Exploring the enigma that is California Community College wrestling

For over 60 years, California's community college system has hosted a wrestling championship for its member schools. Since 1982, it's been a fall sport.

The California Community College Athletic Association rebranded from CCCAA to 3C2A in October of 2023.

The basics

The California Community College Athletics Association, now referred as the 3C2A, has been in existence since 1929. Wrestling first held a state championship in 1959 and the sport’s place in the college wrestling landscape has been a unique one since it moved to compete in the fall season in 1982.

The league is a two-year junior college system with 71 districts and 107 colleges throughout the state. The 3C2A sponsors 12 men’s championships and 13 women’s championships with women’s wrestling being the latest to arrive two years ago.

There’s currently 22 schools that field wrestling programs in the organization. Since 1959, 74 different schools have had wrestlers place at the championships. The year with the most teams represented on the podium was 1972, when 33 different schools had a placer. According to my Dropped Project, there have been 78 total schools with men’s wrestling at one time or another.

Historically, 17 different colleges have won men’s state championships with Fresno City leading the way with 18.

This weekend, I’ll be in Lemoore, California covering the championships, looking for different perspectives on the event, the schools and the wrestlers and coaches that compete there.