New coaches for girls wrestling team

Many schools in the United States still have only boys wrestling teams, yet they allow girls to wrestle on their teams. For the past eight years, our school has had a progressing girls wrestling program.

This year, the team had 15 girls: three returning from last year, seven who have wrestled in the past, and five new wrestlers. These young women are learning the true value of hard work by practicing and improving their moves, maintaining their weight classes, and becoming a team.

Steve Solis began the program in 2004 and has been the head coach ever since. This past year, however, he retired after eight years of coaching girls wrestling. The team has had two new head coaches this year: two-time state champ and former Trojan wrestler Summer Rochelle Scott who has been assistant coach for the last eight years; along with coach Dennis Solis, who has also been an assistant coach for the last eight years, and wrestled throughout high school. Though the season has just started, they see a promising team awaiting the future.

“The amount of enthusiastic, experienced girls we have who are helping us out while also improving themselves is exciting for me as a coach to see,” Solis exclaimed. “Barring injuries and or other setbacks, we will do a lot better than people think. And we look to veterans of the sport as a great help. We have a young team and it’s hard to know how they will handle actual matches, but with the coaching staff we have and the team atmosphere we seem to have, I’m thinking we’ll have a fun and successful year.”

Solis has overall confidence that the team will do well and is optimistic. Scott feels the same about the season.

“I am most excited about starting the season and being able to share the knowledge and the love I have for wrestling with these girls. I have a feeling the girls are going to do very well this overall. There is an upbeat energy in the room already. I can tell that these girls are eager to learn and ready to work hard,” said Scott. “Every year year we have challenges, and we will always work past them as best as we can. As long as the girls work together as a team, they’ll be able to achieve any one of their goals this season.”

The coaches see a bright future for the team ahead of them and believe fully in their girls’ abilities.