{"id":18229,"date":"2018-12-10T13:08:59","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T18:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quantumnew.esu.edu\/insider\/?p=18229"},"modified":"2018-12-10T13:08:59","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T18:08:59","slug":"esu-adds-womens-wrestling-as-intercollegiate-sport-for-2019-athletics-master-plan-to-consider-further-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/esu-adds-womens-wrestling-as-intercollegiate-sport-for-2019-athletics-master-plan-to-consider-further-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"ESU Adds Women\u2019s Wrestling as Intercollegiate Sport for 2019; Athletics Master Plan to Consider Further Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>East Stroudsburg University President Marcia G. Welsh, Ph.D., announced Monday that the University will add women\u2019s wrestling as an intercollegiate sport beginning in fall 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Women\u2019s wrestling will be ESU\u2019s 21st varsity sport. While not recognized as an NCAA intercollegiate sport, it is governed by the Women\u2019s College Wrestling Association (WCWA) and is in the process of pursuing emerging sport status from the NCAA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are extremely excited to bring women\u2019s wrestling to ESU,\u201d said President Welsh.\u00a0\u201cHigh school girls\u2019 wrestling participation has grown for 27 straight years and continues to expand.\u00a0 Currently there are 48 college teams that sponsor a varsity women\u2019s wrestling program, and most teams have about 30 members by the program\u2019s third year. Women\u2019s wrestling has been under consideration for some time and we\u2019ve already developed our schedule for next fall. We are eager to recruit new student-athletes for this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to ESU\u2019s athletic director, Dr. Gary Gray, ESU wrestling coach Anibal Nieves will initially coach both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s wrestling teams.\u00a0Nieves, who earned All-America honors at ESU in 1989 and represented Puerto Rico in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics, is in his first year as men\u2019s head coach at ESU. His coaching experience includes the previous six years as women\u2019s head coach and men\u2019s assistant coach at Springfield Technical Community College in Springfield, Mass.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCoach Nieves\u2019 success in coaching both men\u2019s and women\u2019s wrestling, including four women\u2019s national champions at Springfield Technical Community College, gives ESU an excellent opportunity to launch our women\u2019s wrestling program while also continuing to build our men\u2019s program to a championship level,\u201d said Dr. Gray.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Welsh also announced two sports that are also being considered for addition at ESU \u2013 acrobatics and tumbling, and esports \u2013 as part of the University\u2019s Athletics Master Plan.<br \/>\nAcrobatics and tumbling offers students the opportunity to develop acrobatic, tumbling and cheer skills and is associated with the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association (NCATA). Esports is a form of athletic competition involving the use of video games intended to provide opportunities for students to gain a college education. Esports is supported by the National Association of College Esports (NACE), a non-profit association with more than 80 member schools and associated with more than 1,500 student-athletes.<\/p>\n<p>The addition of women\u2019s wrestling and consideration of acrobatics and tumbling and esports falls under the guidelines of a new Athletics Master Plan for ESU, expected to be finalized early in 2019. The Athletics Master Plan, which has been in development since September 2018, will also address facility changes to improve teaching spaces for two of the University\u2019s academic programs \u2013 athletic training and exercise science \u2013 as well as facility upgrades for student-athletes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe academic success of our athletic training and exercise science programs requires ESU to re-evaluate the available space in Koehler Fieldhouse and explore options for growth,\u201d said President Welsh. \u201cAt the same time, the master plan will enable us to assess the needs of our varsity sports and our current facilities in order to determine changes that need to be made that will provide our student-athletes with the capability to remain competitive with other institutions in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For more information about ESU\u2019s plans for women\u2019s wrestling, contact Dr. Gray at (570) 422-3689 or ggray2@esu.edu.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Facts About Women\u2019s Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Since 1994, the number of women who wrestle in high school has grown from 804 to\u00a016,562 (as of 2018)<\/li>\n<li>Since 2004, women\u2019s wrestling is now a recognized Olympic sport.<\/li>\n<li>Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Hawaii, and Washington sponsor a state high school championship.<\/li>\n<li>Women\u2019s wrestling participation numbers are higher than the NCAA sponsored sports of crew, fencing, skiing, and rifle and NCAA emerging sports of rugby, sand volleyball, and equestrian.<\/li>\n<li>NWCA (National Wrestling Coaches Association) conducts a 16-team National Dual Meet Championship in conjunction with the NWCA Multi-Divisional\u00a0National Duals.<\/li>\n<li>NWCA has been instrumental in getting women\u2019s wrestling added as a new sport a number of schools<\/li>\n<li>WCWA National Tournament provides competition opportunities for 200+ athletes.<\/li>\n<li>WCWA follow International Freestyle Rules.<\/li>\n<li>WCWA members also compete in USAW Senior and Jr. Fila events.<\/li>\n<li>WCWA college recruiting fair is held during the USAW Girls Folkstyle National.<\/li>\n<li>WCWA members must follow eligibility rules similar to NCAA and NAIA rules.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ESU President Marcia G. Welsh, Ph.D., announced Monday that the University will add women\u2019s wrestling as an intercollegiate sport beginning in fall 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[143,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-news-release"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18229"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18232,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18229\/revisions\/18232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}