Wyoming becomes last state out west to sanction girls wrestling

In the past, girls would have to join the boys team to be involved in the sport. Now they have equal opportunity. Junior Paityn Covolo wrestled in middle school, but has been waiting for the WHSAA to add girls wrestling as a sport. 

“It’ll make me feel more confident in myself. I think it’ll help out the other girls as well,” Covolo said. 

There were 22 girls at Sheridan High School that signed up for wrestling, 17 of which showed up Monday night. Only three girls wrestled in organized wrestling at Sheridan Junior High School. Sheridan head coach Tyson Shatto is at the helm for both the boys and girls teams. He said it won’t be easy to coach a large group of wrestlers that have little or no experience, but he’s up for the task. 

“There’s a lot of unknowns when you're trying to teach a sport that has a lot of different variables to a group that’s inexperienced,” Shatto said. “There's probably more technique involved in the sport of wrestling than most any other sport, but you only need one or two to win matches. As long as they're willing to keep coming in and learning and have an idea in their head of how they want to progress, then they’re going to get somewhere.”

Shatto said Wyoming is far behind in girls wrestling, but he can look at what other states have done with their programs to make his more successful. 

“We kind of knew about it two years ago, so we diligently did our homework as far as what the expectation was. Wyoming's way behind, the other states are already there. It's just a matter now of trying to play catch up,” Shatto said.

Shatto firmly believes girls should have their own fair shot at wrestling. It’s not just for the boys. 

“As new as it is for Wyoming, it's not new to the country, it's not new to the world either,” Shatto said. “Girls wrestling has been around for a long time. If you watch it, you see it’s a spectacular sport. If you watched the national women’s team this year at the World Championship, you saw some top level wrestling. They are dedicated to the sport as any man. Once you’re a wrestler, you’re a wrestler and that’s not determined by sex.”

Most of the girls were wrestling for the first time on the mats Monday night, but there is a sense of excitement for the future and possibilities. 

“We're just glad that it's happening,” Covolo said. “And I think that it's a good thing for girls to feel confident in doing this sport because I think it can be both a boys and girls sport.”