Iowa Women’s Wrestling Club’s momentum accelerates at two-year mark

IOWA CITY — Josh Schamberger can still vividly recall the call he received from Barbara Burke, Iowa’s deputy athletics director at the time.

“Josh, we’re very close and serious about starting a women’s program at Iowa,” Schamberger remembers Burke saying. “Would you help?”

The answer from Schamberger — the longtime president of Think Iowa City — was a “100 percent” yes.

What started with a phone call four years ago now has blossomed into a prosperous first two years for Iowa women’s wrestling — and prosperous start, too, for the Iowa Women’s Wrestling Club.

“This is an opportunity to provide the same opportunities for women that the men have had for decades,” said Schamberger, the IWWC’s board president. “And that is — once they graduate college and if they want to continue to pursue the sport of wrestling and have world and Olympic aspirations — we’re providing them a home to do that.”

IWWC reached a milestone in April when Macey Kilty became its first sponsored athlete after the former Hawkeye national champion completed her collegiate eligibility.

Kilty proceeded to win a Pan-American gold medal in May and a Final X title last weekend. She will represent the United States — and IWWC — at the Senior World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, in September.

Many others on Iowa’s current roster have experienced success while representing IWWC. (They are without sponsorship, of course, considering they’re still college athletes.) They include two-time national champion Kylie Welker, 2024 national runner-up Brianna Gonzalez, Lilly Luft, Naomi Simon and Cadence Diduch.

Welker, like Kilty, earned a spot on the United States’ team at the Senior World Championships after winning a title at Final X last weekend. Gonzalez — a runner-up to former Hawkeye teammate Felicity Taylor at Final X — is on the senior national team.

Welker and Gonzalez both have earned spots at the U23 World Championships in October. Gonzalez also will be at the U23 Pan-American Championships in Paraguay.

Simon — who went a whopping 38-4 as a freshman in the college season, with three of the losses coming to Welker — will compete at the U20 World Championships. Luft and Diduch will be at the U20 Pan-American Championships.

What’s next for IWWC

A second or third sponsored wrestler is “quite possible,” Schamberger said, in the “next couple months.” He has his sights set even higher ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

“By the 2028 Games, we have a goal of being able to support into perpetuity five women athletes in the Iowa Women’s Wrestling Club,” Schamberger said. “This year and for the next four years — through 2028 — we have the ability to support three.”

Schamberger also hopes to “have enough of a foundation built to where we can hire a designated RTC coach.” Former Coe College wrestler Jan Rosenberg currently volunteers “hundreds of hours” as the IWWC coach while still doing his normal job as a flight nurse at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

One of the bigger challenges remains fundraising, even with a fan base like Iowa’s that covets women’s athletics.

“As much as Caitlin Clark brought a new wave and appreciation and love for women’s athletics, it’s very hard to get to the point to where you have really dedicated funding streams,” Schamberger said while also acknowledging the generosity of “incredible” philanthropists such as Ted Pacha and others.

The club has an annual casino night/team banquet in April to raise funds. The other of the “signature annual events” is the Iowa Women’s Wrestling Academy, which “gives moms and sisters and grandmas and aunts an opportunity to come learn about what it’s like to be a Division I women’s wrestler.”

“I went and met with Mary Ferentz, who I’ve known and worked with a long time, and asked her about the Ladies Football Academy and got the whole playbook on how to do that,” Schamberger said.

From vision to reality

Dollar signs aside, Schamberger has taken immense pride in the IWWC athletes’ success so far on the international circuit.

“I’m not a girl dad — I have two boys — but having helped and volunteered to help Clarissa (Chun) and Gary (Mayabb) and Tanya build out this club, I have developed a relationship with a lot of these athletes,” Schamberger said. “It’s like daughters that I never had in some respect, in the way that I watch them on the mat. I want them to do well just as much as their parents, and I feel as bad when they come up just short in maybe a match.”

As for the phone call in 2021 with the since-retired Burke, this is what Schamberger was envisioning. Now in 2025, it’s increasingly a reality.

“No question,” Schamberger said. “This is exactly what I thought would happen. To see it materialize is very rewarding, and we’re really only at the beginning.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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