Colorado testing idea of adding girls high school wrestling
FREDERICK — Esperanza Reyes left the wrestling mat nearly in tears.
Her family had intently watched her first match inches off the mat and her dad rushed to greet her as she walked off, quick with a hug and words of comfort.
Minutes later Reyes, a sophomore at Denver North High School, had traded sadness for a wide smile.
Being pinned in the first round Saturday wasn’t what she was hoping for, but the match itself was part of something much bigger than the result itself.
Reyes was one of 80 wrestlers competing at Frederick High School in the first high school girls wrestling tournament in Colorado history.
“This could be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. You never know if it will happen again,” Reyes said. “It’s cool that when I’m older I’ll be able to say I was part of the first one.”
If Saturday is any indication, girls wrestling is an emerging force in the state.
The Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) announced in early December that Saturday’s tournament would start a trial run for girls wrestling to gauge participation interest. Right now, girls who wish to wrestle participate on the boys teams, with no female division.
The number of female wrestlers is quickly rising, leading CHSAA to test the waters on the idea of adding a girls division.
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There are currently 174 girls from nearly 100 schools registered on trackwrestling.com. More than 50 have joined since last season. There are two female wrestlers registered on Track Wrestling in Fort Collins (Carissa Siebert at Fort Collins and Elise Golyer at Poudre), but neither competed in Frederick on Saturday.
There were 42 schools represented at Saturday's tournament, many there with the goal of helping push CHSAA toward adding a girls division.
“They’re finally getting to the point where enough girls want to come out and do it. Wrestling guys is hard for us because they’re so much stronger, (this tournament) is a big deal to me,” said sophomore Shyla Diamond, who was one of two who made the nearly 150-mile trip from Buena Vista to compete. “I’m surprised there are so many girls that came to this. I’m happy there are that many girls that want to go out for it.”
CHSAA assistant commissioner Harry Waterman, who is in charge of wrestling, was in attendance Saturday.
“We really weren’t sure what to expect. We started talking about it right here at the start of the season,” Waterman said. “Once the word got out, it was pretty exciting to see how much interest there was in such a short timeline.”
Despite Saturday’s success, there’s a long road to add girls wrestling. There are at least two more trial-run tournaments planned this season (Jan. 21 at Highlands Ranch and one at Silver Creek, tentatively scheduled Jan. 28). Waterman pointed out that one successful tournament doesn’t guarantee long-term success.
To add a sport, the idea is first sent to CHSAA’s equity committee, which would help gauge statewide interest in adding it. Then it would go to the legislative council before a league would need to file an official proposal for the legislative committee to vote on.
There would be hurdles determining if there are enough participants and if schools are willing and able to financially support another program. This year and next will serve as a test period for CHSAA to collect data. Waterman says there wouldn’t be an attempt to add a new sport until the next two-year cycle begins for the 2018-19 school year. The last sport CHSAA added was boys and girls lacrosse in 1998-99.
If it were up to wrestlers, it would be a done deal.
Kaley Barker, a junior at Mountain View High School in Loveland, is one of best female wrestler in Colorado history. Last year, she became the seventh girl to ever wrestle at the state tournament and one of the few to win a match at state.
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She wasn’t at Frederick on Saturday, instead competing with Mountain View’s varsity in Arvada, but she is a strong supporter of the girls tournament.
“I know a ton of girls who would come out for the sport if they knew they would be wrestling other girls,” Barker said. “I think they would feel more comfortable if there was a girls team. That would be awesome. It would be a really great thing for the state to start.”
The atmosphere at Frederick ran the spectrum Saturday. Many of the matches were intense with talented wrestlers battling.
In mismatches where an experienced wrestler faced someone who was new to the sport, encouragement took over. In one match, a foe gave her opponent tips on technique as they battled.
The message of the day from the competitors was clear. Winning was important, but the biggest goal was helping push Colorado toward growth in girls wrestling.
“Girls get discriminated for so many things and put down like ‘oh, they can’t do that,’” Reyes said. “It helps to get girls out there and get more recognition. I think it would be really cool to add girls wrestling.”
Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle at twitter.com/Kevin_Lytle and at facebook.com/KevinSLytle.
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Girls wrestling notes
- Format — Saturday’s tournament had 80 female wrestlers competing in seven weight classes (101 pounds, 111, 121, 131, 143, 161 and 189). There were 42 schools represented.
- Girls wrestling across the country — According to an NFHS survey, at least six states have a separate girls wrestling division while several others have girls-only tournaments during the season or are testing the idea like Colorado is.
- Adding a sport — The last time CHSAA added a sport was 1998-99 with boys and girls lacrosse.