WHO WE ARE
AWW founder & director Derek Levendusky.
Derek Levendusky
AWW founder and director Derek Levendusky is the father of six children, five of whom wrestle, including three daughters who love the sport. He also serves on the pastoral staff of a church in western NY, and is the head coach at Slingshot Wrestling Club, a club that has both youth and high school programs. He studied writing & journalism at Potsdam State in New York, has covered sports for several newspapers, and has published six Christian books. He wrestled in high school in the Albany, NY, area and in college at SUNY Cobleskill.
“I started American Women’s Wrestling in 2019 after seeing the minimal coverage given to women’s wrestling,” said Levendusky. “I’ve been so inspired to learn the stories of so many female wrestlers and watch their careers develop, I just knew I had to do something to promote the sport. These women work so hard and deserve to have their stories told.”
Ben Levendusky - Photo by Richard Sinclair
Ben Levendusky
Ben is the father of seven and lives in northern New York. He wrestled in high school and is an avid fan of all things wrestling. He’s also on a pastoral team at a church in a small town north of the Adirondacks. He works on international women’s rankings for AWW as we partner with FloWrestling on several projects, and also co-hosts AWW Radio.
Emma Bruntil, freelance writer & content producer
Emma is no secret to the women’s wrestling community. Not only has the McKendree athlete made a name for herself as a competitor, winning the 2019 Senior Nationals and the 2020 NWCWW college national title, but she is emerging as an advocate for the sport and wrestling journalist. Bringing her front row perspective to the sport along with her wealth of knowledge about women’s wrestling and wrestling itself, she’s already been a contributor to Wreaper Wrestling and came on board in early 2021 to add her skills to our coverage team.
Emma Bruntil was the 2019 Senior Nationals champion. Photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo.
Ranking teams & collaborations
We work with a community of trusted sportswriters, coaches, freelancers, and wrestling advocates to produce quality rankings at every level, including state high school rankings, national high school rankings, college rankings, and Senior level rankings. Some of these polls are collaborative works with USA Wrestling, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, and FloWrestling, and others are independent rankings posted only on our site.
