Takedown Report

An emerging opportunity: Girls wrestling takes off for Chicago-area schools

When Maine East junior Kate Cacho entered high school and began wrestling, chances to compete against other girls were so rare that they were cause for celebration. “We had a few girls on our team, and we’d pretty much only wrestle boys,” Cacho said. “Whenever we saw another girl, we’d get so excited and hope they were at the right weight for one of us to get to wrestle them. We were always hoping for those chances to wrestle other girls.” Cacho and her female teammates are getting more and more opportunities to do that as interest in girls wrestling is increasing rapidly in Illinois and across the country. Cacho won the 96-pound state championship at the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association’s girls state tournament last season. It was the second girls state tournament held by the IWCOA, with the third set for March.

The IHSA has declared girls wrestling an emerging sport, opening up the possibility for a sanctioned girls wrestling state series in the future. According to the National Wrestling Coaches Association, 13 states currently sponsor a girls state tournament. Meanwhile, 48 colleges have women’s wrestling teams. In Illinois, there are 621 high school girls competing in the sport, compared to 446 last season, according to Homewood-Flossmoor coach Shannyn Gillespie, head of the Illinois Girls Wrestling Coaches Alliance. Rest of the story at https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/mundelein/sports/ct-mun-girls-wrestling-ihsa-emerging-sport-tl-0117-story.html?mc_cid=739d39d282&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

January 22, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized