“I start off by filling up my water bottle in the gym. I then walk into the stinky wrestling room and watch the guys goof off. Once it’s about four, the guys leave and the girls start warming up. Jogging, somersaults, walking on your hands, we do it all. Afterward, we do one of the most important things we can do, conditioning. After that, we start working on moves…” Lylah Lynch, a senior girl wrestler, explained what a typical practice looks like.

Girl’s wrestling was sanctioned in Idaho last year. Canyon Ridge High School has had a good number of girls who are committed to the team and have around 30 girls on the team. Most of the girl’s first year of wrestling was last year, and this year they gained about 10 new girls. Chance Requa the head girls wrestling coach describes how he recruited a lot of the girls to join “I asked them to just try it out, try it out for one week and all that asking just got out lots of girls.”

“I had wanted to become a wrestler since I had watched my brother do it all through high school and middle school. My parents were worried when I was in middle school because there were no girls’ teams, and they didn’t want me wrestling boys… After I was told ‘no’ in middle school that I couldn’t wrestle, I kinda had given up on it and went to other things until high school. When I had one of the coaches come to me, and practically begged me to join the team,” said Aunna Watkins, a sophomore girl wrestler, explaining why she joined the wrestling team. 

Last year, despite being a brand new team, the girls took home the title of District Champions. From last year at districts there were two girls who were undefeated and multiple girls who placed. Requa explained how he was not surprised about the girls winning districts last year at Burley High School on February 18th. “Wrestling is a number game. As a team, the more wrestlers you have, the better odds you have at winning tournaments. I knew we would have a good shot, but I was so proud of our girls for doing it!”

“Winning districts last year was a huge step in emphasizing the fact that the girl’s wrestling team and the guy’s wrestling team are different. Yes, we are a family and we all support each other, but the girls are a different program than the guys to an extent,” said Lynch.

This season will be the second year for Girls wrestling at Canyon Ridge. Coach Requa and the girl’s wrestling team believe that the upcoming season is going to be successful.  “So many girls are starting to figure it out and are going to make huge jumps in the 2nd year. We should make some noise at every tournament,” said Coach Requa.

“I have a good feeling about this season, and I feel that there’s gonna be a lot of title-winning for our school because of our team,” said Watkins.