While high school participation continues to decline, one girls sport is thriving
After not making the Enochs High volleyball team as a sophomore, Rebekah Shirley looked for another sport.
“My mom was like, ‘Why don’t you do wrestling,’ ” Shirley said. “I have always been a physical, outdoors person and I came and actually enjoyed it.”
Long thought of as a boys-only sport, wrestling is becoming quite the opposite.
“There are more girls starting wrestling now than boys,” California Wrestler Editor Al Fontes said. “The baseline and development from the youth level has helped build that and we are starting to see girls get more recognition.”
Fontes said more Mixed Martial Arts featuring women’s matches on TV correlates with the rise of girls wrestling, with girls wanting to become the next Ronda Rousey or other female MMA fighter.
“Social media has played a huge role and there is a lot of information out there and kids see that and want to emulate it,” Fontes said. “They want to normalize it and 30 years ago, it wasn’t normal for girls to wrestle.”
In 2018-19, high school participation in the sport declined for the first time in 30 years but girls wrestling increased by 27%, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
There were 21,124 girls who wrestled last year compared to 16,562 during the 2017-18 year. In California, there were almost 1,000 new girl wrestlers in 2019 while the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section has doubled its participation from 2016 (540) to this year (1,095).
“We’re too big to have one (girls) championship meet, so they now have regionals to qualify for Masters,” SJS Assistant Commissioner Will DeBoard said. “Also, this year, the girls will be competing at the Stockton Area alongside the boys (Feb. 21 and 22).”
The section started offering a championship tournament for girls in 2010; the CIF State held its first girls championship in 2011. Last year was the first championship with both the boys and girls competing in the same arena in Bakersfield.
The girls state championship was previously held in Visalia.
“Never thought in my life I would see a girls state championship,” Enochs coach Luis Vargas said. “Leagues are starting to have their own tournaments too and Tokay has its own dedicated girls wrestling room.”
In the Stanislaus District, the Central California Conference has its own girls league championship.
“When we were in the (Western Athletic Conference), we saw that there were several teams that had over seven girls available to wrestle,” Central Valley coach Robert Beckhart said. “It was at that point that we discussed moving forward with a girls championship. When we entered the CCC, we knew Atwater already had a good program. Our program has grown every year so it was an easy transition to add the girls championship to the CCC.”
Only girl on high school wrestling team
Central Valley girls coach Brandy Cordova said her daughter was the only girl on the team during her senior year in 2013-14, but just a few years later, the Hawks had more than 20 girls on their roster.
Another reason girls wrestling continues to rise is the “recruiting” done by girls around campus, according to multiple coaches.
“The word of mouth has increased the sport,” Ripon senior Marissa Hernandez said. “I help the Tribe (club team) and we have quite a few girls there.”
Ripon has 18 girls who wrestle, and 20 boys.
Pitman sophomore Lilly Freitas, the Bee’s 2019 Girls Wrestler of the Year after going undefeated as a freshman and winning a state championship, said girls are bringing their friends in.
“They think it’s fun,” she said. “It’s not just a boys sport. It’s a boys and girls sport.”
Indians sophomore Katelyn Cardoza, who joined the team last year and qualified for the state meet, said she originally didn’t like it but now loves it.
“I go over what I work on and watch film,” Cardoza said. “I am hyped... I have a lot of energy so this something I like to do.”
Hernandez, one of the captains of the Ripon wrestling team, said she likes how the sport is independent.
“You have the team dynamics but you wrestle on your own,” Hernandez said. “It’s your own game and your own match.”
Wrestling helps girls’ confidence
Hernandez also said the sport helps girls increase self-confidence and empowerment.
“You have to go out there and be stronger than someone and wrestle someone in a 6-minute match,” Hernandez said. “That’s a powerful thing to do in my eyes.”
Like basketball, soccer, and volleyball, girls wrestling has seen a rise in youth club teams and talented wrestlers are coming in as freshmen. Last year, five freshmen won state titles.
“I think you can still start as a freshman especially if you are a good athlete but obviously there is a massive advantage from starting young,” Pitman coach Adam Vasconcellos said. “We have two girls that have come in who wrestled as youth and have placed at every tournament they have entered. There is such a big advantage to have two or three years under the belt before high school.”
One of those talented freshman at Pitman is Lillian Avalos, who won multiple youth titles and finished third at the Napa Valley Girls Classic in January, one of the biggest girls wrestling tournaments in the county.
“In fourth grade, I begged my mom and dad to let me wrestle for a year until they let me,” Avalos said. “I always have been interested in fighting and had that aggressive part in me.”
Enochs freshman Marissa Magaña started wrestling in sixth grade because her dad and uncle told her stories about when they used to wrestle and the dynamics of pinning opponents interested her.
Magana, like every other girl wrestler The Bee talked to, said there wasn’t any negative reception from boys.
“I’ve always wrestled against boys and it’s a family environment,” she said. “They accepted me from the get-go.”
With the rise of club wrestling, both Fontes and Vasconcellos said competition has gotten tougher and the skill level continues to rise.
“At girls section events, you used to be able to go 0-2 and place,” Fontes said. “Now you have to earn it and while at the state level, it’s slightly lopsided between the champion and rest of the field, quarter and semifinal matches are getting stronger.”
Said Vasconcellos: “These kids are coming in as freshman and the weight (classes) are getting deeper.”
NCAA not yet with the program
The sport may continue to rise with NCAA Division II and III voting to approve women’s wrestling as an Emerging Sport during an NCAA Convention in Anaheim on Jan. 25.
The next step is for at least 40 NCAA-affiliated schools to have a team, which would create an official NCAA Championship in the sport, according to Gary Abbott, director of communications and special projects for USA Wrestling.
NCAA Division I will vote later in the year.
“If it passes, it’s only going to help our competition get better and get us more recognition in general,” Cardoza said.
Adrian College in Michigan is hosting the First Annual Cliff Keen National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships on March 6-7.
“This event is significant because it’s opening a door to the NCAA that will expand the breadth and depth of women’s collegiate wrestling opportunities,” said Sally Roberts, Founder and Executive Director of Wrestle Like A Girl in a December press release. “It will also serve to support more athletic and academic scholarships; it will create and support more future leaders that will strengthen our national fabric and add significant value to the conversation of equality and opportunity for all.”
Said Vargas: “I don’t think it’s the peaking but the beginning of the iceberg.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
