Entering the Camp Verde High School wrestling room — a place where over the years many middle and high school boys state champions have been made — loud shrieks pierce the busy, stuffy air.
Separated by a retractable curtain, parents are keeping one eye on the mats and the other on tireless children. In front of them is a line of young girls jumping into their neutral stance, encouraged to scream as loud as they can by their coach, Travis Black. Black is coaching mostly first-time wrestlers, ranging from elementary to high school age, in a three-week girls wrestling clinic in preparation for the 2018 Arizona All Girls Club Wrestling Championships.
“I’m teaching them the basics. They don’t know anything about wrestling, so I’m just trying to teach them the basics; how to get through a match,” Black said. “A lot of these girls, some of them will win, some of them will lose, they’ll take a loss. Hopefully they all win. It breaks your heart when they start crying on the edge of the mat, but it happens, it’s part of growing up.”
The program started in the early 2000s, but the clinic is only a couple years old. Its aim is simply to introduce the sport of wrestling to the girls. Many participated in a competition for the first time Saturday, and a lot of the focus is to help them get through it.
Hopefully, Black said, they will find success and with that, desire to continue wrestling. Given the strong pedigree in Camp Verde, it comes as no surprise that more than 30 girls are in the program. The vast majority are elementary school age, seven are in middle school and three are in high school.
CVHS sophomore Sienna Dunegan is in her fifth year wrestling. While Dunegan had a combat background doing kickboxing, she found wrestling to be a smooth transition. She is one of a handful of returners.
Part of what Dunegan likes about the sport is the sense of community it brings. No matter how long one has been in the program, a day or a year, each is treated like family. Black expressed his appreciation for the other Camp Verde coaches, his wife, Sherrill, and Hana Henson for the time they volunteer behind the scenes.
“It builds a lot of character and you gain a lot of friends you didn’t know you could have,” Dunegan said. “It feels amazing, it really does. It’s a family to me.”
It is not a sport under the Arizona Interscholastic Association, but remains no less popular. There are more women beginning to coach than ever, Black said, and there have been talks of making it an AIA sport. For now, girls are wrestling against the boys at the high school level. Black said he has seen an increase in the number of women coaches, too.
Everything is moving in the right direction, it is now just a matter of making it all happen.
“I’ve been hearing about it for the last couple of years but it has not come to fruition yet,” Black said.
The Camp Verde program started at the elementary school level. It began with putting out flyers and then the numbers increased through word of mouth.
Wrestling has made a positive impact on a lot of the girls. Through a contact sport like wrestling, it forces them to be comfortable with themselves and others.
“The parents started seeing a difference in these girls,” Black said. “I don’t know if they have some sort of, I don’t want to say emotional, but awkwardness. This actually helps that out …. It helps little girls come out of their shell and maybe see a different direction for them.
“They’re just kind of awkward, and now it’s, ‘Oh I can do this, I can do something. I just took you down; I just did this,’ and they feel some self gratification out of it.”
Under the club name New Breed, the Camp Verde girl grapplers won two of the three divisions at Saturday’s competition: Middle school and elementary school. It was the third team title on the elementary school side and the second straight at the middle school age. Black said teams from California, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico came to compete.
Only Dunegan competed in the high school division, taking fourth in the 105-109 pound weight class.
In the middle school division, Caylee Townsend won the 88-94 pound pool. Madison McComb and Victoria Black were second and third, respectively, in the 123-134 pound group. Raven Weber and Alexia Wrigley were first and second in the 145-154 pound pool.
Araya Wyatt took second in the 33-46 pound pool of the elementary division. Aalyah McLaughlin and Tyleigh Stalcup were third and fourth in the 46-50 pound pool. Nuvia McClure took third in the 51-55 pound pool. Caidence Munger was fourth of the 56-62 pounders.
Suer Parnell took third in the 64-66 pound pool, and Chelsey Collins was fourth in the 67-68 pound group. Angelina Parnell and Rayah Meckem Griffin were third and fourth of the 69-73 pound group. Aniez Soliz took fourth in the
73-78 pound class.
Cynthia Hanson was second in the 82-88 pound group. Emma Green, Michelle Wyatt and Khloe Van Kirk took second, third and fourth in the 89-100 pound group.
