Mayte Rodriguez has never backed away from a challenge.
She played football at Fayetteville's Ramay Junior High as an eighth-grader and joined Fayetteville's wrestling team last year as a freshman.
By The Numbers
1 — Female wrestlers who have won an Arkansas high school state wrestling title; Women’s collegiate wrestling programs in Arkansas.
50 — Female high school wrestlers assessed for competition in Arkansas in 2018.
63 — Colleges that sponsor a women’s varsity wrestling program.
18 — States that sanction girls high school wrestling.
2 — Female wrestlers who earned medals at last year’s state tournament.
But even she was stoked when the news came down over the summer that the Arkansas Activities Association had sanctioned girls wrestling for the coming year. The girls will now have a separate state tournament to be held in conjunction with the boys' event in February.
"Girls wrestling is huge for me," said Rodriguez, who has never won a match against boys. "It's something I want to continue doing in my life. It's just a great feeling we can actually wrestle and have more (all-girls) tournaments.
"I really do like wrestling the guys. They teach me things I wouldn't have learned with other girls. I think that's what got me better. We have to work harder to meet their standards."
Arkansas became the 17th state to sanction girls wrestling, and New Mexico soon followed. The Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association announced this week plans to stage an exhibition state girls wrestling tournament also in conjunction with the boys' tournament in February. The event could be sanctioned in a year or two, an OSSAA official said.
Girls wrestling numbers have grown nationally from approximately 800 participants in 1994 to more than 16,000 in 2018. Boys high school wrestling has only been sanctioned for 11 years in Arkansas, but it's now the only state to have men's and women's high school wrestling, along with a Division I, Division II, Division III, NAIA, JUCO and women's college wrestling program, according to the Arkansas Wrestling Association.
Ahead of the Curve
Nika West guided Springdale Har-Ber to a pair of Class 6A-7A state boys' titles recently. But he beat most everyone else in Arkansas to the punch last year by forming a girls wrestling team at Fayetteville. West's group became the first Arkansas high school team to compete in all-girls events last season.
Rodriguez finished second in Branson, Mo. and Springfield, Mo. in the 152-pound weight class. Fayetteville's eight-person team finished second out of eight teams in Branson and earlier took fourth out of 37 teams in Springfield.
West, who returned to Har-Ber in the spring is now trying to get the word out like many others in the state as school starts to put together an all-girls team. That's one negative about when the AAA meetings occur and when those decisions are made, West said.
"There's no grace period for the schools to get ready," West said. "For schools, the budgets are already set for the coming year, so it presents some challenges. But I think it's great for our ladies to get this opportunity."
Van Buren coach John Petree said fielding an all-girls team won't be a problem for him. He already had a couple of females wrestling in his varsity lineup last season.
"I had several eighth-grade girls who practiced with us," Petree said. "They will be freshmen and should make up the majority of our girls' team."
Addison Loney won 10 or so varsity matches against boys and was a win short of a medal at the Big West Conference tournament as a freshman, Petree said. He expects Loney to excel against all-girls competition.
"She's not scared of anybody," Petree said. "When I told her about all-girls wrestling, her first question was 'Will I still be able to compete against the boys?' She likes the higher level of competition. I think that's what separates her."
Guys vs. Girls
Several area coaches believe many more females will be willing to give wrestling a shot since they won't have to wrestle boys now.
"When the kids get to high school and the boys go through puberty, there's just a big change in strength and putting on muscle mass," Bentonville West coach Aaron Wise said.
There have been a handful of female wrestlers medal at the state tournament over the past 11 years, including two last year. But Beebe's Destiny Nunez is still the lone female state champion in Arkansas history. The four-time state medalist won the 106-pound state title in the 1A-5A division as a junior in 2015.
No female has medaled at the state tournament in the large-school class. But West had one fall just a match short in 2017.
Demi Allen moved to Northwest Arkansas from Indiana where she won a national championship in youth wrestling in 2013. The sophomore split time with Daryl Easterling at 120. But she took the spot in the state tournament when Easterling was injured in the conference tournament and represented well.
Allen finished 3-2 in the tournament, including a loss to eventual champion Logan Walton of Springdale and needing just one more victory for a medal.
Despite her success, the combination of facing stronger male competition and a stacked West lineup in the lower weights led Allen to eventually give up wrestling, Wise said.
"She beat some tough kids," Wise said. "It was a tough bracket. I think (wrestling guys) was part of the issue. But our lineup the next year was brutal."
West had the state runner-up at 113, and the state champion at 120, 126 and 132 in 2018.
Working for the Future
Even before the AAA announcement, some Northwest Arkansas coaches put together a wrestling clinic for girls in Bentonville this summer led by Ashley Pagonis, the Oklahoma women's national team coach.
Pagonis, who may return for another clinic in the fall, said the future is bright for the sport.
"It's fixing to be really big," Pagonis said. "The feeling amongst the coaches who are men is changing and it's a beautiful thing. It's important for girls to see women in a position of power or in charge."
Wise agreed that getting more female coaches will be a key to growing the sport.
He pointed to Broken Arrow, Okla., which became the first school in Oklahoma to start a girls program even before the sport was sanctioned in the state.
"It's not even sanctioned yet, but they have a separate team with a female coach," Wise said. "That happened in February or March and they've got like 25 girls in the program."
Work ethic and commitment are keys in wrestling, no matter if you're male or female, Rodriguez said.
"It's not easy at all," Rodriguez said. "It's challenging and it's not for everyone. If you have the right mindset and really want to do it, it's great."
Sports on 08/18/2019