‘I love this sport’: Oregon hosts first-ever state tournament for girls wrestling

Tigard High School junior Natalie Wilhoit started wrestling two years ago, after coaches at Tigard noticed her aggressive playing style during a powderpuff football game.

“I’ve never been a particularly small girl and every sport just people would always be like, ‘You’re too aggressive. You need to calm down,’” she said. “I got to wrestling and it clicked right away.”

Wrestling has now become a passion for Wilhoit; her coaches said she often volunteers to mop the mats ahead of practices, because she’s so eager to start practicing.

Wilhoit is part of a growing trend, with more states offering wrestling as an official option for their female students. Girls wrestling is the fastest-growing sport by number of participants, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Last week, Oregon held its first-ever state tournament for girls wrestling at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.

Previously in Oregon, many high school girls could participate on their wrestling teams, but could not compete for state-level tournaments the same way their male classmates did.

That participation for girls in wrestling started nearly 10 years ago, when the Oregon School Activities Association began hosting exhibition matches, according to OSAA Executive Director Peter Weber. OSAA began offering a single girls division at the state tournament in the 2017-18 school year, with medals distributed to winners.

But it wasn’t until April 2023 that delegates voted to make girls wrestling an official OSAA sport. It was the first time a new girls sport had been sanctioned since softball in 1979.

In the year since, the number of female wrestlers has exploded. The total number was around 200 a few years ago, but now there are more than 1,200 participating statewide.

Kaleb Reese, who heads the girls wrestling program at Tigard High School, said the school had 17 girls sign up for wrestling. That’s a large total, considering many schools might have less than half a dozen.

“We feel pretty confident about what we’re doing and what we’re creating at Tigard. It’s awesome to watch and more girls keep getting interested every day,” Reese said.

Related: Oregon becomes the latest state to make girls wrestling an official high school sport

Weber said so many girls are signing up for wrestling that it’s likely OSAA will have to expand the brackets in next year’s tournament.

“When I talk to my counterparts in other states about wrestling, the growth seems to be occurring on the girls side,” he said. “The boys side seems to be more stagnant.”

One of those new wrestlers is Emilia Ensrud, a freshman at Canby High School. She said she loves the individual nature of wrestling, and the intense strategy it requires.

“You have to push yourself and you don’t rely on your teammates, and you can’t blame anyone for your mistakes,” Ensrud said. “It’s fun to be the first wave of girls wrestlers.”

Related: Girls wrestling becomes an officially sanctioned sport in Oregon

At the state tournament, Natalie Wilhoit ended up making it to the finals of her weight class. She got there on the back of a dramatic come-from-behind victory in the semi-finals, which saw her pin her opponent to overcome a massive point deficit.

After the bout, exhausted and covered in bruises, Wilhoit could not hold back tears as she shared her love of wrestling.

“It teaches you to work with people, it’s really a family environment,” she said. “I love this sport and I’ve put so much work into it and I want to win.”

She lost the final bout later that night, but said she hopes to return next year and leave a champion.