This is just a question to get opinions and what not. What are people’s thoughts on some kind of female wrestling division in Kansas? I have seen female wrestlers who seem to be pretty good but naturally when they wrestle boys in high school, the natural strength is what causes them to not be a competitive. Is this something that’s even been discussed or thought about? Just a question. What do you think?

it would be a pretty good idea. i wrestled a girl from Lakin ks at kids state 06-07 and at highschool phillips burg tourny 07-08 she was pretty dang good. i dont rember her name. i thought lakin had a girls team for kids fed tho.

You are serious right?

Samantha Gonzales from Lakin went 1-2 last yr at 123A State @ 103

I think this might be an idea whose time has come.

In the age of Title IX, this is one of the only viable options to grow the sport and expand our fan base.

Sure, it would take a lot of work to get it started, but I could see it taking off eventually.

Maybe the girls division could wrestle freestyle since there wouldn't be many college folkstyle options available after they graduate HS?

OMG! Someone please pick me up off the floor. We have been debating female wrestling all week on the kids forum and we now get these questions like this?

FYI--THERE IS A WOMEN'S DIVISION IN KANSAS!

We have been having a women's team for 8 years. We are called the Kansas Krusaders. We are funded by USAW-KS to further girls wrestling. We have a HS girls team and they wrestle freestyle and we took 3rd in Fargo this year in the individuals and 4th in the duals.

We have practices throughout the state. We are working up a dual something like the East/West Classic for girls. We want to find all the HS girl wrestlers in the state and get them to compete. We will do folkstyle at the dual. We will showcase freestyle so the girls can learn what they need to do to advance in women's wrestling.

Ed and Jenni Edison are the leaders of this organization. Ed is the women's director for the state. Brooke Bogren is a coach, she is a girl that came up through the ranks of KS wrestling. Jason Ogden, Lance Engel and many others have given countless hours to further this endeasvor.

If you haven't heard, I am sorry and surprised. Our website is kansaskrusaders.com and our email is kansaskrusaders@yahoo.com

Our phone is 316-721-5122. Ed's cell is 316-259-5399. Jenni's cell is 316-990-8914. We are quite acessible and we want to help any and all girls that want to wrestle. We are not trying to "steal" anyones girls. They can continue to wrestle with their current teams/clubs but use the Krusaders as a way to enhance their exerience with wrestling. We have girls from 4-20. WE have girls from all areas of the state. We welcome any coach to help with the team. We host the USAW-KS girls state tourney and we take the girls as a state team to the National Tourneys. If you need more, go to our website or call the numbers above.

WOMEN'S WRESTLING IS ALIVE AND GROWING IN KANSAS.

We have even made attempts at getting it into the HS's in KS. This is still a ways off but we have gotten actual dialogue in the Wichita School System for Middle School in the near future.

Maybe our time has come.



Ms. Jenni

Also we have a practice this Sunday at NWHS in Wichita at 13th and Tyler from noon to 3pm. Tell any and all girl wrestlers you know to come out and we will get them going.

Call Coach Ed at 316-259-5399 if you need questions, directions, or anything else.

Sheesh - no offense intended. I thought the original post was referring to getting a KSHSAA girls division going.

Many congrats on the hard work you are doing with your program!

No offense taken. I am pretty sure that all that posted to this thread were totally innocent in their questions. It was just ironic that I have been debating the worthiness of girls wrestling all week on the kids forum and then to see on the HS forum like this is some great new idea we should try, it just blew my mind. Which is not that hard to do these days...Ms. Jenni is no spring chicken anymore.

If any of you posting are truly interested...we would welcome any help you want to offer.

Ms. Jenni

Well dito to what 14oldschool said. What I asked was a true question and wouldnt have posted it if I didnt want real answers. When I was in High school there was a girl who was really good and was one one win away from going to 5A State. Also when I wrestled in college and went to National Duals in 07 and 08, I saw womens college teams in action for the first time and was proud to see it. I had NO clue about the female wrestling team in Kansas or that it was being talked about on another forum. Im not dumb enough to start an already started debate. Im just a young coach who has been around the sport and would like to see some Kansas girls on the National posters that are around our wrestling room. Im proud of what you have done Coach Ed and I will be talking to our head coach and contacting you to see what I can do to help out with getting our girl and other girls who dont know about it in action. She deserves it. What are you doing to promote the team state wide?

