Girls and women’s wrestling has experienced exponential growth in Iowa and nationwide. In Iowa, the sanctioning of the sport by the IGHSAU in 2022 marked possibly the biggest turning point in the sport’s history in the state.
Parkersburg native and Indian Hills Head Men’s Wrestling Coach Cole Spree previously served as the college’s women’s head coach, and says the sport has continued to grow after the initial surge.
“I remember going to recruit the Iowa girls state tournament when it was unsanctioned my first year, and there was maybe, I don’t know, 100 girls there,” Spree says. “And then the second year there was like 500 girls there. And then all of sudden the next thing I know we’re hearing about things in the thousands and stuff. And this is all within a three to four year span. It’s just mind blowing. Even to just see where we’ve come. Initially we had six or seven junior college teams, and now we’ve got over 30 junior college teams, and I don’t think it’s going to slow down.”
According to the latest data from the IGHSAU, 204 schools sponsored a girls wrestling program, and 61 others were in cooperative sharing agreements. The growth of the sport was a leading cause in the expansion to two enrollment classes for the 2024-2025 season.
Spree says for the most part, the sport has been embraced and skepticism has been alleviated.
“When we initially started at year one or year two, people were pretty hesitant about how they felt about women and women wrestling and all that stuff. And to just see how people have embraced it, they just needed to open up their mind. They needed to see it. They needed to get exposed to it. And they realized that it matters just as much to the girls as it does to the boys. Now that people are seeing that on a state like Iowa, it was a no brainer. It was going to take off. There’s so many dads, grandpas, uncles and cousins and stuff that have done the sport. The sport is huge here. So I knew once the state sanctioned it, we’d go crazy, and then we go nationwide recruiting and to see how it has just blown up in so many other states is wild.”
Spree led the Indian Hills women’s wrestling program to four team national championships. He was recently inducted to the NJCAA Wrestling Hall of Fame.
