this is my 2nd year as an Assistant Middle School Wrestling Coach in Michigan. I can’t even begin to express how badly we need more women to be role models that are willing to step-up as coaches in this sport. As a Paid Female Coach on the youth and MIddle school level I can say that Girls Wrestling will not truly grow until there are more School Districts that hire Woman as wrestling coaches and youth clubs that begin inviting women on as coaches. In the last 2 years in our middle school and HS Varsity D1 conference I have yet to meet another paid female wrestling coach. This is not acceptable to be the only one nor is it fair to these other girls in our conference. I shouldn’t be and there is no reason to be. I can’t even begin to express the joy and instant smiles these female wrestlers have when I meet them for the first time. I seek these girls out so I can have the brief time during skin checks To give these girls information on all the different opportunities in MS, HS and afterwards in college. It’s never enough time and it’s so unfair to our girls in this sport that they are not informed of much. For most girls I am, or maybe the only female wrestling coach they come in contact with depending on their circumstances in the future. That is unacceptable and very angering to me that these girls on the most basic level are not able to see or access a female wrestling coach nearby. Until we as a culture start providing our female wrestlers with female coaches in our clubs and in the Middle School level we will continue to stifle our own growth in this sport as well as not providing an environment that models diversity, inclusion and equity to all wrestlers and families. Change happens from the bottom up and it’s great that colleges are adding programs but who will attend these colleges if there is no support from the bottom or wrestlers? How many more girls will we allow as women to be forgotten, ignorant of the future and their opportunities for them swashed because we refuse to really recruits and to offer support when needed much like myself....