Grappling With Wrestling

While wrestling doesn’t have the huge participation numbers of football, baseball and basketball, it does generate worldwide attention every four years while being included within the Summer Olympic Games, which was certainly the case in Paris this past August.  

Chad Clark, senior VP at Cliff Keen Athletic, attended the Paris Games and reports that the atmosphere inside the wrestling arena was strong and vibrant. “I can tell you that the crowds for wrestling were terrific and the wrestling community from around the world came out in full force,” he says.

Back in the U.S., according to the latest participation figures from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), there are 1.9 million wrestlers. Of those, 1.9 million 309,447 are high schoolers, based on the most recent research from the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). And, of those, 83.8 percent (259,431, to be precise) are boys. The promising number is that the balance of the high school wrestlers – more than 50,000 – are girls.

And wrestling is becoming a more lucrative category for team dealers specifically because of this expanding female participation.

In Iowa, wrestling is a major sport for high school boys and girls and, according to the NFHS, there are 6952 boys and 2935 girls wrestling competitively in the Hawkeye state. A significant percentage of them are purchasing their gear and apparel from Iowa Sports Supply in Cedar Falls, IA.

“We have a strong wrestling business as we take care of all the basics in the sport,” says owner Lisa Ellis.

And nearby in Indiana a similar surge is primarily due to the steady growth in participation by girls.

“High school girls have been wrestling in Indiana for roughly 20 years,” reports Doc Claussen, GM of Coaches Corner, based in Terre Haute, IN.  “For the last two years, we’ve had a state finals for high school girls’ wrestling in Indiana.”

As a high school wrestling official in Indiana for more than 25 years, Claussen has seen first-hand how girls’ wrestling has blossomed in the Hoosier state.  

One of the positive by-products of girls’ high school wrestling in Indiana was the Olympic gold medal-winning performance in Paris by Sarah Hildebrandt in the Freestyle 50kg division. Hildebrandt grew up in Granger, IN.

In a twist, girls’ high school wrestlers in Indiana are so competitive that many of them are still competing against their male counterparts.

“We have also had a few girls make it to the boys’ wrestling state finals this year,” Claussen says. “While none of the girls have won state championships, they certainly compete with a great deal of intensity. They don’t like to lose on the mat.”

And Hildebrandt’s Olympic gold-medal winning performance will most likely inspire more young girls from Indiana to start wrestling. “Anytime you have an Olympics, there’s going to be an uptick in participation, especially in a sport like wrestling,” Claussen adds.

Wrestling is growing in popularity in the greater Wilmington, DE, area, too. As a result, Al’s Sporting Goods is busy selling the sport, especially in the weeks leading up to the high school season. But in Delaware, the wrestling business is predominantly for boys. “We sell lots of wrestling footwear, singlets, head gear, knee pads, and mat tape,” reports owner Bob Hart.

Meanwhile, in Battle Creek, MI, wrestling sales are limited to one major item at Jack Pearl’s Sports Center. “We don’t sell many wrestling uniforms, footwear, head gear, or singlets, but we do sell lots of mat tape,” says store manager John Miller.

In Texas, wrestling is a popular sport in the larger high schools in the bigger cities such as Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and El Paso.

“Right now, participation in high school wrestling is stable for both boys and girls,” reports Dan Carey, owner of Carey’s Sporting Goods in Fort Worth, TX, who points out that Texas has high school state championships in wrestling for both boys and girls.

And in south Florida, the wrestling business is steady for boys and picking up for girls, according to Joel Dunn, salesman at Baker’s Sporting Goods, based in Jacksonville, FL. “I find wrestling to be a super specialized sport, but we sell singlets, head gear, shoes and mat tape,” he says.

Fun Fact

During the current school year, Louisiana will become the 45th state association to sanction a girls’ state high school wrestling championship. The sanctioning includes competing in 12 weight classes with girls’ wrestling as adopted by the NFHS Wrestling Rules.

Inside The Wrestling Numbers

According to the SFIA’s Wrestling Single Sport Report, of the 2.1 million wrestling participants in the U.S., nearly 80 percent are male.  

Of those 2.1 million, 535,000 are considered core participants  who wrestle 26 or more days a year — that is slightly more than 25 percent of all wrestlers.

Of those 535,000 core participants, 85 percent are male; 53 percent are between the ages of six and 17; and 44 percent come from a household whose annual income is at least $75,000 a year

The largest geographic concentration (20 percent percent) of these core participants is the South Atlantic section (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware).

Volleyball's New Impact

The reality of indoor court volleyball is that it has four seasons — winter, spring, summer and fall. Yes, it is truly a year-round sport in both schools and club programs, leading to a real spike in sales for team dealers.

