The Tualatin High School (TuHS) girls’ wrestling team’s season began on Nov. 17. Competition kicked off on Dec. 6 at Century High School in Beaverton. The season continues through late February, featuring a tournament hosted at TuHS on Jan. 23.
The Wolf sat down with junior girls’ wrestling fan Miles Larson and junior wrestler Oliver Karmakar to see what their thoughts are on the season so far.
“I think wrestling is a good sport, and it is good for athleticism. I think that the team has a chance to go far this year, and I am also very happy that more popularity is being brought to both girls’ wrestling and wrestling in general,” Larson stated.
Girls’ wrestling is one of the newest sports that OSAA has introduced, officially becoming an OSAA sanctioned sport in 2023. It has opened the doors for many more opportunities for everyone involved.
Karmaker, a wrestler on the boys’ team, observed, “Girls wrestling is very good, and it is really cool to see more girls in wrestling because it used to be a super small group.”
Becoming a sanctioned sport can help produce more participants, which can increase the amount of competition and growth that a team can produce. Girls’ wrestling is one of the fastest-growing sports around the nation; in a single year (2021-2022) alone, there was a 55 percent increase in participants, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
This growth is important for both girls’ and boys’ wrestling, bringing more attention to a sport that has often drawn fewer fans than other winter sports, like basketball. Girls’ wrestling has welcomed over 70,000 participants this year, jumping over 15 percent from last year, according to USA Wrestling. Across the nation, over 1,000 schools have introduced girls’ wrestling as a sanctioned sport, making it the fastest growing girls’ sport, bringing the total number of high school wrestling participants to over 350,000.
Wrestling is one of the hardest sports both mentally and physically, due to the combination of both physicality and endurance. This upcoming season will be an important year for the team. If you are interested in signing up for wrestling, contact girls’ coach Rachel Factora or boys’ coach Matt Hamilton.
