Shenandoah University announced Monday that it has added men’s wrestling as its 22nd intercollegiate athletic program.
The team, which will compete in the James R. Wilkins, Jr. Athletics & Events Center and practice in Shingleton Gymnasium, is scheduled for its first season of competition in the fall of 2020.
It is expected that at capacity the team will have 30-35 members by the 2021-22 season.
“We believe that wrestling is going to provide another reason for young men in the Shenandoah Valley to continue their education here at home,” said President Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D.
“The opening of the Wilkins Center gives us the ability to add the sport as we have an outstanding competition venue that has already proved popular with the wrestling community.”
Opened in January, 2018, the Wilkins Center has hosted one youth wrestling tournament and university officials intend to host additional meets in the near future.
Prior to the university deciding to add wrestling as its 11th men’s sport, athletics department officials visited both Ferrum College and Averett University on fact-finding missions.
“We learned a great deal from our trips to Ferrum and Averett,” Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Bridget Lyons said.
“I would like to thank the administrations and coaching staffs at both schools for opening up their facilities and spending time with us to discuss how to most successfully add a program.
“The knowledge we gained was invaluable in this process.”
Wrestling is the first sport added at Shenandoah since women’s golf in 2015 and the first men’s sport since indoor and outdoor track & field (both men and women) were elevated to varsity status in 2009. The last men-only sport added at SU was the football program in 2000.
The university has conducted a national search for the head coach of the men’s wrestling program and the process is nearly concluded. Upon successful completion of human resources paperwork, the university will announce the program’s first head coach.
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