FIRST YEAR OF WRESTLING SEES 425 GIRLS SIGN UP
Inaugural CHSAA girls wrestling season brings more than 400 athletes to mat
Journey Ruiz began competitive wrestling when she was 9 years old after watching her brother’s team and volunteering to help during practice. The sport got her hooked.
Today, as a sophomore wrestler at Chatfield High School, a self-confidence that wrestling inspired has provided Ruiz with a newfound mentality toward the pursuit of success, on and off the mat.
“For my first-ever time wrestling, my first pin and everything, I just felt so awesome,” Ruiz said. “I didn’t really grow up to be winning things. It was just awkward at first. But it felt so nice to win something, and be proud of it, too.”
On Thursday afternoon, beneath a
low-hanging spotlight in Chatfield’s home gym, Ruiz displayed just how much she’s learned as one of the top 111pound wrestlers in the state, pinning her Pomona opponent in 28 seconds as a sparse crowd of masked parents witnessed Colorado high school sports history in the making.
CHSAA’s inaugural season of girls wrestling, after a two-year pilot program, is well underway with at least 425 girls registered to wrestle among 54 schools across the state, according to CHSAA assistant commissioner Adam
Bright. Chatfield entered its last home dual as the undefeated top-ranked team in Colorado, per cowrestling.com, and is the two-time defending pilot-program state champion.
But parity in the sport is growing. Fifth-ranked Pomona defeated Chatfield on Thursday, 27-24. Chatfield coach Sandra George, a former NAIA college wrestler, believes her team still has a chance to win it all. Yet the rewards of this season will stretch far beyond a trophy.
“We’ve had a lot of girls that just came
out of their bubble,” George said. “I had freshmen that never tried the sport before. They came in with their eyes wide open, ready to work. … They come in every day, get beat up by the girls, and then walk off with smiles. It’s just an appreciation for the sport.
“Watching them grow from not knowing anything to getting their first pin, it’s amazing.”
In prior years, high school girls in Colorado joined the boys in the state wrestling tournament. Pioneers like Angel Rios (Valley) and Jaslynn Gallegos (Skyview) broke gender barriers in 2019 as the first girls to reach the state podium. Others saw it differently.
Brendan Johnston, a Classical Academy senior that year, knocked himself out of the state tournament — forfeiting two matches — rather than wrestle a girl.
Yet there is no denying the rapid rise of prep girls wrestling all around the country. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) reported in its latest available annual survey that 21,124 girls in the U.S. participated in competitive wrestling in 2018-19. Compare that to 2009-10, when only 6,134 girls were on the mat.
Girls are now competing for opportunities beyond high school, too, with many small college programs offering financial aid packages for girls. Blue-chip college programs like the University of Iowa are also considering the sport, according to The Cedar Rapids Gazette.
“These girls are looking for fullride scholarships,” George said.
Chatfield junior Savannah Cosme (127) is considered among the state’s top wrestlers after a first-place finish last October at the Super 32 tournament — a national girls wrestling showcase held annually in Myrtle Beach, S.C. USA Wrestling even honored Cosme as its Athlete of the Week. But the joy of victory is now secondary to just being with friends after months of isolation amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“I was just thinking the other day,” Cosme said, “if I didn’t have wrestling, I would be living in my room, and that’s it.”
The Chatfield Wrestling Club has been a welcoming place for female competitors for more than a decade, with the program’s long-term development philosophy aiding in its success. Over the past three years, the Chatfield girls high school roster has grown from six, to 13, to 20 this season. Their intensity matches the boys.
“Our lineup of varsity wrestlers put their heart and soul into it,” George said. “They haven’t got off the mat since last year.”
Inconsistent team sizes in surrounding communities have led several girls to join Chatfield from other schools, such as senior Isabel Garcia (185), who attends classes at Lakewood High School.
“Even though the pandemic is going on, they’re still treating it like it’s really special,” Garcia said. “They’re like a family to me, even though I’m not from this school. They’ve really made me feel like home.”
Predictably, coronavirus has caused obstacles in the first season of state-sanctioned girls wrestling. CHSAA received a variance that allows for competitors to not wear masks during matches, but George said policies vary depending on location. Chatfield was required to wrestle in masks at Montbello, only in warmups at Poudre, and does not require masking for wrestling matches in its home gym.
Chatfield is taking extra precautions to stay coronavirus-free for regionals on the first weekend of March by sitting its varsity lineup from competition over the next two weeks.
Chatfield will continue to practice, though, along with hundreds of prep athletes in Colorado in pursuit of the first true Colorado state championship in girls wrestling.
“There are girls that look for that competition of beating the boys, but the girls are strong,” George said. “They’re highly ranked. Some of these matches are easy for them. But then come regionals and state — they get the hammers.”