A camp instructor gives tips to wrestlers during Ken Chertow’s Gold Medal Wrestling Camp.

By John Hartsock

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For most of its long and venerable history, competitive wrestling was an exclusively male sport.

With the relatively recent emergence of NCAA women’s college programs and the approval of girls’ high school wrestling as a PIAA sport, wrestling has evolved into an equal opportunity sport.

One hundred girls, ages 6 to 18, were among the 350 wrestlers registered for Ken Chertow’s Gold Medal Wrestling Camp, which began last week at the Blair County Convention Center and runs through next Sunday.

Another 200 wrestlers are expected to sign up for next week’s training sessions, which will be held at four different locations around the complex.

Chertow, 57, a former three-time All-American wrestler at Penn State who competed for the U.S. freestyle wrestling team in Seoul, Korea, in 1988, is a firsthand expert on how wrestling has evolved for women. In addition to the camps he hosts nationwide, Chertow was hired in 2023 as the head coach of women’s wrestling at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pa., and that program will begin its first season at the NCAA Division III level of competition during the 2024-25 campaign.

“Wrestling has long been known as a combat sport that is not for women,” Chertow said. “But with the approval of wrestling by both the NCAA and the PIAA, there are now more opportunities for girls and women to wrestle than ever before.

“Society has evolved and women are given equal opportunities with men in all sports … and now wrestling,” Chertow added. “I have personally tried to promote women’s wrestling for the past two decades and the sport has grown exponentially among girls and women in the state of Pennsylvania and nationwide because of their skill level and their dedication.”

Chertow’s famous camp brings wrestlers from all over the world, not just the United States, to Altoona each summer to hone their craft. More and more of the wrestlers attending the camp are girls and women.

Sarah Glenny, 14, who will be a freshman in the Altoona Area School District this fall, was one of two girls who competed with the boys on the Altoona Area Junior High School wrestling team last winter. She qualified for the Pennsylvania State Junior High Championships in Johnstown in the 112-pound division.

Glenny, who hopes Altoona High School will eventually offer a collegiate wrestling program exclusively for girls, was one of the girls who attended Chertow’s camp last week and was grateful for the opportunity.

“It’s intense, but the coaches make it so much fun,” Glenny said of training at the Chertow camp. “It’s a very welcoming atmosphere — everyone here is very nice. This is a great opportunity — I’ve met a lot of people from a lot of different states here.

“There are a lot of girls here and they learn from the best,” Glenny added.

The PIAA has mandated that at least 100 high schools in the state of Pennsylvania have a varsity girls wrestling program before it will approve postseason district, regional and state tournaments in the sport. That was accomplished last season, when a girls state meet was held in conjunction with the boys state meet at the Giant Center in Hershey in March.

Rachel Shoemaker, a rising sophomore at District 2 Crestwood High School in Mountain Top, Pennsylvania, competed in the 118-pound division for the school’s girls wrestling team last season and finished second in her weight class at the district tournament. She qualified for states, where she won one match.

“I did pretty well,” Shoemaker said. “I didn’t place at the state tournament, but I did my best and I’m proud of myself. When I got to Hershey, I felt a sense of calm, surrounded by other female wrestlers who had worked hard to get there.”

Shoemaker is a pioneer for the sport at her school and was the driving force behind organizing the girls’ team at Crestwood. The team had eight wrestlers in its first varsity season last winter, and Shoemaker is confident that more will join the team next season.

“When the PIAA approved girls wrestling, I knew it was going to be a big thing,” Shoemaker said. “So many girls just wanted to get out there and wrestle. Girls don’t do it for the competition, they do it because they enjoy it.

“Girls have such a passion for the sport, and even when it wasn’t a recognized girls’ sport, girls came out of nowhere to wrestle,” Shoemaker added. “That’s why I think the sport has grown so quickly among girls.”

Fifty-five coaches are helping Chertow in his mission to spread wrestling skills knowledge to young competitors this week and next at the Convention Center. Among the coaches here are former Bloomsburg University greats Ricky and Rocky Bonomo and former Penn State head coach John Fritz.

Joe Baranik, a former coach at Hollidaysburg High Area School who has coached wrestling at the collegiate and high school levels in North Carolina for the past two decades, joined the coaching staff for the first time at Chertow’s training camp this summer.

“I grew up here and when I first heard about it, I wanted to work at this camp,” said Baranik, who was a District 6 wrestling champion in the late ’70s while attending high school in Altoona. “I called Ken this year and he invited me to join the coaching staff. It’s awesome to be here, it’s cool and it brings back a lot of memories.”

One of the wrestlers in Chertow’s Misericordia women’s wrestling program, Angelina Dawson, is also serving as a wrestling counselor at Chertow’s camp this summer.

Dawson, 22, from Howell, NJ, started wrestling in high school at age 16. She says the lessons she learned during her wrestling career have been invaluable.

“I think wrestling prepares you for life,” said Dawson, who previously spent a season in the girls’ wrestling program at Wyoming (Pa.) Seminary High School. “It teaches you resilience and it builds you as a person. Even if I put everything I have into a wrestling match, I can still come up short. Wrestling can be the most humbling experience, but it teaches you to get up and keep fighting.

“Wrestling reflects life, and life reflects wrestling,” Dawson said. “I love it, and these girls are getting opportunities in wrestling that I never had. It’s so great to see the (girls’ and women’s wrestling) community grow.”

Chertow stressed that there are still spots available to enroll in his camp by emailing him at [email protected]. He said there are also need-based scholarships available for girls and boys who wrestle.

Chertow said the future of girls’ and women’s wrestling is limitless and he’s excited that camps like the one he hosts can be a part of that great future.

“I think the sport of wrestling is just going to explode for girls and women in the future, like it has for women’s basketball and women’s volleyball,” Chertow said. “It’s just going to continue to grow.”

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