Utah Wrestling Facts

Fact 1

Below are the states which, according to Real Pro Wrestling, had the fewest male high school basketball players per male high school wrestler in 2004-05:

1. Utah (1.1 basketball players/wrestler)

2. Maryland (1.2)

3. North Carolina (1.3)

Fact 2

The Rocky Mountain states have — by far — the highest rates of male wrestlers as a percentage of total high school athletes in the USA, according to Real Pro Wrestling.  The top states, in terms of number of male wrestlers as a percentage of total high school athletes in 2004-05:

1. Utah (6.6%)

2. Wyoming (6.4%)

3. Alaska (5.9%)

4. Nebraska (5.9%)

5. Nevada (5.8%)

6. Oregon (5.3%)

7. Washington (5.2%)

8. Idaho (5.2%)

9. Arizona (5.2%)

10. Indiana (5.0%)

11. South Dakota (4.9%)

12. South Carolina (4.9%)

13. Kansas (4.9%)

14. Illinois (4.8%)

15. Montana (4.7%)

16. Iowa (4.6%)

The list continued until Iowa — and all of the top 9 wrestling states in terms of male wrestlers as a percentage of total high school athletes in 2004-05 were located west of Iowa. Okalahoma came in 37th by this measure, which put them behind every state western state except for Texas and Hawaii.

On the collegiate level, Utah Valley State, Northern Colorado, SDSU, and NDSU will all either compete at or be transitioning to the NCAA Division 1 level in the newly-minted Western Wrestling Conference (WWC) in 2006-07. Based on this data, the American West looks to be wrestling's biggest growth region going forward.

Fact 3

Two Utah wrestlers have received the Dave Schultz High School Excellence National Award by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum:

1. Justin Ruiz, Taylorsville High School in 1998

2. Jason Chamberlain, Springville High School in 2008