The referee whistles and they’re off! The crowd cheers as the girls use unwavering strength and deliberate techniques to pin each other to the ground.  

This might not be the scene students and parents picture when they think of the typical sports girls participate in. However, Girls Wrestling has grown exponentially in the past decade; namely, the sport officially became the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)’s 91st championship sport on January 17, 2025, and will have its first NCAA championship on March 6th and 7th, 2026. 

Even before it reached the college level, wrestling has been endlessly advertised by the National Federation of State High School Associations on posters in classrooms and around the MHS Wildcat Wellness Center, encouraging all students to “challenge yourself” and “be unstoppable.” It was one of these posters that caught the attention of Senior Charlize Mariluz, and encouraged her to look into wrestling. 

“I was intrigued so I did some research on the sport and watched videos of people wrestling, and I admired the strength and technique those wrestlers possessed,” said Mariluz, who became a part of the MHS Co-Ed Wrestling team last year. “I was very indecisive about joining because I was fearful of doing something completely different and foreign to me, but my passion ended up winning that battle of indecisiveness and I ended up joining wrestling.”

Mariluz described how she did feel somewhat excluded from the rest of the team when she first joined in her junior year, as one of the only girls on the team. All-girls wrestling itself was only introduced as a high school sport in the U.S. in 1993, despite the first traces of wrestling date back to the times of the Sumerians, or about 5000 years ago, according to the United World Wrestling Website, and boys' high school wrestling dates back to the 1920s in the U.S. As a result, the few girls on the MHS team didn’t seem to be fully incorporated into this long-standing tradition.

However, as the season went on, the coaches became “more open, supportive, and intentional about helping us improve,” and from then on she has felt extremely encouraged by them and has developed meaningful relations with them. Additionally, she explains how her teammates have “been really supportive and welcoming, especially during real matches,” no matter whether she wins or loses, which she says has “made a huge difference in how confident and connected I feel on the team.”

During her time on the team, Mariluz has gathered that “a lot of the real challenge” and, eventually, “the real reward” of the sport comes from consistent practices, which on good days are “focused on technique and live wrestling, because that’s what really helps us grow and improve as wrestlers.” 

“Repeating the same basic techniques,” continued Mariluz, “when you’d rather learn new moves might feel boring, but it’s what builds real muscle memory and accuracy. For me, I used to think I couldn’t ever reach a strong skill level in most things. Wrestling has taught me that you don’t need a certain mindset or confidence at the start to accomplish big things. You just act with your body and silence the voice in your head that tells you that you can’t.”

This year Mariluz is one of five official female competitors on the MHS Wrestling team, along with Senior Erica Tran, Senior Farrah Henderson, Sophomore Cherish Remy, and Freshman Thasendy Derissier. 

When asked what she would tell those who might be interested in joining the team Mariluz said, “Even if you don’t end up loving the sport or continuing it for years, you’ll walk away with a stronger sense of who you are. There are moments in wrestling where you deal with doubt, frustration, and regret--but facing those moments teaches you how to push through and develop a more positive inner dialogue.”

As Girls Wrestling is continuously progressing into a more mainstream sport for girls, Mariluz hopes it will help hundreds of girls “build character in such a powerful way,” like it had done for her.