Your guide to women’s college wrestling recruiting
Women’s wrestling is a sport that’s growing quickly across both the college and high school levels. According to the National Wrestling Coaches Association, the number of girls wrestling in high school has grown from 804 to over 50,000 since 1994. More than ever, college coaches are on the lookout for student-athletes who have done well academically and exhibit a passion for wrestling, even if a recruit’s athletic background is mostly in other sports and not freestyle wrestling (the style used at collegiate women’s programs and the Olympics). If you have good grades and a strong work ethic, you can put yourself in a good position to receive interest from college programs. But in order to get your best shot, you’ll want to use NCSA’s recruiting resources to get noticed by women’s wrestling coaches who are looking to fill out their rosters.
How the recruiting process works for women’s wrestling
As an athlete, you can reach out to college coaches at any time. We recommend emailing coaches of programs you are interested in as early as possible, as well as asking each program about their eligibility requirements. Send them your athletic resume, which includes:
- Your academic information
- Wrestling-specific stats or outline of experience in other sports
- Why you are interested in their program
- Your highlight video
Women’s wrestling scholarship facts and rules
Athletic scholarships in women’s wrestling are awarded on a school-to-school basis. Schools decide how many scholarships they can fund on their own, whether it’s through fundraising efforts, donations, an endowment, or set scholarship budget. Because it can be difficult to gauge a student-athlete’s pedigree if they come from a region where women’s wrestling is not popular, scholarships are largely awarded based on academics. Therefore, your best bet for securing a scholarship is to have good grades and test scores in addition to athletic talent.
Women’s college wrestling recruiting rules
Women’s wrestling is not an NCAA-affiliated sport, and there are currently no restrictions on contacting coaches and programs. However, the Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association—the governing body of women’s wrestling—states that athletes cannot sign a Letter of Intent before September 1 of their senior year of high school.
What college coaches are looking for
Women’s collegiate wrestling is growing rapidly, and schools are filling their rosters with athletes who come from a wide range of backgrounds. Some recruits will have had the opportunity to wrestle in girls’ state wrestling championships, unofficial girls’ state tournaments, or girls’ wrestling camps. Other recruits may have gained experience from boys’ wrestling teams or other sports. Fortunately, there are programs for every experience level.
College coaches recruit great students who have a good attitude and solid athletic background. Of course, additional wrestling experience will help you stand out. Coaches look for:
- A national girls high school ranking
- State tournament qualification
- Regional tournament placement
- Wrestling camp experience
- High school wrestling team experience
- Other sports experience
Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association freestyle weight classes in pounds
| 103 | 110 |
| 117 | 124 |
| 131 | 138 |
| 145 | 160 |
| 180 | 207 |
How to get noticed by coaches
There is a limited number of women’s college wrestling programs out there and unless you’ve been a nationally ranked wrestler, you’ll need to take a proactive approach to getting noticed by college coaches. In fact, only about 3.5% of high school wrestlers compete at the college level—though the number of college programs is primed to grow in the near future. In order to secure a roster spot in college, you’ll have to take a proactive approach and focus on building relationships.
As we’ve already mentioned, academics are very important. College coaches are not shy about pointing out that they’re looking for athletes who excel in the classroom. You’ll also want to gain some wrestling experience if you can, whether that’s at a camp, tournament, or team—though some coaches consider wrestling experience as an added bonus to athletic skills. Coaches also love to see that you’re interested in their program and school. Reach out to them with personalized emails that show off your interest, and share pertinent information such as your athletic and wrestling experience, grades and test scores, and highlight video. Also, do not be afraid to cast a wide net. There are currently more than 30 women’s wrestling programs, and you can realistically reach out to all of them.
Wrestling recruiting video guidelines
Recruiting videos are an important tool for high school athletes who want to wrestle in college.
College wrestling coaches don’t have the time to see every wrestling recruit in person, and that’s why a highlight video is one of the most important parts of your NCSA Recruiting Profile. A well-made recruiting video illustrates what a high school wrestling recruit has to offer in just a couple of minutes.
In order for your highlight video to be effective, you need to know exactly what coaches are looking for. When it comes to recruiting videos, all sports aren’t the same and NCSA knows what highlights wrestling coaches want to see. For example, a wrestling video should show highlights from your best matches and include a variety of takedowns, escapes, pins, reversal, throws and more to show that you’re a well-rounded wrestler.
If you follow NCSA’s guidelines and create an outstanding highlight video, you’re taking a big step in the wrestling scholarship process.
How to film
- Include at least two or three matches from the year. The matches should be from state or national tournaments, or from when you are wrestling high-level wrestlers.
- Show all three positions: neutral, top, and bottom. Even though most wrestlers don’t like to show video from the bottom position, college coaches want to see that you can score from this position.
- If you have matches from summer tournaments, those are great to add to show college coaches that you wrestle year-round.
- Keep the video steady and shoot on your own device. Don’t send out video that includes screenshots from wrestling news websites.
- Include time between rounds and referee re-sets. Coaches want to see you wrestle, but they also read your body language. They want to see how you react to coaching between rounds, if you hustle back to the center when the referee calls out-of-bounds, your sportsmanship and overall demeanor (for example, high head and confidence even if you are behind).
- Continue to film from the moment you step on the mat until you step off, even if the match hits a few slow spots.
- Do not zoom in too close or try to show facial expressions. Focus on the three key elements: the wrestler, the opponent and the referee.
- Try to capture as much of the mat as possible, including the referee.
- If possible, try to capture the scoreboard. If capturing the scoreboard requires you to zoom too far out, film the scoreboard between rounds instead. Show the final score on the scoreboard.
- If possible, don’t include clips with injury time.
Women’s wrestling camps and tournaments
If you’re looking to ramp up your skills and experience, camps and tournaments can help you reach the next level. As an added bonus, they can also be a tremendous help to your recruitment process. But do you know where to find them and how to maximize your time there? Read this section to find out.
Find women’s wrestling camps and tournaments.
Colleges with women’s wrestling
Wrestling is one of the fastest-growing sports among high school girls. New women’s college wrestling programs are popping up across the country, and college coaches are looking to fill roster spots with athletes. But in order to land a spot on a college roster, you’ll first need to find out which colleges are offering women’s wrestling.
Search for women’s wrestling colleges.
NCSA Women’s Wrestling Reviews From Parents And Athletes
“It showed me there is more options for women’s wrestling in college and gave me more details about each college. It also helped with getting coaches contacts.” – Student-Athlete, Class of 2024
“NCSA has been very helpful with the entire recruiting process” – NCSA Student-Athlete, Class of 2025