Wrestling is one of the oldest sports out there. Why? It's basically just two people grabbing each other until one would like it to stop. Okay, fine, you're right. There are rules involved.

The sport of wrestling is entering a bit of a renaissance—or should we say "wrenaissance"?—so there's an increasing demand for collegiate wrestlers. That means more competition for NCAA roster spots and, sadly, less money for each individual athlete. Since it's an "equivalency sport," wrestling programs divide up their scholarship cash among multiple people. On average, a Division-I team will only cover 33% of college costs for one of their wrestlers. 

Want some worse news, ladies? There are no Division-I teams for women
(source). Yet.

As women's combat sports become more culturally acceptable, this may change. For the time being, women must play in Division II or below. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot less money available for athletes in lower divisions; they don't bring in the big bucks. To do that, they'd have to be football players or something...and wrestlers don't strap on all those heavy pads before they go put the hurt on each other.

Getting a wrestling scholarship isn't just a matter of being good. Nope—since wrestling programs have extremely small recruiting budgets, it's on you to contact them. That's right. You're asking your prospective college out on a date. Colleges are big on video dating, too, so what you need to do is get together a video of your best matches and send that off to schools you'd like to attend. In the old days, that would have been a VHS tape (oh yeah, there used to be this thing called a VHS...long story). Nowadays, you can upload your reel online somewhere and just send coaches and recruiters the link.

You'll need more than just your highlights to get on a roster, though; you also have to meet some basic standards. You need to be a tournament veteran, be in the top twenty-five in your state in your weight class, be a varsity starter, have multiple high school tournament wins, and have competed for at least one state championship. Maybe "basic" wasn't the right term...

More specifically, if you're looking at a Division-III school, you need to have been All-League. Division II? All-State. Division I? All-American, All-Region, and All-Pretty-Much-Everything-They-Have. Being a state champ is preferable, though not required. It should be noted that being state champ is still no guarantee (source). That's a running theme here.

So how serious are you about wrestling? You better be pretty serious if you want to wrestle in college. And if you're so serious that you're thinking about going pro, you should know that there isn't really a professional equivalent of what you're doing as a collegiate wrestler. There's "professional wrestling," obvi. But the winners of the matches are determined in advance and your skills on the mic are just as or even more important than your wrestling ability. 

Sorry to burst your bubble. You might also want to talk to your parents about Santa.

Professional wrestlers are still athletes—in some cases, really impressive ones—but not the same kind of athlete as an NCAA wrestler. If you've got your heart set on being a pro something, you could try the exciting world of Mixed Martial Arts. Wrestling is a great feeder program, and if your main hobby is getting your nose broken, MMA might make a good home for you. Just beware: wrestling is only one component of this increasingly complex sport, and being a one-dimensional fighter is a good way to get kicked in the head a lot.

Come on, bring it in. (Source)

Here's the amazing thing. Even if you're serious about wrestling (and we hope for your coach's sake you are), so much more is required of student-athletes to succeed. Athletes have to maintain a GPA to stay on the team (usually around 2.5), and the same goes for scholarships. If you're lucky enough to get one of those scholarship dealies, you have to be 100% sure to keep up your grades...all while you're killing the competition on the mat.