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Photo courtesy of Angelina Jiang

Junior Angelina Jiang is declared the winner by the referee in the California Interscholastic Federation tournament at Bakersfield.

This year, Louisiana joined the 45 states that certify girls wrestling at the high school level. Of these states, Kentucky, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania hosted their first state-sanctioned girls wrestling tournaments.

In the broader scope of women’s wrestling, the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced plans to add the sport as the 91st NCAA championship sport in winter 2026, with the vote set for next January. These recent developments mark the progress of girls wrestling as the fastest-growing high school sport in the country, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Despite the uptick, wrestling remains a coeducational sport at Gunn due to a matter of numbers, according to head coach Jorge Barajas.

“Financially, we would have to figure out the number to grant another coach for a girls team and recruit more female wrestlers,” he said. “But (a girls wrestling team is) definitely the goal.”

Aspects of the coed practices, in which both genders drill against each other and compete with their respective gender brackets, have been ideal for junior Angelina Jiang.

“For me, (the routine is) mostly drill with the guys during practice and then go out and compete with girls,” she said. “It’s honestly a lot easier to compete with girls after drilling with these heavier, stronger guys. It just toughens you up.”

Wrestler sophomore Aurora Woodley embraces the opportunity to grapple with her teammates’ different styles.

“Being coed is being able to wrestle with a bunch of different people, which is more important than just wrestling with people who are stronger than you,” she said.

This season, the number of female wrestlers on the team has doubled. Alongside the returning members — senior Isabella Lee, Jiang and Woodley — the team welcomed five freshman girls: Mei Elgierari, Thea Kissiov, Avni Lochan, Zara Vivekanand and Mina Van Roy.

While these girls are the minority in the male- dominated team, this imbalance is the very thing that creates camaraderie, according to Elgierari.

“During the SCVAL (Santa Clara Valley Athletic League) sectionals tournament, (the girls) each went to one another’s matches when we could, and although some of us didn’t qualify, we still stayed together and supported one another,” she said. “It really helped, especially for those who weren’t done and were really nervous.”

Emerging players may shy away from the sport because they don’t know what the wrestling experience is like for girls.

“Wrestling is super intense, but people don’t understand that it’s not something that you should fear while being a female because the team is supportive of you,” Woodley said.

At the collegiate level, women’s wrestling is still something of a niche sport, as only four NCAA Division I institutions have varsity women’s wrestling teams: South Carolina’s Presbyterian College, Connecticut’s Sacred Heart University, and Missouri’s University of Iowa and Lindenwood University.

“Right now, there are only four colleges that have DI women’s wrestling, and a lot of colleges only have clubs or they don’t have women’s wrestling at all,” Jiang said. “So it’s really hard to get a scholarship. I know a lot of really good wrestlers, some who got into Stanford, (and) couldn’t wrestle anymore because there wasn’t a women’s wrestling team up until now.”

This limited opportunity does not deter Jiang from further pursuing the sport. Rather, fellow female wrestlers — such as 18-year-old Audrey Jimenez, who became the first girl to win an Arizona state high school wrestling title while competing against boys on Feb. 18 — have become role models for Jiang.

“There have been a couple of times where I’ve considered challenging one of the boys for a varsity spot for duels, because at duels, in all technicalities, a girl (is allowed to) challenge and wrestle guys, like in a lot of other states like Arizona,” Jiang said. “It’s not allowed the other way, just because of physiological differences. It brings up the whole thing of women in men’s sports and how women can bring themselves up to the challenge if they want to.”

Barajas recalls how 2014 Gunn alumna female world-level wrestler Cadence Lee, known for pinning down boys during her high school wrestling career, paved the way for girls in the absence of sanctioned girls’ wrestling. Because of women like Lee, along with women’s wrestling advocate Lori Ayres, who co- founded the organization D1 Women’s Wrestling and helped start the Stanford University women’s wrestling club, Barajas’ wrestling perspective has experienced a full-circle moment.

“I’m able to see where (wrestling) was to where it is now,” he said. “I think (local female forefront wrestlers) help our community of wrestlers. We have a good support system for girls’ wrestling just down the road at Stanford, where Lori Ayres is that voice (saying) that girls wrestling is something that needs to be going.”

