process in the state of Illinois and also view the results for the HS girls participation survey.
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