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Crowds are up, participation numbers are down and changes are in the works for high school wrestling’s future.

Nebraska will join the discussion with Wisconsin, Arizona, Missouri and a number of other states that are looking to drop the familiar wrestling singlet in favor of shorts and T-shirts.

Nebraska is also looking to the expansion of girls wrestling as an emerging sport in the near future and will likely change the dates for the State Dual Championships.

All three changes are in the name of helping the sport grow.

According to the National High School Federation, high school wrestling has seen a national drop of more than 20,000 participants in the past 15 years.

Nebraska hasn’t experienced a major drop yet, and crowd figures for the state individual championships are climbing after the tournament found a good home at CenturyLink Center Omaha.

Ron Higdon of the Nebraska School Activities Association, who proposed to allow compression shirts and shorts similar to those used in mixed martial arts, has plenty of momentum.