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LIBERTY, Mo. — Wrestling can be a tough sport as the cut on the bridge of Jada Hernandez’s nose attests.
“I still like to wear dresses; I still like to go out,” Hernandez, a 124-pound wrestler for William Jewell College, said. “It didn’t really change any of that. And I still love this sport, but I also love sparkles, so it’s kind of in between.”
Girls and women’s wrestling is surging in popularity. It’s the fastest-growing girls high school sport in the country, according to the National Federation of High Schools, and among the fastest-growing women’s college sports, but it wasn’t that long ago that the sport was marginalized.
“I used to grow up watching (Iowa State legend) Cael Sanderson and the Iowa team,” Desiree Ramos said. “I grew up watching them, but I never ever thought that it would be like, ‘Oh, girls can wrestle at these schools and under coaches like these’ or anything like that.”
Ramos, whose father was a wrestling coach, is the head women’s wrestling coach at NCAA Division II William Jewell College, which started the program in 2021. The Cardinals are one of more than 80 NCAA women’s programs with roughly 150 women’s college wrestling programs at all levels.
“Women’s wrestling is for everybody and for all parents who are questioning whether their kids should join or whether their little daughter should join, I would definitely encourage it,” Hernandez said. “Not only does it help with confidence and things like that, but it helps you grow as a person in all sorts of areas.”
She said wrestling also helped her be a more dedicated and disciplined student, taught her to set and achieve goals, and developed her work ethic.
Hernandez won the Washington Girls 1B/2B/1A/2A 120-pound girls wrestling state title, finishing her senior season 47-3 last winter. Her parents are heavily involved in the Washington wrestling community at the grassroots level.
“Both of my parents are women’s wrestling coaches back in my town (Warden, Washington), my mom and my dad both helped start women’s wrestling in Washington, so it (winning state) was kind of a full-circle type deal,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez’s success caught the attention of Ramos, who graduated from high school in 2011 in an era when she mostly wrestled boys.
“It’s kind of cool to see it now where it’s at,” Ramos said. “There’s a lot of girls, full girls teams now. That wasn’t a thing back then. … Back then, we just loved the sport itself, and we were just trying to get as far as we could, but it was always like against the boys — trying to make varsity, trying to see if we could make it through the postseason with the boys.”
Women’s wrestling is expected to become the 91st championship sport during the NCAA Convention next month in Nashville. The first NCAA Women’s Wrestling National Championship is likely to take place in 2026.
“I honestly believe that it’s gonna help the sport grow, because it’s gonna make a lot more people want to be more competitive within the sport,” Hernandez said. “Now, there’s a newer, bigger goal — newer, shinier medals is basically what everyone chases.”
The rise in popularity and growth of women’s wrestling follows a trend of increased interest in the WNBA, NWSL and other women’s college athletics.
“It inspires me and it gives me a lot of hope for the future,,” Hernandez said. “Maybe in the future, if I did have a daughter, I know that she’s going to be able to do whatever she wants.”
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