Wrestling faces uphill climb in growing their brand

Sometimes one story leads to other thoughts.

There was a noticeably absent participant at Monday’s King of the Valley wrestling
tournament at Justin-Siena High’s Dan Clark Gym.

In a blog entry last month, yours truly chronicled how St. Helena High, which was a
once storied wrestling program, died a slow death that has since resulted in the sport
going on hiatus until further notice:

http://vincedadamo.blogspot.com/2017/12/st-helena-high-wrestling-has-died-slow.html

The King of the Valley tournament was established in 2007 that started with St. Helena,
Justin, Napa and Vintage with American Canyon being added in 2011. St. Helena won
the 2007 and 2008 editions. Napa then followed by winning the next seven from
2009-2015. American Canyon won the 2016 event. On Monday, Vintage captured its
second King of the Valley tournament in as many seasons.

Seeing St. Helena’s decline raised another point with me. While much of the narrative
has focused on a decline in football participation, wrestling participation has also
decreased nationwide. According to statisa.com, wrestling participation has seen a
decrease of 10.2 nationwide since 2009. In that same span, high school football
participation has fallen by 4.6 percent.

Reasons for the decline of football participation include but are not necessarily limited to
various retired NFL players have been diagnosed with head trauma that includes but early
onset of dementia as a result of concussions suffered in their playing days. Such outcomes
have made parents exceedingly leery of having their kids play football.

With a decline in football participation, it stands to reason there is a correlation to a decrease
in wrestling participation because it has been common for football players to wrestle. The
reasoning is because of the overlap in technique and conditioning. However, I decided to
expand the topic on social media so I asked my various friends that either wrestled
competitively or coached the sport if they had additional thoughts. I found some compelling
answers.

In my 18 years as a sports reporter, I had a chance to cover wrestling greatness. Among
sports offered at the high school level, wrestling is perhaps the most physically demanding.
I know some will have differing opinions but that is another story. For openers, there is
physical contact and bodies being contorted every which way. The sport is also hell on
metabolism in that if one is trying to drop weight to make a certain class, it’s not unusual
to go on a starvation level diet. Conversely, if one is trying to gain weight to move up a
weight class, the youngster will be eating far more than normal.

Since wrestling is considered a nonrevenue sport, it becomes that much easier to drop if
participation numbers are down. While football participation numbers are on the decline,
that sport is the financial bellcow of most every athletic program.

Youngsters today undeniably have more technological distractions between the internet,
social media and text messaging. I know that viewpoint has Captain Obvious written all
over but such is a factor. Another narrative is that parents in general are exceedingly
over-protective of their kids. I believe there is some truth to that notion but it's hard for me
to ascertain exactly how much.

Though I love football and think some of the safety concerns are overblown, I can understand
parents not wanting their kids to play the sport even if I may not agree with their reasons. I'm
not going to push football on my 9-year old son. I'll let him make the call. Wrestling, though
physically demanding, is actually one of the safer sports given that weight classes are the
equalizer. Plus in a small area, guys aren't moving fast enough to get hurt. Don’t get anything
twisted. By no means am I suggesting injuries cannot happen in wrestling.

The increased popularity of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and UFC (Ultimate Fighting
Championship) is another attributable reason for decreased wrestling participation.

I could point to the lack of exposure wrestling gets but that problem has always been present.
Wrestling coaches and parents frequently feel short-changed on media coverage -- and
understandably so. In my ten years on the St. Helena beat, most involved the Saints having
better wrestling teams than basketball. Saints wrestling was the main story and dominant
photos more weeks than not but that did not seem to move the needle with the readership.
One reader told me, “I know why you are making wrestling top billing, and they should be,
but I can’t get interested in reading about wrestling.”

Though I had my reasons for making such a decision, I understood that person’s line of
thinking. Olympic sports like wrestling, track and field along with swimming continue to
fight the uphill battle of growing their brand. That battle only gets steeper because earning
potential is exponentially greater in mainstream sports.

Though I have utmost admiration for the commitment that wrestlers show, it is not a
spectator friendly sport. Having covered numerous tournaments where my coverage was
focused on local student-athletes, the down time is enormous. Tournaments are usually
held out of town where you might sit around most of the day. I’ll be brutally honest, unless
it involves my job or my kid, I would not go. Dual meets, however, can be entertaining in
their own right. Such events are centered around individual matchups but involve team
scoring. Most importantly, there is one mat where the attention is centered.