Girls wrestling: We've come a long way baby

I’m old enough to remember when Title IX was ushered in and a lot of wrestling programs went to the chopping block to make room for women’s athletics.

We’ve come a long way baby and so has women’s athletics, more particularly, girl’s wrestling

Three years ago wrestling was dropped from the Olympics, only to receive a reprieve. When Portland State cut wrestling in 2009, it was the 670th college in the nation to do so, according to the National Wrestling Coaches Association.

Nationally, there were 258,208 boys wrestling in the 2015-16 school year. That was a decline of over 20 percent from 335,160 in 1976-77, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

So the push to include girls may have started as a way to preserve the sport for boys, but the girls’ side has grown faster than expected.

Here in the Columbia Basin, girls wrestling has built a successful foundation of its own. Othello is becoming one of the dominant girls teams in the state and is ready to take a run at a girls state wrestling title.

Kaylee Martinez (140), Nikki Velazquez (130), Elizabeth Giles (135), Victoria Mendoza (170) and Estephania Vargas (190) lead a young team coming off a district championship en route to bigger feats down the road.

It always brings a smile to my face when Othello coach J.J. Martinez says, “We have some of the meanest, nastiest girls in the state on this side of the mountain.”

Yeah, yeah, sugar and spice and everything …. kinda goes out the window when they step into the circle I guess.

Mattawa’s Abby Yorgensen (145) and Diana Lopez (155) are also some of the best girl wrestlers in the state of Washington.

Six states – Alaska, California, Hawaii, Tennessee, Texas and Washington – sanction a high school state championship for girls. Nationally, there were 11,496 girls wrestling in high school in 2014-15, compared with 783 in 1993-94, according to the NWCA.

Twenty-seven colleges fielded women’s intercollegiate teams this season and 14 had club teams. Eastern Oregon University and Grays Harbor College in Aberdeen have added teams.

Womens wrestling became an Olympic sport in 2004, and according to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) participation survey, girls wrestling is the fastest-growing sport for high school girls (in terms of percentage increase).

The beauty of wrestling - no matter what the gender - still remains: There is one circle, two contestants and one winner.

Who says daddy’s little girl can’t kick butt?

Rodney Harwood is a sports writer for the Sun Tribune and can be reached at rharwood@columbiabasinherald.com.