For Barajas, coaching Jiang and Lee at the Feb. 22-24 California Interscholastic Federation State Wrestling Championships came against an important cultural backdrop: larger girls wrestling tournaments in the future. Girls state tournaments are now held at the same level as the boys’ and have full brackets. According to Barajas, brackets were around 20 girls, but now they reach 32-40 girls.

“If (this growth) continues, I could see the girls, within next year, at a 64-person bracket as well,” he said. “It’s just that fast-growing.”

Woodley has found that wrestling entails more than mere physical prowess, requiring intellectual and mental strength.

“I think it’s so important that wrestling teaches women how to deal with pain and loss and how to fight for yourself in the real world,” she said. “I’ve learned to just have the fearlessness to stand up for myself.”

According to varsity boys basketball player sophomore Rylan See, this event was the first coeducational professional basketball competition hosted by the NBA and WNBA.

“Even though Sabrina lost, it was exciting to watch, as we got to see the best shooters from both the NBA and WNBA duel it out for the first time,” he said.

According to See, Ionescu’s ability to score at a similar level to contestants from the men-only 3-point contest is encouraging.

“(Ionescu) actually tied Damian Lillard’s score, who was the (men’s) 3-point champion this year,” he said. “(She) showed that she was able to shoot the ball just as well as the best shooter in the world, which will encourage more girls to play.”

The showdown drew 5.4 million viewers, making it the most-viewed competition during All-Star Saturday Night. According to varsity girls basketball player sophomore Lena Duggan, the contest’s popularity — combined with Curry’s — improves the WNBA’s outreach.

“People love to see Steph Curry, so seeing him associated with a WNBA player will likely bring more attention to the WNBA,” she said.

Boys junior varsity basketball coach Matt Passell hopes that Ionescu’s performance will help audiences better recognize WNBA players’ skills.

“Hopefully, other events like this — where you have good competition between men and women — (will make it) so that the people who wouldn’t tune into a women’s basketball contest get to see how talented they are,” he said.

Duggan echoed how the contest garners not only more attention but more regard for women’s basketball.

“It shows that the WNBA should be respected more because the best shooter in the NBA was competing against one of the best WNBA shooters,” she said. “This brings more attention to the talent that the WNBA has.”

Although this was the way I was brought into the world of collegiate basketball, the reality is quite the opposite. Much to the surprise of my 12-year-old self, women’s basketball at all levels has significantly fewer followers compared to men’s.

Since 2021, however, this narrative has begun to change. Over the past couple years, there has been an influx of new talent among collegiate women. Some of the biggest recent names — University of Connecticut guard Paige Bueckers, Stanford University forward Cameron Brink, University of Iowa guard Caitlin Clark, Louisiana State University forward Angel Reese and University of Southern California guard JuJu Watkins — bring so much talent and skill to the court that women’s basketball has become impossible to ignore.

In 2024, arguably the most famous of these names would be Clark. The 6-foot senior’s deadliness from the three-point line has consistently brought her national attention, but it wasn’t until she started smashing long-held records that her talent truly went viral. On Feb. 15, Clark broke the National Collegiate Athletic Association scoring record set by two-time WNBA national champion Kelsey Plum at 3, 527 points, scoring 49 points in one game to bring her total up to 3,569 points. If that wasn’t legendary enough, Clark went on to break the all-time scoring record of any woman or man in Division I basketball, set by Pete Maravich, a Louisiana State guard who went on to play in the NBA. His record had stood for 54 years at 3,667 points before Clark broke it by scoring 35 points against Ohio State University, bringing her tally to 3,684 points.

Needless to say, Clark is one of the most deco- rated women to ever pick up a basketball — and she hasn’t even started a professional career. Leading the Hawkeyes, Clark flushed the University of Connecticut out of the March Madness Final Four on April 5, ending senior Paige Bueckers’ college career. Bueckers, another icon of this current era, has been riddled with injuries for a large portion of her college career: She was out with a knee injury for most of her sophomore year, returning just in time to lead her team to a national champion- ship. There, Bueckers tore her ACL, leading her to miss her entire junior season. In her senior year, Bueckers has beaten the odds, proving she is still an elite player as the 2023-24 Big East scholar-athlete of the year, an Associated Press First Team All-American and a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s 2023-24 Women’s All-America Team.

Also on this All-American team is Stanford’s Brink. The 6-foot-4 senior is an absolute powerhouse inside the paint, her unmatched skill bringing her national attention. Selected as the 2023-24 Pacific-12 Conference women’s player of the year and defensive player of the year, Brink is just as decorated as Bueckers and Clark, and has led her team to many victories.