We use this forum, our website, we speak at the state meeting, we put on practices and tourneys for girls, we do mailings and emailing but these usually go to the boys team coaches and many times the info is not shared with the girl wrestlers. This was actually the topic that was started on the kids part of this forum. I know not everyone goes to all the new posts but for those of us that do, we sometimes think that everyone knows all the info we have read on the ralk forum. There is actually a women's forum right here on this site. We post all our activities there. I am sure the word needs to get out more but it is not for the lack of trying.

If you have access to contacting the HS coaches we would like to get the word out about our HS dual that we would like to do to showcase the girls from all around the state. There are waaaay more girls out there then we ever get to assist.

Where are you from? Where did you grow up? Where did you wrestle in college?

Ms. Jenni

Just so you know...I am the wife of Coach Ed. I do most of the posts under Coach Ed because he doesn't do talk forum very well.

You guys are lucky to have people in your state pushing for girls wrestling. We don't have the support in Oklahoma like you have with Ed & Jenni.
It was about 7 years ago that we meet them at a tournament in Derby and they welcomed Karissa into the Krusaders with open arms. I think that you will find everybody that is involved with the Krusaders to be awesome people that want to grow the sport of wrestling by growing female wrestling.

Tony,

It will come to Oklahoma. You are right in the middle of two states Texas and Kansas that have been doing postive things for womens wrestling. I have the same hope for Division I wrestling with Nebraska on the North, Oklahoma schools to our south, and Missouri to the east, & Airforce Academy in Colorado to the West.
Kansas ???? I still can not figure out why we can not get that started.

Smokey,
I have often wondered there is not a D1 program in Kansas, with all of the great talent coming out of Kansas it just seems crazy not to have a D1 program for both men and women.
I think Kansas has the talent and the fan base to support a D1 program but that is just my opinion.

I agree with you Tony about the D-1 program. I wrestled for KSU after I played football for them and was disapointed that we werent considered "Varsity". From what I was told it came down to title IX. As you know there has to be an equal amout of female and male sports in order to make the wrestling team varsity. We did as much as we could to turn heads. Was alwas ranked in the top 5 in the nation and had placers at nationals but it came down to supporters needing a female sport worth adding to KSU. Mrs. Coach Ed, have you thought about finding a location to host a dual of female wrestling teams? When I wrestled for K-State we would have our wrestle offs or purple and white meet before a Manhattan High dual or we would dual another school at a neutral high school. Thats just another idea of how to get the word out. Basically I agree we HIGHLY need a D-1 program in KS and we need to boost female wrestling.

What kind of dual would you be referring to exactly...since I seem to misunderstand you easily...:)

Ms.Jenni

Well I dont know much about the female wrestling world but what I was talking about is maybe scheduling a dual with a female team from around the boardering states of Kansas. For instance what our coach at KSU did was contacted the coach of Manhattan High School and we had a small wrestle off in between the JV and Varsity teams. So my thoughts are that if you had enough female wrestlers on your team that you could set up an inner squad dual or if possible get a team from another area to come and dual your girls. I know its too late to do so in this season but maybe thats something to think about setting up for next year. I think it would bring some attention to the thought of female wrestling in Kansas. And im willing to do whatever I can to help out with things. Might not be much but im willing. lol. I tried calling one of the numbers you left last wk but no answer. I will keep trying. Hope what I said makes since about the duals. It will work.

We are actually planning exactly this. I mentioned it above but it was a long post. We will be doing at our USAW KS Girls State Tourney in McPherson. So, once again if you are a HS female wrestler and would liek to be a part of this state wide dual...contact me at the above information.

Ms Jenni