Girls Freestyle Wrestling Continues To Surge In California

September 8, 2022

There is more of it in California.

More of them.

Highly desirable, greatly sought after and hard to get.

Whatever is being performed in California is done to the maximum.

With over 39.5 million residents across a total area of approximately 163,696 square miles, California is the most populous and the third-largest U.S. state by area.

San Francisco, which is both a city and a county, is the second most densely populated major city in the country (after New York City) and the fifth most densely populated county in the country, behind four of New York City’s five boroughs.

The economy of California, with a gross state product of $3.2 trillion as of 2019, is the largest sub-national economy in the world. If it were a country, it would be the 37th most populous country and the fifth largest economy as of 2020.

The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation’s second- and third-largest urban economies.

Even the land mass offers substantial variety.

The state’s extremely diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast and metropolitan areas in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east, and from the redwood and Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast.

California is a wonderful place for the best and brightest to compete.

It is not surprising that Girl’s Wrestling is flourishing in California.

Has been doing so for some time.

As informed by teamusa.org, “California has the most high school girl wrestlers in the nation, and in one of the oldest official state high school competitions. Girl wrestlers from California have traditionally done well at USA Wrestling national competitions, and many have gone on to star at the college and the Senior levels.”

Very true.

Our associates at Grappling Stars attended a girl’s wrestling event in Rocklin, California and even though Female Competition International (FCI) has been covering girls and women’s wrestling since 2021, even we were surprised at the amazing turnout and growth.

At grapplingstars.com they reported, “As we drove down Industrial Avenue towards Tinker Road we saw something that surprised us once again.

The sign said “overflow parking” should head this direction. So the regular parking lot is full? For girls wrestling? Really?

We’ve never seen that before.

After parking we were in for another nice surprise.

A bus would shuttle us to the event. Again. All of this for a girl’s wrestling tournament? Usually the girls have to be second fiddle to the boys at tournaments. Here at their own girl’s only tournament, the parking lot is full and you get a shuttle bus to take you up to the door.

All of those clippings about the growth in girls wrestling is indeed very true.

Once inside we were in for the surprise of our wrestling lives.

This huge facility was crowded with high school and college female wrestlers along with their coaches and family. There were thousands of people in attendance, everything was well organized and professional.

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There were teams of female wrestlers everywhere. Some of the colleges included Eastern Oregon University, Santa Rosa Junior College, Southern Oregon University, Umpqua Community College, Skyline College, Menlo College, Life Pacific University, Life University, Central Christian College of Kansas, Pacific University and York College among others.

This is shocking.”

Well, isn’t life full of surprises? That’s the beauty of it.

What they also noticed is that the skill level has greatly improved. Where parents were once hesitant, now they seem to be fully comfortable with the idea of their daughter being a wrestler.

Like a cheerleading, soccer, swimming or volleyball.

It is always nice to get independent confirmation.

The team at sgvtribune.com posts on December 28, 2018, “According to the latest stats released by the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS), the state of California leads the way in the United States when it comes to girls participating in the rapidly growing sport of girls wrestling. It shouldn’t be surprising when you first take a look on Saturday morning inside the gym at La Puente High School for the annual Lady Warrior Girls Wrestling Classic. The stands were packed with 300 wrestlers.”

This is the current world of competitive girl’s wrestling in California. Given how the Golden State appears to excel at everything, perhaps this should have always been inevitable.

That is the larger picture.

When you break down the components, we are certain the growth and success will continue.

Let’s view it from a regional level.

On May 22, 2021, as educated by sandiegouniontribune.com, “In 2021, nobody in the state of California has done girls wrestling like San Diego. Despite all the challenges of COVID-19, 41 teams gathered at Santana High School on Saturday for the Section Girls Wrestling Championships. While Brawley claimed another team title, all the girls were the winners.”

Congrats to all.

Here is another regional view.

As early as February 15, 2011, Terra Nova High School has been a dominant force in Girls Wrestling. As shared by mercurynews.com, “The Terra Nova girl’s wrestling team won their seventh consecutive team title last night at the Peninsula Athletic League wrestling finals last Saturday at Burlingame High School. The girls made a strong showing, with all seven girls winning medals.”

Having lived on the San Francisco Peninsula, many of our associates are very familiar with the success of the black and gold Terra Nova Tigers.

Due to Covid-19, for almost a year, in 2021, there was a lull.

Not anymore.

The Orange County Register reported, “The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out last year’s CIF Southern Section individual wrestling championships.

That competition is back on the schedule for the 2021-22 season that officially began Monday, Nov. 15. The boys individual championships are Feb. 11-12 in six regions. The girls individual championships are Feb. 11-12 in four regions.”