A new player on the scene, USC’s Watkins is carving her own path, showing endless potential in her freshman season. The 6-foot-2 guard is averaging an insane 27.1 points per game (in their freshman seasons, Brink, Bueckers and Clark averaged 9.9, 20.0 and 26.6 points per game, respectively). Although the Trojans did take a dive out of the March Madness Elite Eight to Bueckers and the Huskies, basketball fans can’t wait to see Watkins’ next season.

Whether it’s stewing over the next All-Star 3-point contest (possibly involving Caitlin Clark), or keeping an eye out for courtside Warriors guard Stephen Curry (who is the son of Dell Curry, Brink’s godfather) at the Maples Pavilion, collegiate women’s basketball is catching fire and no one can look away. However, this ground-breaking talent isn’t the only thing raising the audience numbers.

Women’s basketball has shown it has a flair that men’s basketball just can’t match, whether that be the unbelievable outfits Louisiana State head coach Kim Mulkey wears while leading her team, or the increased intensity of play. Being the animated coach that she is, it only feels right that Mulkey has the craziest style of anyone in the realm of college basketball, from bedazzled and feathered blazers to tiger-print suits. Countless videos of her circle the internet, with her screaming herself hoarse at a referee while the ruffled sleeves of her jacket shake and her pump heels click against the court. A true icon of women’s collegiate basketball, Mulkey is just one non-player aspect that keeps viewers wanting more.

As for the increased intensity of play, there’s been an uptick in physical altercations in women’s ball over the past couple years — and the publicity surrounding them. Not uncommon in men’s games, fights between players are a rarity in women’s games. As to be expected, the NCAA has a zero-tolerance policy toward unnecessary violence, but that doesn’t stop the fact that an explosion of emotion can sometimes be one of the most interesting parts of a game. Viewers (including myself) go wild for a good, juicy fight and love seeing passion and emotions running high on the court.

While March Madness may be over, with the University of South Carolina Gamecocks coming off an undefeated season to take the tournament win over Clark and the Hawkeyes, the fame of women’s basketball will continue growing. All eyes may be looking at the collegiate competition right now, but fans will follow these idols past graduation — Clark, Brink and countless other collegiate firecrackers have already declared for the WNBA draft on April 15, with Clark projected as the top pick.

My 12-year-old perception of the popularity of women’s basketball was plainly incorrect, but the tables are turning. A new era of basketball is upon us — one that brings women’s sports one step closer to the recognition that they deserve. One that lets little girls stand at the three-point line and not dream of being the next Stephen Curry, but the next Caitlin Clark.

The second wave of feminism, commonly known as the women’s liberation movement, took place in 1960s to the 1980s and brought attention to the significant inequalities and discrimination women face in all aspects of their lives. Like the first wave, which gave women suffrage, the second wave also had a major accomplishment: the Title IX law. Title IX, an education amendment, was a major breakthrough for female athletes because it made sex-based discrimination in education illegal.

As a result, girls’ and boys’ teams were required by law to receive equal resources, social studies teacher Phillip Lyons explained. “If schools did not treat women equally as men, they were in legal jeopardy with the federal government,” he said. “So they didn’t have a choice. Even if they did not want to offer something, they had to. Title IX made it a matter of law, so they could not deny equal rights to women in schools.”

But Title IX’s accomplishments didn’t just stop at the secondary school level; it also opened up opportunities for women athletes to play college-level sports and receive scholarships.

Although Title IX prevents women athletes—and women in general—from being discriminated against in education, the change stops there. According to junior Ana Schremp, former hockey player and current soccer player, women still face micro aggressions at school. “In P.E., when I used to play hockey, I’d always be like, ‘Oh yeah, like I play hockey,’ and guys would always be like, ‘Oh, I bet I’m better than you,’” she said. “And then I would feel this need to prove myself to them, because they automatically assumed that they would be better than me because I was a girl.”

Interactions like this show how cultural factors, societal teachings and stereotypes still create an inaccurate belief that women cannot be athletes, which, according to Schremp, is reflected in the words and actions of young men. “I’ve had so many guys openly say that women’s soccer isn’t a real sport,” she said. “As a female soccer player, that pissed me off. When they say that, they invalidate everything that I work towards.”

