The Colorado High School Activities Association has introduced girls wrestling as a pilot sport. While it is not officially sanctioned by CHSAA yet and there is not a state championship event for girls, interest in girls wrestling has begun to rise around the state, including Durango.
The Durango High School Demons have two girls out for wrestling this season with sophomore Samantha Vasquez and freshman Anneliese Copeland. With the young girls working on the mat in practice every day, head coach Leo Garand said he will bring in a girls-specific coach in the next few weeks.
“It’s a great group of gals,” Garand said. “We’ve got Sam, and she placed fifth last year at state as a freshman, and I know she will be standing on the podium again.”
Vasquez has been used to wrestling the boys, but she went to a state meet for girls a year ago and placed fifth out of 16 girls. She is happy to see schools hosting more girls tournaments.
“Now that it’s becoming more of an actual sport, I’m hoping to actually be able to wrestle at a girls tournament,” she said. “Since I was little to now, I’ve been wrestling the guys.”
Vasquez said there are more girls each year from the Western Slope but said the girls tournaments are still predominantly made up of girls from the Front Range.
Vasquez has helped bring along Copeland, who has a mixed martial arts background but is getting into organized wrestling for the first time. Vasquez said she’s happy she’s not the only girl and hopes more will come out for the team.
“Anneliese is a good athlete who is working a lot with Sam,” Garand said. “We’re teaching her the wrestling piece of it, and bringing in a women’s coach this next week to work with both of them will help us move forward with that program as CHSAA does.”
jlivingston@ durangoherald.com
