Otterbein adds women's wrestling program
Saturday, June 17, 2023
By Michael Rich
mrich@cbussports.com
The Otterbein University wrestling room will be a little busier beginning in 2024 when the Cardinals field their first women’s program. Photo courtesy of Otterbein University athletic department.
When Ryan Whitten and Jarrod Setliff represented the Otterbein University men’s wrestling program at the NCAA Division III Championships on March 10 and 11 in Roanoke, Virginia, coach Brent Rastetter didn’t know the trajectory of the program would change in an historic way just three months later.
But it did. Beginning in 2024, the Cardinals will field central Ohio’s first women’s college wrestling program, the university announced on June 15.
“This all went down within the last two months,” said Brent Rastetter, who was named the program’s Director of Wrestling Operations in the announcement. “When we finished the NCAA tournament in March, we had no idea that we were going to have women’s wrestling. It all happened pretty quick.”
Rastetter, who will continue to coach the men’s program, is now charged with helping to find someone to lead the women’s program.
He’s no stranger to starting a new program. Restarting the men’s program in 2016 after a 42-year absence was one of the things that drew Rastetter to Otterbein in the first place after guiding Lexington High School to eight Ohio Cardinal Conference championships in his 12-year reign.
“Obviously, we learned a lot through the first process,” Rastetter said. “I had not coached at the college level before. The reason I made the jump (from high school to college) was building a program from scratch. That was appealing to me.
“That’s why this process is exciting for me. It’s going to be a little bit different because I’m going to be able to hire, basically, a head women’s coach. I’ll at least be able to lend the knowledge I gained doing this the first time to whoever we hire.”
The idea of a women’s wrestling program began about 4 years ago, but was put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The prospect of building a program near talent-rich and established high school programs such as Delaware Hayes, Marysville and Olentangy Orange was a no-brainer. The university hopes it will attract more students.
“Otterbein celebrates the addition of another women’s sport to our program offerings,” vice president for student affairs Dr. Bill Fox said in the release. “We have been thrilled to see expanding interest in this sport right here in our backyard, throughout the state, and across the nation.
“We have enjoyed a great community response since rolling out the mats for our men’s program and want to build upon that positive, successful team culture. I am grateful to coach Rastetter and others for their vision and commitment to excellence. We are excited to build another competitive program that attracts wonderful future Cardinals to campus.”
Girls wrestling has grown so much and so quickly at the high school level. The Ohio High School Athletic Association sanctioned it as an emerging sport beginning with the 2022-23 season where it held its first state tournament.
“Central Ohio with girls wrestling at the high school level is just off the charts right now,” Rastetter said. “The coaches in central Ohio have done a phenomenal job putting (the area) in the forefront of girls wrestling. We’ve got an amazing base to draw from in our own back yard and we want to try to focus on them right out of the gate.”
The impact of women’s wrestling has been felt on the men’s side, Rastetter said.
Brent Rastetter has been named Otterbein University’s Director of Wrestling Operations after the school announced a new women’s program, which will begin competition in 2024. Photo courtesy of Otterbein University athletic department.
“It almost felt like it was overnight that we went from having the one or two girls here or there participating on the boys teams to having 30-plus girl rosters like Olentangy Orange had this past year competing,” he said. “It’s been really fun because – in all honesty – it’s probably saved the sport of wrestling because numbers at the men’s level have dropped. If you look at the national average, we’ve been on a downward trend whereas the girls are now the fastest growing sport in the United States at this point. When all is said and done, they may be the saviors of the men’s sport as well.”
Otterbein is the third to add women’s wrestling in the Ohio Athletic Conference, joining John Carroll University and Baldwin Wallace University, which announced its programs last year. Hiram College of the North Coast Athletic Conference has also started a women’s wrestling program.
“Right now, (Division III) is the fastest growing division in women’s wrestling at this point,” Rastetter said. “We have 51 teams now with the addition of our (program). We’re growing at a fast rate. At the Division III level, the addition is to drive revenue. So, it just makes sense to add (women’s wrestling) since it’s such a growing sport.”
Having a collegiate women’s wrestling program in the area creates more opportunity for high school athletes.
“It’s exciting because it’s, (No. 1), another college program in Ohio and, 2, (the first) in central Ohio,” Orange girls wrestling coach Vanessa Oswalt said. “There’s a lot of great talent in central Ohio, so I think it’s going to help pull those girls into a college wrestling program. It’s just helping the growth and allowing those girls to see there is a future past high school. These college programs are just adding value to the growth of girls and women’s wrestling as a whole.”
Oswalt, who just finished her first season as Orange’s first girls wrestling coach, competed at Mount Vernon High School and was a qualifier for the Over-15 Olympic Team trials as a junior in 2004. She won the Junior National Championships as a senior in 2005 and was also a member of the U.S. Senior Freestyle Women’s National team in 2009.
“I think there were five college programs when I graduated (high school),” Oswalt said. “It’s got to be over (150 now and) it’s exciting. The opportunities were growing (when I wrestled), but it was limited. For someone who was only wrestling (for) a couple of years, it was hard to get into a program. Now, you have this talent and these girls are able to have more opportunities. It’s exciting to watch the growth of women’s wrestling.”
Talia Mitchell, a 2023 Orange graduate, will be a part of John Carroll’s inaugural team.
Otterbein is in the process of hiring an athletics director. Once finalized, finding a women’s coach will be one of their first responsibilities.
In the meantime, Rastetter will hit the ground running in terms of recruiting off campus and on.
“When we started the men’s program, I had three guys that were already on campus in other sports that had wrestling that joined us that first year,” he said. “I am really interested to see if we have any women on campus that have a wrestling background. We’ve put that out in emails to the student body that if there’s anybody that’s interested in women’s wrestling to get a hold of me.”