Girls high school wrestling is growing rapidly.
And there is no better example of it than right here at Yuma High School.
There are 13 ready to wrestle in the upcoming season-opening weekend, and a few more who will eventually be ready for competition.
Brandon Newton, who has helped the boys and girls programs the past several years, has been hired as the girls team head coach. Don Brophy is his assistant. In the first couple of years of girls wrestling at YHS, the coaching staff took turns going to the girls, and boys, events.
“More keep coming out,” Newton said earlier this week. “And they’re tough. You won’t hear a girl whining about anything. They listen really well and are very coachable.”
The 2021-22 season will be the second that girls wrestling is a sanctioned sport in Colorado. It was a pilot program in the state when YHS first started fielding a girls team two years ago. YHS is the only school in the immediate area that fields a girls team.
The girls and boys teams, and coaches, all practice together like they have in the past. The only real difference this year is the girls will have the same coaches at all the competitions.
“Everyone works together,” Kyle Newton, Brandon’s brother and the boys team head coach, said. “It feels like nothing has changed, until we start going to competitions.”
That begins Saturday for the Yuma girls grapplers, when they will compete at Arapahoe High School. The Indians will get in several more matches before the Christmas break.
YHS fielded several quality wrestlers the last two years, and will have a strong team again this season. One big difference from the boys, though, is there is only one classification for girls wrestling, meaning they go up against wrestlers from schools of all sizes all season, including regional and state.
“It’s harder to qualify (for state) but we do have several that could qualify, and we should be able to get some on the podium,” Newton said.
The Indians are planning fielding nine weights, and there will be wrestle-offs to determine who gets to be the varsity wrestler in some weights.
Nadia Caria is at 100 pounds. Chloe Smith and Camila Sanchez both are at 105. Peyton Hynson and Ashley Marshall are at 111. The 118 class has Fatima Duran and Maci Daugherty. Tera Leifheit and Destiny Henderson both are at 127, but Newton said either one could go up to 136. Abril Montes de Oca is at 147 to start the season. Natalia Serrano is at 161, and Mia Dischner is at 185.
Dischner qualified last year for the first sanctioned state tournament.
“Girls wrestling just keeps growing,” Newton said.
The Indians will have one home event on January 20 when they host Lamar. Newton said he is trying to get more teams to come to Yuma for duals.
