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Champions Crowned as Girls Wrestling Takes Center Mat

Story by Griffin Pritchard | Publisher

Photos by AHSAA | Graphics by BamaGirlsWrestle.com & WrestleLikeaGirl.com

CENTRAL ALABAMA SCOREBOARD OFFICE – Girls wrestling in Alabama stepped into the spotlight January 19-20 as Thompson High School and the Bill Harris Arena became central locations in crowning 2023 state champions. Coming into the final Sparkman held a nine-point lead over nationally-ranked Daphne, 179-170. The Senators were able to pad their score and distance themselves from the competition on the way to winning the team championship with 191 points. Daphne finished second with 180 points. Weaver (128.5), Enterprise (126.5), Central-Phenix City and Thompson (122 points each) rounded out the top of the standings.

The championship matches – for the first time – were contested side-by-side with the AHSAA Duals Tournament finals at Bill Harris.

Putting the Girls’ Wrestling Championships on the same stage as the Duals Championships shows the growth of the sport within the state of Alabama in terms of participation numbers and in terms of prominence.

The websites bamagirlswrestle.com and wrestlelikeagirl.com along with the Alabama Girls Wrestling Task Force have helped promote the sport as coaches and administrators try to understand the meaning of its “emerging sports” status. Essentially, according to bamagirlswrestle.com, being categorized as an emerging sport “designates a sport growing toward sanctioning. Alabama high school girls wrestling must show significant growth in participation and matches after the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons to be considered for sanctioning.”

Girls wrestling in Alabama is growing on a year-to-year-to-year basis.  And now with Coach Dr. Wendy Zito in charge of Alabama’s Girls Wrestling Alliance, there’s a more focused approach to growing the sport.

John Carroll Catholic Wrestling Coach (along with her husband T.J.) Dr. Wendy Zito wrote ahead of the season “If we can grow our existing teams to have complete rosters, we can increase full dual matches with other schools and grow tournament participation. Although we have many tournaments filled with brackets, many of those entries are from multiple participants at the same school. Complete rosters can help legitimize girls wrestling being a viable sport that can stand on its own two feet.”

According to the AHSAA’s list of declared schools, 71 schools have participated in this season’s competition and 424 girls are certified to compete by taking hydration tests. That’s a 41 percent growth compared to last season and growth just shy of 70 percent since the inception of girls wrestling in 2020. Girls were allowed to compete against other girls and the formation of dual squads – according to experts – has been one of the key contributors to the sport’s growth this season. In years past girls’ only competitions were almost an anomaly as they were oft used to fill spots on JV squads or forced to compete against boys essentially making the sport co-ed.

Unique weight classes specific to Girls’ Wrestling is another change vital to the growth of the sport in this season. According to bamagirlswrestle.com: “For 2022-2023, the Girls Weight classes include over 26 participants in each weight class. The strongest participation is at 120 pounds with 49 and 235 pounds with 48.”

Alabama Girls Wrestling Alliance Ambassadors Yasmine Oliveira

The “By the Numbers” article on bamagirlswrestle.com further dives into the numbers parsing out that 355 girls have wrestled at least one match, according to TrackWrestling; 72 have wrestled more than 15 and 37 have wrestled 20-plus matches this season. 

Read what Southeastern High’s Coach Rob Hodgin has to say about his team: https://bamagirlswrestle.com/southeastern-high-girls-team-growing/

Most of those student-athletes finished the season winning a state  championship:

State Championship Results

100 pounds: Alanah Girard, Daphne (38-2) pinned Erin Clarkson, Auburn (19-4), Fall 1:47.

107 pounds: Juliana Eldridge, Wetumpka (21-0) dec. Madilyn Rodgers, Arab (15-2), 10-4.

114 pounds: Katherine Grigsby, Hewitt-Trussville (34-1) pinned Ali Anderson, Weaver (21-6), Fall 1:42 1:41.

120 pounds: Evelyn Holmes-Smith, Enterprise (36-0) pinned Mariah Johannson, Weaver (27-4), Fall 1:18.

126 pounds: Carly Thomas, Bob Jones (28-1) pinned Jessalynn Allen, Grissom (19-2), Fall 1:42.

132 pounds: Kalyse Hill, Daphne (35-0) dec. Raya Carpenter, Tuscaloosa County (5-4), 5-3.

