The following is a message form Les Gutches, director of USA Wrestling, regarding this special week being celebrated worldwide that is designed to increase female wrestler membership within the sport! CLUBS - Please print and have your wrestlers distribute the "Invitation" attached below. There is also a PDF attached with "Suggested Guidelines" for every club to follow to make this experience great! 

"USA Wrestling is excited to announce a very special "Women's Wrestling Week" in conjunction with United World Wrestling (formerly FILA) and its Super 8 Campaign designed to focus on the development of women in wrestling worldwide. This campaign is named appropriately, as there are eight women ambassadors leading this worldwide initiative, including Helen Maroulis, world silver medalist for Team USA.

Women's Wrestling Week will run from March 2 through March 8 and it is an opportunity for any female athlete who is not a member of USA Wrestling to come out and try the sport at a chartered club practice. We would like you to encourage all clubs to participate in this program and we hope that they will welcome these prospective new wrestlers and allow them to take part in practices free of charge. In accordance with our standing policies, clubs and event hosts must still collect personal information (name, birthdate, and email address) in addition to the mandatory waiver and release prior to participation.

Additionally, female athletes with prior wrestling experience who would like to participate in a USA Wrestling sanctioned event may do so on both weekends of March 8-9 and March 15-16.

As part of United World Wrestling's "Each One Bring One" campaign, USA Wrestling is designing a PDF form that may be printed and filled out with club location and practice times. We encourage clubs to distribute these to athletes and so they can take them to school for distribution to female classmates. The invitation will give some basic information about USA Wrestling, Women's Wrestling Week, and a link to USA Wrestling's Club Finder page on TheMat.com. Female participants will be advised that they must confirm their ability to participate if they have not received an invitation.

We will also issue a set of guidelines for clubs to help them prepare a great experience for the girls and women to come to practice. We want to make sure that these female athletes leave their first practice looking forward to the next one.

I'm incredibly excited about this week and the potential it has to expose females to the sport of wrestling and its ability to positively impact young athletes. If you have any questions or ideas regarding Women's Wrestling Week, please don't hesitate to contact me directly. We will issue a press release about the event early next week to inform the general wrestling public."

Les Gutches