Randy:

I do not believe that there are enough women collegiate teams that they even have NCAA Division teams for it at this point. I think Jeff Mercer wrote in a post that it has not developed enough for that yet. So I believe they wrestle against each other no matter what traditional NCAA or NAIA division the school is in for most sports. I think Pacific has a women's team and they might be Division I in other sports.

Now this might cause problems for Title IX considerations for adding a Men's team. For Title IX does the women sport have to be in the same NCAA Division? Basically I just think it is great to see Women's teams being added to colleges whether they add a mens team or not. I definitely would like to see a men's team also added but it can only help wrestling overall for women's wrestling to grow in popularity. College growth will stimulate high school growth for women wrestling. High school women programs will stimulate youth wrestling growth for girls. All that would help create more wrestling people and interest in our sport. This helps everyone in the long run.

Look for Newman to get serious about wrestling, and the fans to start coming out even more so. Go Newman!

Newman University adding a women's wrestling program is a big plus for Kansas - but how great would it be to have other colleges and universities in Kansas add their own teams? If other schools in Kansas follow the lead from Newman it would put our state at the forefront of the women's wrestling movement. Travel expenses would be less and the competition from such in-state rivalries would be intense. Too often we depend on the folks back east or out west to take the lead. In wrestling we have a situation where the Midwest has a chance to lead the nation. Why can't Kansas be the hot bed for amateur wrestling? We produce solid wrestlers; we might as well develop opportunities for them to compete closer to home. Let's congratulate Newman for adding this wrestling program but let's not allow ourselves to become satisfied. Let's keep the pressure on to add more wrestling programs - for both men and women - in Kansas. And why we are working to add more wrestling programs, let's remember to support the ones we have! We still have work to do.

I know it might seem like a distant dream to have more Kansas colleges and universities with wrestling programs but dreams lead to vision which lead to action which lead to results. With Newman's decision to add a women's wrestling program we have more reasons to dream of even better days ahead for wrestling in Kansas.

Good Luck Coach Stovall!

I heard that women's wrestling at Newman is still waiting approval. Is Newman actually going to get it or not?

They had an ad in the paper a couple of weeks ago looking for a womens soccer coach so I would say that the chances have deminished.