(This story first published on albrightathletics.com)
The Albright athletic department has announced that women's wrestling is set to be added as a varsity sport in 2026.
The school also announced the men's wrestling will return to Albright as an NCAA varsity sport in 2025. Wrestling for men and women is a winter sport and will compete in the months spanning November to March. Men's wrestling will officially begin competition in the 2025-26 season and will be members of the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC). Albright will join Alvernia, Delaware Valley, King's, Messiah, Misericordia, Stevens and York in the MAC. With the addition of men's wrestling, Albright's intercollegiate offerings now stand at 24.
"We are excited to launch this new program on the heels of the announcement of a new STUNT team at Albright, which is another step in aligning Albright College with the interests and needs of today's students," said Albright College Director of Athletics, Rick Ferry. "The new program will allow us to enhance our athletic offerings and respond to the growing demands for more opportunities to compete at a high level. We are confident that the wrestling program will be a vital part of the Albright experience, providing valuable lessons in leadership, teamwork, and hard work."
Albright College offered men's wrestling from 1957-2006. Over the 49 years, Albright produced two MAC individual champions and four MAC runners-up. The MAC Champions from Albright were Ron Green and Richard Horst.
The Albright Hall of Fame has inducted three members to the Athletics Hall of Fame who excelled in wrestling at Albright. Fran Hatton '31 who served as a head coach, Gary Sheeler '62 who was a member of the Albright wrestling team and Richard Horst '66 who wrestled and coached at Albright are all members of the Albright Hall of Fame.
In September of 2024, Albright announced the addition of STUNT as latest intercollegiate offering bringing Albright's total to 23 before the addition of men's and women's wrestling. The full release on the addition of STUNT can be found here.
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The Emerging Sports for Women program – overseen by the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics – was established in 1994 based on a recommendation from the NCAA Gender Equity Task Force. Since then, five sports have become championship sports (beach volleyball, rowing, ice hockey, water polo and bowling), while women's wrestling is on track to become the sixth, pending membership approval at the 2025 NCAA Convention. In 2023-24, emerging sports accounted for over 5,000 participation opportunities for women, an increase of over 30% from 2022-23, based on NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates data.