138 pounds: Lena Johannson, Weaver (26-0) pinned Aenaya Vines, Thompson (33-4), Fall 0:37.

145 pounds: Akerah Artis, Sparkman (31-0),  pinned Charlotte Parker, Montgomery Catholic (16-3), Fall, 2:36.

152 pounds: Reagan Grant, Sparkman (25-2) pinned Autumn Boutwell, Arab (17-6) Fall, 0:25.

165 pounds: Mackenzie Schultz, Enterprise (33-0) dec. Kaylee Holder, Daphne (23-3), Tech Fall 17-2.

185 pounds: Aniyah Griffin, Pinson Valley (35-0) pinned Joy Hawkins, Sparkman (24-1). Fall, 1:58.

235 pounds: Tamara Reed, Baldwin County (17-0) pinned Mallory Ladd, Enterprise (16-2), Fall 0:34.

Team USA Wrestling – on their website – recapped Alabama’s January tournament: Sparkman scored 191 points, to finish 11 points ahead of No. 20 Daphne to win the Alabama girls state championships. Sparkman was led by champions Akerah Artis (145) and Reagan Grant (152), plus third-place Aliza Wix-Amaya (235). State champions for Daphne were Alanah Girard (100) and Kalyse Hill (132), plus a runner-up and two third-place finishers. Sparkman displayed more depth, scoring more points than their team members who did not place in the top four.

National No. 24 Evelyn Holmes-Smith of Enterprise won the 120-pound title, going unbeaten. Eight of the individual champions had no losses: Holmes-Smith, Hill, Artis plus Juliana Eldridge of Wetumpka (107), Lena Johnanson of Weaver (138), Mackenzie Schultz of Enterprise (165), Aniyah Griffin of Pinson Valley (185) and Tamara Reed of Baldwin County (235).

Authors Jessica B. Kirby, Sally Roberts, Jay Coakley, Amanda Stanec and Glenn Gormley combined to craft a technical white paper “Why Women Wrestling Now” with a focus on the current state of women’s wrestling and the benefits of developing a women’s wrestling program.  Their White Paper on the state of women’s wrestling across the nation found that – according to the National Federation of High Schools – girls wrestling grew from 8,235 in 2012 to 16,562 in 2018 and has since shown substantial growth as access becomes greater.

Quoting the paper: “In Colorado as a case example, the first girls wrestling tournament in 2017 drew 80 wrestlers from 42 schools and the end-of-season tournament in 2018 drew 200 wrestlers from 114 schools” such an increase caught the attention of Joan Fulp Co-Chair of USA Wrestling’s Girls High School Development Committee saying: “The growth has just been amazing … the momentum is real.”

But Colorado isn’t the only state to see such growth:

Illinois: 903 (2022) grew to 1600 wrestlers (2023)

Iowa: 1022 (2022) grew to 2379 wrestlers (2023)

Louisiana: 52 (2022) grew to 119 wrestlers (2023)

New York: 563 (2022) grew to 1147 wrestlers (2023)

Referring to the White Paper on Girls Wrestling Growth: “The demand among women for future participation opportunities in wrestling will increase due to two major factors:

1)      Consistent 14% annual growth rate on average in the number of girls participating in high school girls wrestling over the past five years, with future growth increasing as more states sanction girls’ high school wrestling. A continued 14% growth rate over the next five years result in (an estimated) 36,000 girls participating in high school wrestling (starting in) 2022-2023 and

2)      … adding women’s wrestling to college athletic programs would be a useful strategy for maintaining Title IX compliance and meet increased demand for opportunities providing proportional participation opportunities for female students.”

What does that mean? More national recognition for the sport, for the wrestlers and for their opportunities to take their talents to the next level – whatever that next level looks like for these student-athletes.

But ultimately the goal is to have girls wrestling in the state of Alabama recognized as a sanctioned sport. This is where the impetus of the argument falls on the AHSAA. They have a body of work and projections to review. The data is there, and the support is there, too, as (this year) showed a separated girls’ wrestling team/schedule can run successfully and give more student-athletes the opportunity to step into the spotlight and bask in the glory of a championship victory.

Founder/Publisher of Central Alabama Scoreboard. Former sportsguy, and managing editor.

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