Last month, Scripps Ranch High School  held the inaugural San Diego Middle School Wrestling Championships. The tournament was a culmination of two years of San Diego Unified wrestling coaches working together with the district on a proposal. 

The final creation by the district with the help of Scott Giusti, director of San Diego Unified Athletics and Lonnie Jones, director of San Diego Unified Middle School Athletics was a creation of a combined boys and girls conference consisting of eight Western and eight Eastern league teams.

The conference would be unique in the state of California in that it would provide both a boys and girls teams. It would be different from the 14 weight classes in high school with 16 weight classes for boys and eight for girls reflecting the interest and sign ups. The wrestlers would wear fight shorts and rash jerseys instead of singlets. They would match up every weekend for six weeks, with a final team tournament to decide the final rankings and an individual tournament to complete the season. 

Nearly 300 boys and 50 girls signed up, most of them never wrestled before. Twice a week the middle schoolers practiced at a nearby high school learning how to take opponents down to the mat, how to escape from the ground and how to ultimately pin an opponent. They got in shape, learned a new sport and developed self-defense skills. 

Earlier last month, the Team Championships were held at Clairemont High School for the top eight teams and Lincoln High School for the lower eight to compete for the first team championship in San Diego history. The Marauders secured first place with a score 24-0 over the Falcons, while the Vikings took third in a 48-36 match over the Patriots. 

The following weekend was the boys and girls individual championships. The Marauders took first with 239 points, the Falcons second with 195 and the Vikings placed third with 159.5. Individual results were posted on the TrackWrestling sitio web.

This is a big moment for the sport, which is experiencing large growth since the COVID slump, last year having more competitors than at any other time. It is also an important time for girls, especially since women’s wrestling is the fastest growing sport in America, with multiple colleges adding women’s wrestling to their athletics every year. 

“We are excited about the continued growth and development of San Diego Unified Middle School Athletics,” Jones commented. “We were able to build on the success of track & field, basketball, soccer, volleyball, & flag football and expanded in 2023-24 to include both wrestling and cheer. San Diego Unified School District continues to be recognized as a leader in California as it pertains to middle school athletics and we look forward to creating opportunities for our students as well as strengthening the vertical alignment between the middle and high schools.”

Most importantly, it an exciting moment for San Diego wrestlers. San Diego Unified kids can start early to learn a sport, develop important life skills, and finally have the same opportunities to be champions and a chance at college scholarships. 

Editor’s note: Sam Litvin is the boys’ wrestling coach at Patrick Henry High School.

(Foto de cortesía)