Women’s wrestling, acrobatics and tumbling, get backing to join NCAA emerging sports

The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics has recommended that all three divisions of the NCAA governance structure add two sports — women’s wrestling, plus acrobatics and tumbling — to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program. If adopted, the sports would join the program Aug. 1, 2020. 

The committee identifies sports to be added to the Emerging Sports for Women program, which is a pipeline supporting the advancement of women’s sports to NCAA championship status. The program also provides athletics opportunities for women and sport-sponsorship options for colleges and universities. Schools also may use an emerging sport to help meet membership minimum sports-sponsorship requirements and financial aid requirements. 

A sport must have a minimum of 20 varsity teams and/or competitive club teams that have competed in a minimum of five contests to be considered for the emerging sports program. The sport must reach 40 varsity programs to move forward to the NCAA governance structure for championship consideration. 

The Wrestle Like a Girl organization, in conjunction with USA Wrestling, indicated there are 23 NCAA schools currently sponsoring the sport. The committee applauded the groups for the overall continued growth of women’s wrestling, and specifically for the potential growth of the sport at colleges and universities that currently sponsor men’s wrestling. They also noted the relatively low cost to sponsor women’s wrestling and the organizations’ commitment to increasing opportunities for a more diverse student-athlete base and to expanding coaching opportunities for women. 

The National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association currently has 20 NCAA colleges and universities sponsoring the sport, which is a discipline of gymnastics involving tumbling, tosses, acrobatic lifts and pyramids. The Committee on Women’s Athletics commended acrobatics and tumbling for showing how its student-athletes already were integrated fully within athletics departments; how they are enjoying experiences comparable to those of other NCAA student-athletes; and how the sport could grow. 

“On behalf of the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics, I would like to commend the leaders of both the acrobatics and tumbling and the women’s wrestling communities and thank them for their extensive work to ensure young female athletes in these sports are able to continue their participation at the collegiate level,” said Julie Cromer Peoples, committee chair and senior deputy athletics director for administration/senior woman administrator at Arkansas. “The CWA worked with representatives of both sports for several years to prepare them for advancement to NCAA emerging sport status, and we encourage all three divisions to support this expansion of opportunities for young women on NCAA campuses that choose to sponsor these sports.” 

The Emerging Sports for Women program has been in existence since 1994. In the past 21 years, several sports have reached championship status, including beach volleyball, rowing, ice hockey, water polo and bowling. The program currently has three sports: equestrian, rugby and triathlon.

The Spring Wrap Up

Montera Middle School Wrestling

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Westlake at their end of year pizza party.

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Westlake and Montera at the Beat the Streets Spring Folkstyle Championships

Westlake and Montera at the Mid Peninsula Intermediate League Finals

With our first two programs completed for the spring it is a good time to reflect. Beat the Streets Bay Area has begun. With a dedicated group of 8 at Westlake Middle School and 12 at Montera Middle School we were able to bring wrestling to 20 Oakland middle school students that wouldn’t have had the opportunity without our programming. Ultimately, that is at the core of our organization. The future will bring the work of developing greater impact but today I am writing this to reflect on the impact of the spring.

Our coaches did a solid job for year one. Coaches Ahmed and James at Montera and Coaches Allen and Denzel at Westlake brought the sport to their sites with the passion we look for in a coach and it was evident by the passion of wrestlers like Israel Dillon at Westlake and Ziyon Davis at Montera. Getting to know some of the guys as I drove to the competitions with my trusty shotgun passenger Coach Mom from Westlake really sunk home the mission of our organization. The relationships and opportunities to provide potentially a different perspective to a unique group of students is why I do the work I do. I am super happy that I ended up being a great deal more hands on with our first Spring than I initially planned.

With this experience behind us we can be happy with our results but never satisfied with our accomplishments, there is always more to do, always things to improve on, and always new ways to create a greater impact. For now we can take a moment and enjoy the fact that this work has begun for us and it isn’t going to end anytime soon.

I want to thank our staff for this season starting with our site liaison’s Ideal Franklin “Coach Mom” and Kenya Latimore. Both Ideal and Kenya were huge contributors to our ability to operate this season. Also, our coaching staffs Allen Loretz, Charles Fox, Denzel Mabry, Ahmed El Sokkary, and James Odom were the boots on the ground working with these student athletes every week. I also want to thank Skyline High School Coach Dennis Spencer who connected us to Montera and loaned us a mat for the season. Moses Omolade at Westlake Middle School continues to be a huge supporter of our programming and has been influential to our programming and our staff. Lastly, Sonjha Phillips the OAL director has been a great resource and huge supporter. We are sad to hear she is leaving her position and wish her the best at where ever she may head next.

Our hope is through our MOU with Oakland Unified we will continue to improve and expand our middle school programming next season. Look for updates on our website and please follow us on social media. Thank you for your support.