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Inaugural Women’s Wrestling Academy invites women to train like a Hawkeye
Iowa Women’s Wrestling Club’s first fundraising event will support female college athletes vying for titles
Women can soon get a taste of what it feels like to pin an opponent on the wrestling mat at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The inaugural Women’s Wrestling Academy — led by Iowa women’s wrestling head coach Clarissa Chun, her staff and members of the team — will be held in Iowa City on Sept. 22 and 23.
Registration is open now for the program, which is modeled after the Iowa Ladies Football Academy that just finished its 10-year run last year. It is intended to show women of all ages a glimpse into the sport of wrestling and what it’s like to be a women’s wrestler at Iowa while supporting the female athletes looking to compete in the sport after college and vie for Olympic titles.
The Iowa Women’s Wrestling Club formed earlier this year to provide the coaching, training and financial support needed for female athletes to compete for and win Olympic and world championships when their collegiate careers have ended.
Chun said this is the club’s first fundraising event and she thanked Mary Ferentz, wife of Iowa football head coach Kirk Ferentz, for her vision that the Iowa Women’s Wrestling Club is now adopting.
“It would be great to get her on the mat,” Chun said. “I hope many women come out and partake in what wrestling has taught me and how it’s helped grow me as a person.”
To register or find more information, visit www.iowawomenswrestlingclub.com.
Participants will get a behind-the-scenes tour of the Iowa facilities, learn about scoring and strategy as well as nutrition and video review and participate in the same daily drills as the athletes.
Those looking to participate must raise at least $250. Those who raise at least $500 will get to attend an exclusive Wine and Wrestle Meet and Greet event on Sept. 22 with Chun and members of the team.
Chun said she hears from women who are curious about the sport — who perhaps saw their dads or brothers wrestle and want to try it themselves in a way that’s approachable and fun.
“It’s an opportunity for women to feel what it’s like to get on the mat, feel what it’s like to do a combat sport such as wrestling and have fun and share our love of the sport,” Chun said.
Similar to the Hawkeye Wrestling Club, which has provided opportunities for male athletes to train and compete as wrestlers beyond college, Chun said the Iowa Women’s Wrestling Club will provide young women who come to the University of Iowa that same opportunity to go for titles.
“We love being able to bridge that piece that representing the University of Iowa as a Hawkeye and at the same time being able to represent Team USA with that tie to the University of Iowa or through our Iowa Women’s Wrestling Club,” Chun said.
Josh Schamberger, president of the Iowa Women’s Wrestling Club board of directors, said the funds raised by the club will help women train for wrestling as their full-time jobs, covering living costs such as housing. That’ll in turn allow these athletes to develop the younger women competing at the college level.
He said he hopes to see registration for the academy exceed 100 for the first year, and the club anticipates at least 50 or so spots will be filled.
“We're feeling good about where we’re at, but we definitely want to get it as big as we can, and we have the bandwidth to do that,” Schamberger said. “As with anything new, it’ll grow after its first year and word-of-mouth gets out there. So we’re just going to try and do the best job we can and provide a first-class experience for all the women that do sign up.”
The state girls’ wrestling tournament was only sanctioned for the first time in February, which Schamberger said goes to show the sport’s growth among Iowa’s female athletes. Coralville previously was host to a couple unsanctioned tournaments.
“That next generation of girls wrestlers is already coming,” Schamberger said. “It's exploding, and I think that'll just naturally lend itself toward college women's wrestling.”
The person who raises the most money for the Women’s Wrestling Academy event will receive an all-expense-paid trip for her and a guest to travel to the 2024 U.S. Open Wrestling Championships in December.
Chun said this program is an opportunity to help connect the Iowa athletes with “the team behind the team” — the fans who cheer in the stands and provide other support to the women. As the team only just made its partial debut in 2022, becoming the first NCAA Division I Power Five conference school to offer the sport, Chun said she hopes this academy can help grow the team’s fan base even more.
“I think it brings everyone closer to understanding our student athletes and for us to understand the people who are excited and who are fans of our sport,” Chun said.
Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com
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