After years of growing interest, some unofficial competition and facing off against boys, girls wrestling will officially be a part of the Arizona Interscholastic Association beginning in the 2018-19 school year.
After a presentation by a member of the the AIA’s wrestling advisory committee, the AIA Executive Board voted at its meeting on Monday, May 21, to include it as an “emerging sport” to run concurrently with the boys in the winter.
“Very exciting and I’m glad it happened, and we’re actually talking about how we’re going to implement it and looking for a girls coach,” said Tracy Tudor, Camp Verde High School’s head wrestling coach. “It’s a wonderful thing, there’s very good girls wrestlers out there.”
Mark Showers, Camp Verde High School’s athletic director and Conference 2A’s representative on the AIA Executive Board, said there had been talks over the last couple of years of including it, and the board voted on it for the first time this year.
According to a press release from the AIA, there is expected to be an individual bracketed tournament at the conclusion of the season that will run in conjunction with the boys state championships.
“It’s something we’ve talked about before, but it hasn’t been officially presented,” Showers said. “There wasn’t any real something specific that made us go ahead and change it. It was presented by the advisory committee, and we said, ‘Yeah, the nation is going in that direction and it’s something that is probably long overdue, so let’s go ahead and approve it.’”
According to the press release, Arizona joins a group of less than 10 state associations to have girls wrestling.
Showers said that he, Tudor and Camp Verde administration still have to examine how they will move forward with creating the program, and must hire a girls coach. In terms of cost, it depends on the number of athletes.
Camp Verde has had girls wrestlers compete against boys in the past. The latest were April Dodge and Maliah Ettinger, who graduated in 2012 and 2010, respectively. Tudor said he knows of three girls who are interested already; now that it is an official sport, more could be expected to join. Participating in the sport officially will not only spark interest in improving in the wrestling room.
“It’s one of those things that is going to really help some of our kids. I think it will motivate some of our girls to work harder in the classroom, and that’s really one of the ways we look at athletics anyway,” Showers said. “We want it to be something that helps motivate kids in a positive direction.”
In recent years, Camp Verde has organized a state championship for middle- and high-school aged girls that took place in the spring. While still in a preliminary stage, girls will now be able to travel to invitational meets.
Travis Black coaches a clinic for elementary through high school girls to prepare them for their annual state championship. Tudor said six years ago when it started, there were about 30 to 40 girls coming out — this past year there were about 100.
Black has been coaching with Camp Verde for the last 10 years, but credited former coach Bob Weir and one of the current coaches, Mario Chagolla Sr., for getting the ball rolling with girls wrestling long before.
“It’s been a work in progress, at least in Northern Arizona, to promote girls wrestling,” Black said.
The sport has been steadily growing in all of Arizona. Girls in the metro Phoenix area have qualified for the boys state championships. Black mentioned the importance of the move because now it can get the state’s most talented wrestlers exposure to college coaches in order to further their academics and athletics.
“Last year there was probably, I want to say eight or nine girls at the state championship for boys,” Black said. “…. You’ll see those move over into this bracket and dominate it.”
