Girls wrestling, etc.

Hello NCMaters and welcome back to The Grind. It's been awhile since the last update, but better late than never. Or so they say. Anyway, hope all is well in your world as the start of the season is here with competition beginning next week.

Let me start by saying thank you to all who have subscribed to the site thus far. The response has been tremendous, and it's nice to know that people appreciate the effort being given by those of us here at the NCMAT. The intent is to offer informative and precise rankings that are as best as humanly possible. Be sure to provide information for the wrestlers you're concerned with the most, because we simply won't be able to find all the information we need to provide as accurate a ranking as possible without your assistance.

What do the states of California, Washington, Texas, and Hawaii all have in common that we in North Carolina are lacking? Sanctioned high school wrestling for girls! In the view of NCMAT, this is a travesty to the young ladies that want to wrestle. In my opinion, the numbers of female wrestlers would increase dramatically if wrestling in North Carolina had split divisions for female wrestlers. There may be other states that offer sanctioned wrestling for girls, but the aforementioned are certain states that do, and the time has come for North Carolina to do the same thing.

Here in North Carolina, and in spite of the lack of sanctioning for a girls state tournament, we have been blessed to see some extremely successful girls perform. Two young ladies qualified for the state tournament in their respective divisions. Several have went on to wrestle in college and done well. Some of them have also been high school All-Americans in a couple of the different tournaments offered for girls across the country. There is no doubt that girls wrestling in North Carolina would add a tremendous spectacle to the state tournament, and a spectacle that I hope we can see someday soon.

Of course, the problem with implementing female wrestling across the board is the implementation process. It's not as easy as just saying everybody needs to start offering wrestling teams solely for female wrestlers. There is already a coaching shortage across the state, as well as a funding shortage for many schools. Implementing an entirely different program would only further complicate those issues. Those issues, however, are irrelevant in the view of NCMAT. What's more important is offering young women the opportunity to compete against other young women in the same instance as soccer, softball, basketball, etc.

At the Super 32 Pre-Season Nationals there was a girls division offered that saw some 150 young ladies from across the country descend upon Greensboro to wrestle. That is an amazing number for a tournament just getting started, but the Super 32 is quite the tournament and to start something in that environment is much easier than normal, but the success there demonstrates that there is a growing interest in female wrestling across the country and North Carolina should embrace that by sanctioning a state tournament for girls wrestling.

If you have any thoughts on the matter feel free to make posts on the NCMAT Forum pages, or feel free to send me an Email.

That's it for now. Remember, please send results to the person responsible for the rankings in the division your kid(s) wrestle in.

Thanks for reading, and until next time,

EMBRACE THE GRIND,

Maurice Atwood

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