Since the 2018-19 season, the impact of girls wrestling continues to grow stronger than ever in Arizona.

This has manifested in the last season’s girls state championship, the Coyote Open Wrestling Tournament’s girls bracket and the Tolleson All-Girls Classic wrestling tournament which were both held on Saturday.

The latter held its inaugural event at Tolleson High School, the first ever girls-only dual tournament in state history, drawing 11 West Valley school teams and 62 wrestlers.

“When girls are given the same opportunities as the guys, they flourish. That’s what they long for right now,” Tolleson wrestling head coach and event founder Cory Nelson said.

The schools were Tolleson, Queen Creek Casteel, Mesa, Mohave, Poston Butte, Sierra Linda, River Valley, Glendale Ironwood, Cactus, Phoenix Moon Valley, and Glendale Raymond Kellis.

Many of these school’s all-girls teams are in either their first or second seasons. 

“This is our second meet we’ve been to. We’re all first-years. But it’s a lot bigger and a lot more going on at once but it’s definitely fun and seeing people get pumped. It gets yourself pumped up, too,” River Valley senior heavyweight Gabriella Summerlin-Tyler said.

The final results of the tournament were Mohave in first place, Tolleson in second, Poston Butte in third, and River Valley

Moon Valley’s Tawni Gomez was named Outstanding Wrestler and Erica Pastoriza of Raymond Kellis was honored as the Freshman Outstanding Wrestler. 

This tournament peels back many layers of why it’s important to give the girls their own space besides competition alone. Here is a list of why Tolleson All-Girls Classic shows it’s a necessity in the Valley.

Increase of recruiting for the future of college girls wrestling

College wrestling is still new to girls entering its ranks. ASU has a girls wrestler on its team, and the demand for girls talent will only continue to increase in the coming years.

The recruiting of female wrestlers will continue to draw more to the sport, giving women and college wrestling coaches an incentive to take on more from the sport.

The Tolleson All-Girls Classic will continue to grow and offer girls that exposure. 

“The most important part to understand why college sports is starting to invest time and finances into girls sports is just an equality issue of girls sports and boys sports at the university level,” Casteel coach Frank Torres said.

“And I think that as time goes along, college coaches from around Arizona are gonna try to recruit girls from that state of Arizona into their college ranks once they start developing programs. I don’t think if a college program is going to be developed in Arizona, it’s a matter of when.”

Ottawa University-Surprise (AZ) wrestling head coach Ed Cruz was the only recruiter who appeared at the Tolleson All-Girls Classic wrestling tournament.

He has a girls program in its first season with wrestlers from California, Texas, Alaska, and Iowa. But he wants more homegrown talent. 

“Right now most of our wrestlers are from out of state because California, Texas, Alaska, they’ve had girls wrestling state championships for 15 years,” Cruz said. “Arizona just started last year, so the talent pool right now is starting to build and that’s what we’re looking for. We had one girl who went to Ironwood last year, Cat Sotomayor did really well here. She’s starting for us at 123 (pounds)…

“Women’s high school wrestling is the fastest growing sport in the United States.”

This also will inspire young girls to start wrestling at an early age before high school.

“I want to be a champion,” five-year-old daughter of Cory Nelson said. “Watching the wrestlers makes me be good at it.”

Girls wrestling helps teach self-defense and build self-confidence

The daily news is littered with stories about girls getting bullied and body shaming in school. 

It’s an epidemic that’s hard to stop and living in the social media era increases awareness of the problem. 

But girls wrestling and events like the Tolleson All-Girls Classic helps bring a sense of belonging for girls subjected to bullying. 

Moon Valley sophomore heavyweight Naijah Walton describes herself as a pushover. Walton began wrestling last year to make herself mentally and physically stronger to defend herself from being bullied by her peers.

“It’s a family, teamwork, hard work, you learn from your mistakes, and if you lose, it’s fine. You win some, you lose some,” Walton added about what she’s learned from the Moon Valley girls wrestling team.

“I’m kind of a pushover because I’m too nice, so people try to bully me a lot, but I know how to defend myself now. I don’t get pushed around as much. Even though I’m a bigger girl, I look bigger but I’m kind of scary.” Walton said.

“This is immense. If I had a daughter who was in school now, this would be great for her to learn self-defense,” Mesa wrestling head coach David DiDomenico said. “With so many girls who can learn self defense against girls, but if a girl comes after them, they can say ‘I got a game plan to defend myself.,

Job opportunities for female wrestling coaches

Most of the females seen at wrestling tournaments are the scorekeepers or family members of the girls competing in them. 

But that’s changed as the sport has increased and the Tolleson event gives female coaches exposure in their own forum.

Moon Valley’s second-year girls wrestling coach Peggy Armstrong grew up in Iowa, a wrestling Mecca in the U.S. She went to Wofford College, which has a formidable Division I wrestling program. She never wrestled, but she was inspired to get into coaching for her love of the sport.

When she moved to Arizona a few years ago, she began working at Moon Valley High School and the head wrestling coach at Moon Valley brought me in to mainly train the girls to do all of the scoring. When they burgeoned a girls program last season, Armstrong was tapped for her current role.

“I feel like there are doors opening everywhere for females in regards to sports and jobs and this is just another opportunity for women like myself to get into this sport which is usually male-dominant and start having positive influences on young girls,” Armstrong said.

A similar situation happened for Amber Barrus and Mesa head coach David DiDomenico.

When he began his girls team last season, DiDomenico knew he needed a female head coach. He hired Barrus, also the school’s softball and girls volleyball coach, to fill the vacancy.  

“It’s been amazing to watch girls be able to rise above what they think that they could do and push themselves individually, so it’s brought a lot of joy to my life and a different level of determination,” Mesa girls wrestling coach Amber Barrus said.

“It’s different pushing girls than it is boys. Being a woman it’s easier to see what are the needs of my girls. I know what those needs are and how they can be met.”

Recognition for West Valley teams vs. East Valley teams

“Back in the day, it used to be a farming area and they were really serious in wrestling,” Nelson said. “You have a lot of schools now that are really big into football and basketball in the West Valley. We just don’t have the wrestling community that the East Valley does and it makes it difficult.

“Our state body for USA wrestling is all out of the East Valley. We support freestyle wrestling all season and so does (Division I defending champion) Liberty, but besides that it’s really limited. Eighty percent of the scheduling in the offseason will be in the East Valley.”

The AIA should improve their sectionals format for more girls to wrestle

“Last year when we had our sectionals, they took the top three. The girls are upset and they don’t even know the politics,” Nelson said. “They just know that the top three went and the top four boys go. I had six girls that took fourth but only one took third, so only one went to state. Five girls had to go home. So I heard it.

“This year, they made the sections smaller, so only the top two are going. They’re not going to think about the sectionals being smaller. They’re going to think about the fact that four boys go, but only two girls get to go.”

Have tips for us? Reach the reporter at [email protected] or at 480-486-4721. Follow his Twitter @iam_DanaScott.

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