Lizette Rodriguez rides Brianna Gonzalez in a girls state championship match in California (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)When Afsoon Roshanzamir joined her high school wrestling team in the late 1980s, more than 100 people showed up for the first practice.
But she was the only girl.
The days of girls having to wrestle boys are finally starting to come to an end.
Florida and South Dakota recently joined the growing list of states to sanction girls' wrestling.
And that's music to the ears of Joan Fulp and Andrea Yamamoto. They serve as co-chairs for USA Wrestling's Girls High School Development Committee.
Joan Fulp with daughters Sara Fulp-Allen and Katherine Shai (Photo/Larry Slater)"We're up to 25 states now," Fulp said. "We're halfway there, but we still have work to do. We're not going to stop until girls have an opportunity to wrestle in every state."
After decades of struggling for acceptance and equality in the sport, girls are starting to receive the same types of opportunities to compete in the spotlight as the boys.
Sixteen states, not yet sanctioned, held girls-only state tournaments in 2020. Those are still prestigious events as they are sponsored by officials and coaches' associations in their respective states.
The decision to add female state wrestling tournaments have contributed to the number of female participants skyrocketing in recent years at the prep level.
In the 2018-19 school year, participation for female wrestling increased 27.5 percent at the high school level. There were 21,124 girls who wrestled for high school teams last season.
Two states that are on the verge of sanctioning girls' wrestling at the prep level are Iowa and Nebraska.
The number of participants at the Iowa girls' state tournament increased from 87 in 2019 to 350 this year. The first two state tournaments were organized by the Iowa Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association.
Charlotte Bailey, Iowa's women's director for USA Wrestling, said the girls' state meet is scheduled to move to a bigger venue in 2021. The first two state meets were held at Waverly-Shell Rock High School.
"Our numbers are really growing, and we've experienced a big jump in the interest level for girls," Bailey said. "We are definitely moving closer to gaining sanctioning from the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union. We have gained momentum and we have over 500 high school girls wrestling in Iowa right now. We still have a way to go, and we need to keep building."
Nebraska looked to be on the verge of sanctioning girls' wrestling after falling short by just one vote in 2019. Female wrestling was recently approved as an emerging sport, but it fell three votes short of sanctioning in Nebraska in 2020.
Tahner Thiem, who has coached David City High School's boys to three Class C state titles in Nebraska, is a big proponent of girls' wrestling.
"I think eventually we will have it as a sanctioned sport in Nebraska," he said. "I think there will be a mat or two down at the state tournament right alongside the boys. We tell people to get your tickets early now. But I'll tell you what, if you put a couple of mats and have a girls state championship going on at the same time, I think that event center will sell out even more than it does now."
Thiem said adding female wrestling makes perfect sense to him.
"I think it's going to happen in our state," he said. "At some point, 15 or 20 years from now, people are going to think it was foolish it was this hard to pass. The reason I'm behind it, sports are good for kids, extracurricular activities are good for kids and being a part of a team is awesome. Why are we not giving these girls an opportunity to compete?"
Fulp and Yamamoto have traveled around the country while encouraging states to sanction girls' wrestling.
Yamamoto was a member of five U.S. World Teams in women's freestyle wrestling in the 1990s. Fulp's husband, Lee Allen, was a two-time Olympian and their daughters, Sara and Katherine, wrestled on the U.S. National Team.
Fulp said just six states sanctioned girls' wrestling when she and Yamamoto started the USA Wrestling committee in 2016. That number has now more than quadrupled.
"We educate people on female wrestling - and we give them data and information," Fulp said. "We've reached out to someone in every state. We talk to administrators, athletic directors, coaches and anyone who will listen."
Afsoon Roshanzamir"It's incredible when we hear success stories like that - it's so gratifying to hear," Yamamoto said. "There has been a shift in the narrative where girls' wrestlers are being taken more seriously now. It was a long process of changing people's minds about female wrestling. We eventually opened their eyes to the idea that not only can girls do this, but they should do this. The girls deserve their own state championship, just like the boys have."
And for pioneers of the sport like Afsoon Roshanzamir, the first U.S. women's world medalist who was an Olympic coach in 2016, that is great to see.
"Women's wrestling has come so far and I'm proud to be part of it," she said. "I'm honored to have helped pave the way for women to have these kinds of opportunities. They deserve it."
Craig Sesker has written about wrestling for more than three decades. He's covered three Olympic Games and is a two-time national wrestling writer of the year.
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