Once a rarity, girls wrestling now flourishing across Illinois

Wrestling is believed to be one of the oldest sports in history, with traces of its origins going back as far as 20,000 years ago. Girls and women’s wrestling? Well, that’s a little more recent.

Professionally, there has been a recognized women’s world champion going back as far as 1937, when Mildred Burke took the belt. She formed the Women’s World Wrestling Association in the early 1950s, and the sport began to grow in America from there. Japan saw a spread around the same time, with nations such as the UK and Mexico following suit over the decades.

At the high school and college levels, however, it took even longer. The University of Minnesota-Morris was the first school to establish a women’s varsity wrestling program in 1993-94. Thirty-two years later, women’s wrestling will become the 91st championship sport sanctioned by the NCAA next season.

At the prep level, the spread is even more recent, and it’s gone like wildfire. In Iowa, where wrestling reigns over all, girls wrestling wasn’t sanctioned until the 2022-23 season. In Illinois, it’s been sanctioned since 2021-22, becoming the 28th state to do so.

Four years later, 46 states have officially sanctioned girls wrestling, with only Delaware, Mississippi, Virginia, and Vermont remaining. It’s a rapid expansion that’s been widely celebrated.

“Seeing the girls evolve and get involved is exciting,” Joliet West assistant coach Tisha Evans said. “Seeing [Joliet West wrestler] Chloe Wong at state was my first experience seeing it at that different level, and it was jaw-dropping to say the least. Seeing how they train and their mindset is eye-opening and refreshing.”

Even the growth in Will County has been rapid. In the first three seasons, Joliet West and Joliet Central had to co-op, while last season saw them flourish individually. Last year, Plainfield Central was able to field enough wrestlers to host duals. The Wildcats and Lockport had state championship wrestlers in Alicia Tucker and Claudia Heeney, respectively.

Evans, also the head coach for Joliet West’s flag football team, has noted the growth not just in girls wrestling, but girls sports in general. That follows a national trend, with girls flag football expanding in many states, the rise in WNBA and NCAA women’s basketball viewership, the expansion of the NWSL and the success of the PWHL.

It’s not just talk. The numbers reflect that girls high school wrestling is the fastest-growing sport in Illinois. In the 2023-24 season, there were an estimated 2,400 girl wrestlers in the state, more than double the number in its inaugural sanctioned season. Currently, 350 schools have either a girls wrestling team or at least one girl wrestler competing.

“It’s one of the most exciting times that not just girls wrestling has seen but that the sport has seen,” Batavia coach Scott Bayer said. “For a long time, the sport of wrestling cut itself off to 50% of the population, and what we’re seeing right now is it’s catching on at an explosive rate.”

Like with any new venture, there’s room to grow. Last year, there were several programs in the area that went from having girl wrestlers in the 2023-24 season to none in 2024-25. Joliet Catholic fielded one senior wrestler, while Plainfield Central will lose almost half its team to graduation. Keeping enthusiasm and growth going will lead to continued expansion.

Evans also said she’d like to see more women coaching the sport. Only two schools in Will County had female head wrestling coaches last season.

Plainfield Central head coach Kyle Hildebrand expects things to continue changing in a positive direction with more exposure.

“I’ve been going down to state for the past three years, and I’ve seen the numbers there grow by at least 500 girls if not more,” he said. “We’re seeing growth exponentially. The boys programs have been well established, and we’re starting to see the girls programs reflect that, which is a great thing.”

Hildebrand pointed out that in the beginning, making it to state was more of a given due to the limited number of participants. Now, however, the competition has increased significantly, which has put greater importance on regional and sectional tournaments. His feeling is that increased competition will increase interest and thus increase opportunities for girls.

McHenry senior Natalie Corona, a state qualifier last season, believes the more exposure the sport gets, the more it will spread.

“I think more coverage around girls wrestling would be great,” she said. “Having separate boys and girls teams, I think, would be great because some schools just have girls on boys teams. Having [our] own space would be great, but the amount of progress we’ve made has me excited for the future.”

Again, a century ago, girls and women in wrestling wasn’t even a thought. Now, it’s the fastest-growing sport there is. It didn’t exist in the NCAA until three decades ago, and now there will be championships this winter. Four years ago, it was sanctioned by just more than half the country. Now, it’s sanctioned by 92% of the nation.

Imagine where it’ll be in the coming years.

“We’ve just got to keep going,” Hildebrand said. “Even if numbers start to slow down, we can’t be discouraged. We have to keep getting more female coaches for the girls to relate to, we have to have social media presence, push the good things happening and continue encouraging girls to commit to something bigger than themselves.”