There are 6.1 million indoor court volleyball players in the U.S., according to SFIA, and the NFHS reports that there are 479,125 girls from 16,849 schools playing indoor high school volleyball — along with 85,255 boys from 3805 schools. This makes girls’ indoor court volleyball the second most popular high school sport — beaten out only by outdoor track and field.

According to Claussen, of Coaches Corner, volleyball orders come in every week of the year. “High school volleyball is played in the fall and for the rest of the year, it’s travel volleyball,” he explains. “Volleyball is a year-round sport for us” and he sells net systems, uniforms, volleyballs, hammocks, socks, knee pads, travel bags and custom tape.  

But they sell very few volleyball shoes due to the wide variety of available on the Internet that makes it difficult to stock enough shoes to be competitive.

Another lucrative volleyball market is for T-shirts for summer volleyball camps in towns such as Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Muncie.

Scott Nelson, founder and owner of Local Team Shop in Coshocton, OH, sells what he calls “vertical” apparel items in the institutional volleyball sector that are needed every year by local teams, coaches, fans and parents.

“Every year in late July and early August, I’m selling volleyball team practice apparel and apparel worn by players when they travel to away games, plus polo shirts to coaches,” says Nelson, who also sells lots of fan apparel every year to parents. “We will supply uniforms and socks, as needed, but those items are not purchased every year.” A popular volleyball item this year: sleeveless shirts.

According to Nelson, one of the positive side effects of travel volleyball is how it has impacted spending behavior by parents of high school players.

“Because parents of travel volleyball players are so conditioned to paying for everything, they often don’t hesitate to pay for extra items in high school volleyball that previously were issued and paid for by school budgets,” he points out.

In Michigan, volleyball is most definitely a year-round sport, which is driven largely by travel/club/AAU volleyball. That’s great news for Jack Pearl’s Sports Center. “We are selling volleyballs, uniforms, socks, knee pads and warm-up apparel,” says Miller. “And, if a team needs a new net system or a new net, we will order it.”

In Glendive, MT, the volleyball business for Squad Sports would be bigger if that local retailer could carry and sell one more category: footwear. But owner Lara Crighton can’t sell it because she is unable to get a reliable supplier for the category.

“In volleyball and all other sports, I’m shoeless,” says Crighton. “Our parents have to drive 75 miles each way to find a pair of proper athletic shoes or cleats for their child in any sport.”

Outside of that issue, local volleyball programs – a junior college, a high school and a junior high school – are ordering balls, arm sleeves, uniforms, spandex shorts and knee pads from Squad Sports, along with parents and fans buying fan gear.

One issue that Crighton doesn’t have to worry about is ordering enough of any item in all the necessary team colors. “Fortunately, all of our local schools and colleges all have the same school colors,” she notes.

Fun Fact

The Minnesota State High School League Representative Assembly met in early May and approved a proposed amendment to Bylaw 520 to include boys’ volleyball as a sanctioned interscholastic sport beginning with the 2024-25 school year. That makes Minnesota the 25th state association to sanction the sport for boys. Nearly 2000 participants are currently playing in that state.

Inside The Volleyball Numbers

According to the SFIA’s Volleyball (Court) Single Sport Report, of the 6.9 million court volleyball participants in the U.S., nearly 70 percent are female and of those 3.4 million of them are considered core participants (playing 13 or more days a year), which is slightly less than half of all players.  

Of those 3.4 million core participants, 75 percent are female; 52 percent are between the ages of six and 17; and 54 percent come from households whose annual income is at least $75,000 a year

The largest geographic concentration (20 percent) of core participants is the East North Central section (Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin); and 68.3 percent of them are Caucasian/White.

Track & Field Keeps Running

For a sport where the U.S. has been a global leader – at the World Championships and at the Summer Olympic Games – for decades, it’s interesting that track and field doesn’t play a bigger role on the American sports scene from a media coverage perspective.  

Furthermore, some of the greatest athletes in American sports have been track and field participants, but their talents have, generally speaking, only attracted headline attention every four years.

Now that the sport is fully professional, the world’s great track and field athletes continue to spend their summers living and competing on the outdoor European track and field circuit, which has annual stops in places like London, Brussels, Zurich, Oslo, Stockholm, Monaco, Paris and Lausanne, Switzerland.

Here in the U.S., SFIA reports there are 3.7 million track and field participants in the U.S., with 1.1 million participating on high school teams. Of those, 55 percent are boys. At the high school level, outdoor track and field is the second most popular high school sport for boys and is the most popular high school sport for girls.

