The number of female high school wrestlers in Minnesota is on the rise this season with over 550 now on high school rosters statewide.
“Where do I think those numbers could be?” Chad Shilson said in an interview with WCCO Radio. “I had said all along that I thought we were going to double this year. I knew it could have been a bit of stretch, but I’d rather stretch for a bigger number than a lower number. I’ve been telling coaches that we’d get to 500-plus.”
Shilson, who is the coach for the Twin Cities Regional Training Center, believes that number could get much, much higher.
“We could easily bet at 1,000 female wrestlers in the next year or two,” he said.
It’s been a long path for Shilson who’s helped pave the path for female wrestlers in the state. He started coaching and became the director of Minnesota USA wrestling in 2009.
“At the time it was pretty obvious that there wasn’t anyone pushing for it in Minnesota and we needed someone,” he said. “There has been a really strong presence of girls wrestling in Minnesota in the early 2000s. Without that support, it ended up dying down.”
His daughter, Emily, rose through the wrestling ranks and became just the second female to wrestle in the Minnesota High School Wrestling State Tournament in 2017. Emily attended and wrestled at Augsburg.
She also won three world titles.
After years of working to grow the sport and generate interest in Minnesota, the Minnesota State High School League sanctioned girls wrestling in early 2021, creating a postseason and state tournament where 12 female participants were crowned champions in 2021.
Shilson credits the Minnesota State High School League for running the boys and girls state wrestling tournament alongside each other last season.
“They stepped up last year and figured out how they could add it to the tournament. It was an incredible experience. Some of these girls have been with us since the beginning, since they were five years old. Now they’re wrestling in the state championship, something that we told them that at some point in time they’d have an opportunity to do. That opened the eyes of a lot of people. I guarantee there were girls sitting in the bleachers at Xcel who had never thought about wrestling, but were watching last year and are now wrestling this year.”
South St. Paul wrestling now has 12 female wrestlers who are certified and competing in the 2022/23 season.
“With the increase in numbers there’s been a major increase in the events,” Nihart said. “Just this year compared to last we’ve already had a girl’s tournament. Last year we had two total and this year we have four on the schedule and several others where there are just so many girls competing. Two of our female wrestlers have broken into our guy’s line-up which has happened from time to time.”
Nihart says the interest in girls wrestling started at South St. Paul a number of years ago when family with two young girls who were into wrestling moved to the school. They went through the youth program and ended up in the high school program.
“With that we kind of had them as a focal point of our girls’ team,” he said. “They were great kids. One of them just graduated and is helping coach the team. The other is a junior and is a captain.”
Shilson says there likely are still schools or groups of people in Minnesota who don’t support girls wrestling just yet.
“If you’re hesitant because you just aren’t sure, the numbers show it is safe,” he said. “Schools are having a great time and these girls are having a fantastic time. Why wouldn’t we want to provide something for female athletes that want to get on the mat who haven’t fallen in love with basketball or hockey? With those who are slow to understand that women wrestle…it’s been in the Olympics since 2004. Wrestling in general is the oldest Olympic sport.
There’s no reason that these schools who haven’t picked up on it can’t start.
It’s better to be late than never.”