With thirteen girls on the roster, the  Girls Wrestling Team numbers have  tripled since the 2018-2019 season.

The athletes from last year, according to Coach Michael Arminio, laid the groundwork for this year, with several girls placing in their weight classes or in the top three at tournaments.

As with any new team, the biggest question is what the team connection will be like. First year wrestler, junior Jacquleena Galindez, talked about the connection they have gained this season.

“I think my favorite part of the season is how close everyone has gotten and how we all get along inside and outside of the wrestling room,” she said. “I love the sport and we are very close together [as a whole team].”

Freshman Dalilah Deida gave the reason why she joined the team and what the experience has been like.

“I joined wrestling because it sounded very interesting and I was told a lot about it from the girls’ coach,” she said. “My experience has been very good so far.”

Even though the team has done well this season there have been some struggles along the way. According to Arminion, one of the biggest is trying to find opportunities for them to wrestle.

“Many of the events they compete in are in other parts of the state, so we often have to travel long distances,” he said. “The girls practice every day, but sometimes do not get to compete in matches because other schools don’t have girls on their team.”

However, Arminio said, other schools are trying to create more teams to give the girls more matches.

“The schools that have girls wrestling are working hard to grow the sport and create new events in their local areas to provide more opportunities,” he said.

In future seasons, athletes and coaches hope that team members will return the next year and get ready to work harder than they did in past seasons.

Co-Captain of the girls wrestling team, Katrina Kling, gave her outlook for future seasons.

“I hope everyone who can returns next year with more fire than ever, ready to work and hopefully win.”