Those numbers make team dealers very happy and the sport has evolved into an important category for Coaches Corner in Indiana. “Track has become a big business for us,” says GM Claussen. “In addition to singlets, we sell all the field equipment such as shots, the discuses, pole vault poles, high jump bars and pole vault bars, as well as the spikes that screw into track shoes.” They do sell hurdles, but infrequently since they last so long.

In Texas, track and field is a huge sport from the point of view of participation, according to Carey, of Carey’s Sporting Goods. “We sell everything that is needed and worn in track and field, whether it’s field equipment, hurdles, uniforms or spikes,” says Carey, who sells to high schools in 12 counties in the greater Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex area.

In south Florida, high school track and field may not attract large crowds to meets, but it attracts a large of number of competitors — both boys and girls. That’s good news for Joel Dunn, the south Florida-based salesman for Baker’s Sporting Goods, which is headquartered in Jacksonville. “We sell all the hard goods for track such as javelins, hurdles, the discuss and the shots for the shot put, but those items have a long lifespan, if you take care of them, before they need to be replaced,” says Dunn. Meanwhile, his track uniform business is strong.

Fun Fact

Throughout the rest of the world, track and field is officially referred to as athletics. At the recently completed Summer Olympic Games in Paris, the U.S. fared well in “athletics” by winning 14 gold medals, 11 silvers and nine bronze.

Inside The Track Numbers

According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association’s Track and Field Single Sport Report, of the 3.9 million track and field participants in the U.S., nearly 60 percent are male.  

Of those, 1.8 million are considered core participants who participate 13 or more days a year.  

Of those 1.8 million core participants, it’s nearly a 50-50 gender split between boys and girls.

Almost 70 percent of track and field participants are between the ages of six and 17; and 52 percent come from a household whose annual income is at least $75,000 a year.

The two largest geographic concentrations of these core participants is the South Atlantic section (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware) and East North Central region (Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin).

Lacrosse Sticks Out

Lacrosse is an interesting sport in the U.S.  It’s a sport with a long history of being played in North America, but it’s still experiencing growing pains.  Fortunately, lacrosse is a sport which is on the rise and growing in popularity with males and females, but its roots in North America, specifically in Canada, date back well before the U.S. became an independent country in 1776. For instance, lacrosse was played by a group of Huron Indians in Thunder Bay, Ontario back in 1636.  

Fast forward to 1877 when New York University became the first U.S. college to form a lacrosse team. Two years later in 1879, the U.S. National Amateur Lacrosse Association was founded. And lacrosse was an Olympic sport during the Summer Olympics in 1904 and in 1908. Lacrosse was then dropped as an Olympic sport after 1908, but it was played as an exhibition sport at the 1932 Summer Olympic Games.  Fortunately, lacrosse has been reinstated as an Olympic sport for the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

Lacrosse is a year-round activity in Florida, which keeps teams and individuals walking in the door at Lacrosse Unlimited in Boca Raton. “We sell everything from head-to-toe in lacrosse,” says manager Lew Hamilton.

“We are selling to local recreation leagues, travel teams, high school teams, college teams and professional lacrosse players,” he reports. “We have individuals walking in to buy specific items, teams are buying through our team division and we also have a strong online business for customers that don’t live nearby.”

Because of the recent surge in the playing popularity of lacrosse in the greater Wilmington, DE area, Al’s Sporting Goods is looking to restock its shelves with lacrosse helmets, balls, sticks, gloves and shoes for the Spring 2025 season.

“Lacrosse has now become popular here in Wilmington, so I’m planning to order equipment to sell,” acknowledges owner Bob Hart.

In Florida, salesman Joel Dunn at Baker’s Sporting Goods says that lacrosse coaches, players and parents are very particular when it comes to the right brand for the right piece of equipment.   “In order to sell the sport, it helps to know the sport,” said Dunn.

Fun Fact

Beginning in 2027, one school-related or player-identifying name, such as a school’s name, nickname, logo, mascot and/or team member’s name, will be allowed on the team jersey.

Inside The Lacrosse Numbers

According to the SFIA’s Lacrosse Single Sport Report, of the 1.9 million lacrosse participants in the U.S., nearly 60 percent are male.  

Of those 1.9 million, 856,000 are considered core participants (playing 13 or more days a year).  

Of those 856,000 core participants, 58 percent are male; 62 percent are between the ages of six and 17; and 56 percent come from a household whose annual income is at least $100,000 a year.

The largest geographic concentration (27 percent) of these core participants is in the Middle Atlantic section (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) of the U.S.