Boys doubting girls’ athletic abilities isn’t the only reason girls are discouraged to pursue athletic careers. It’s also hard for women to see themselves as professional athletes when they’re older, making them more reluctant to participate in sports beyond their high school and college years. “If you can see yourself with a paying career for after college doing this game, then you’re more likely to do it when you’re young,” Lyons said. “For men, you can see yourself with a career in baseball or football or basketball. But, if you’re looking at [sports] careers for women when they get out of college, there just isn’t that same level of opportunity.”

One of the most significant events in college sports is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) March Madness Tournament, which generates millions of dollars for the NCAA. In past years, the main focus of this tournament was the players and the games; this year, however, it was on the women’s weight room and how it drastically differed from that of the men. A women’s basketball player at the University of Oregon was the first to point out this inequality on TikTok. Her viral video showed how women were only provided with a few dumbbells and some yoga mats, while the men were supplied with a warehouse full of world-class gym products.

Within 48 hours, the NCAA vice president quickly released a public statement and upgraded the women’s weight room to an actual gym. However, many argued that the fact that it took a viral social media post to create tangible change reveals serious flaws in the NCAA’s system. Despite the outrage in the media, the weight room contrasts were no surprise to Stanford women’s basketball assistant coach Katy Steding. “The discrepancies were more obvious this year because of the prevalence of social media, but I’m sure it’s been happening all along,” she said. “There are deeper issues of how money is divided up and how much the NCAA actively promotes a women’s tournament versus a men’s tournament.”

After decades of fighting for equality in sports, women continue to face obstacles on the field. “Although some are hopeful that what happened to the female collegiate basketball players will not happen again, Stanford women’s basketball coach Kate Paye believes that these issues will continue to occur with the same NCAA leadership. “An issue like this starts at the top,” she said. “What happened, and what has been happening, is unacceptable and sexist. We all deserve better.”

At t he same time, the attention that the problem received shows optimism for women athletes gaining equality with their male counterparts. “Hopefully, student-athletes and coaches fight for change, and it’s going to be an uphill battle,” Paye said. “These are deep-seated, systemic issues that have been going on for a long, long time, and changing them is going to be extremely challenging. But hopefully, we’re on the path to doing the work.”

Media coverage is one of the biggest ways athletes and teams gain attention for their accomplishments, making it no surprise that women athletes do not get the same recognition male athletes receive. According to a study conducted in 2019 by the International Association for Communication and Sport, in 2019, women’s sports only accounted for 5% of airtime on televised news shows. Even then, when women’s sports do receive media attention, the attention is not angled at women playing sports, according to Paye. “A lot of times, when they cover men’s basketball, they talk about the game or the coaches or the player; they talk about basketball,” she said. “If they cover women’s basketball, they don’t talk about basketball. They’re going to talk about what a coach is wearing or something cute that a player does.”

When television networks comment on a woman’s outfit or body rather than their athletic talent, they drive the focus away from her athletic abilities and accomplishments. On the national stage, these comments can send a message to all other young women athletes: their bodies are valued more than their passion or dedication for their sport.

According to Schremp, that type of coverage harms female athletes’ views of themselves, which is why it’s time for the content to change. “[Focusing on] what your body can accomplish is what we should aim towards,” she said. “With that, female athletes will feel more confident about their bodies. They’ll know that the value is placed on what you’re able to do with your body and what you’re able to perform with it, instead of what it looks like in a bikini.”

Paye also hopes that a new type of reporting on women’s sports will soon take hold. “There should be more coverage of our incredible female athletes in so many different sports,” she said. “Their stories are incredible, and their accomplishments are incredible.”

Despite some of the discrimination women athletes still face in the media, there have been some valuable advancements. “From a marketing standpoint, if you look at Venus Williams, she’s a draw as much as any male tennis player,” Lyons said. “If they want to sell out a tournament and they get her to go, it’s the same as getting [male tennis player] Roger Federer to go. She’s going to get the same attention from female and male fans. I don’t think that would have been the case a long time ago.”

Developments like these are only the beginning of gender equality in sports, and Schremp hopes that progress will continue in the coming years. “It’s the responsibility of all athletes, men and women of all ages, to support each other,” she said. “Obviously, there’s a women’s soccer team, and there’s a men’s soccer team, but we’re all soccer players. We all want to play at the highest level. If we keep talking like men versus women, that’s never going to get us anywhere.”