Girls wrestle at California State Championships
Castro Valley’s own CVHS girls wrestling team had three team members attend the CIF State Girls Wrestling Championships on Feb. 27-28. This meet is the largest tournament for student wrestlers in California. Seniors Zoe Voss, Joy Pihana, and Shylah Hill all received the opportunity to wrestle some top competitors.
No CVHS girls placed in the tournament, but Voss shortly missed placing within her division. Reaching this tournament makes them as among the top 24 wrestlers in their weight classes in the state of California.
“The fact that these girls made it to the state meet is amazing in its own right,” said Summer Scott, the CVHS girls wrestling coach.
Scott graduated from CVHS in 2004, and continued to wrestle in college. This is her first year as head coach of the girls wrestling team, and the Trojans have had great success.
Scott uses her previous wrestling experience as coaching techniques for her team.
“I put the girls through a similar training process as I was put through when I earned a state title in 2004 for Castro Valley High School,” said Scott. “Each of the girls work hard and they push themselves to limit each day.”
The girls typical workout includes a four-mile run, stretches, 100 push ups and 150 crunches.
Voss commented on how she started wrestling her junior year, eventually making her way to the top and learning to love the sport.
“My whole life I’ve been overweight. My brother wrestles for Creekside and kept telling me about it. I never really considered myself as the most outgoing person but I thought I would push myself to try new things so I thought I would join the wrestling team to lose weight and be a little more active in after school activities,” said Voss. “Not only did I lose 37 pounds by the end of my junior year, I found something new that I loved, and I made new friends.”
Voss has big plans for the future, and she hopes that wrestling is among them.
“Wrestling has become a big part of my life, and I have my school and coaches to thank for providing me the opportunity not only to wrestle but to wrestle on an all girls team,” said Voss.