ASHLAND, Ore. – The state of Oregon is making history for women’s sports, last month – hosting their first *ever* women’s wrestling high school championship. Now the NAIA is following suit and hosting their first championship for women wrestler’s next week.
“I was like if he’s not going to see it then I’m going to prove it to him another way,” senior, Latiana Tauaese said.
80 to one that’s the ratio of men’s to women’s wrestling teams on the NCAA division one level.
“In a lot of sports in basketball and things like that they want to go to the NCAA level, that’s just not an option yet for women wrestling athletes to be a division one athlete,” Associate Head Coach, Paul Rademacher said.
Despite the lack of opportunity, the number of high school girls participating in wrestling across the nation has grown almost 19-thousand percent since 1994 according to the National High School Federation.
“I know that I have friends that are girls that I’m like come out and try this sport. It only takes one person to make that growth happen,” Sophmore, Sienna Ramirez said.
Over the last four years, the women’s wrestling team at Southern Oregon University has become one of the premier programs for women wrestlers.
“They say I want to win a world and Olympic medal and the truth is that at Southern Oregon as an NAIA school this is one of the opportunities that we have to produce an Olympian,” Rademacher said.
For Latiana, wrestling was a family affair. Her dad and her brothers all grew up with the sport, and when she was old enough, she hit the mat
“My freshman year it was just me and my two teammates and then throughout the years, we evolved the girls’ team. We were still wrestling with the guys until we had more girls than guys one year to where we had to have our own separate practices because there were more girls than guys and we needed more space,” Tauaese said.
The SOU women’s team has been growing over the years, doubling in size just from last season. Each year, they’ve been stepping up their game. This season, they established themselves as one of the top eleven women’s programs across the nation at the WCWA championships in February.
“It’s really nice to hear that the program went from so small to SOU is a program to be known for and that’s really nice to have that,” Tauaese said.
But the team says their work isn’t just about the championships or recognition. They’re hoping to leave a legacy for young girls to follow in their footsteps.
For those that doubt if a woman is just as tough as a man, all they have to say is watch me.
“For guys that say oh women can’t wrestle, come out and wrestle one of us on the mat and then talk to us about it again,” Tauaese said.
The first-ever NAIA women’s wrestling championship will be held in Jamestown North Dakota next weekend, March 15th through 16th. SOU women’s wrestling team will be in attendance.
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