The Girls Enter the Ring: FCPS Adds Varsity Girls Wrestling as a New Winter Sport
Justice High School senior Sophia Cardoza Flores beamed as she told the story of one of her proudest moments on the wrestling mat.
“I was for the first time in varsity for boys,” she recalled. “We were tied 36 to 36, and I beat the guy, and he was way bigger than me. I was really scared, but I got him and I was really happy.”
Sophia hopes to have more winning moments on the mat, but there will be a big change this season: Sophia and six other girls are trying out for Justice’s all-new Varsity Girls Wrestling team.
Varsity Girls Wrestling is the second of two new high school athletic offerings Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) added in the 2024-25 school year. The first, Varsity Boys Volleyball, is about to finish its inaugural season. The wrestling season officially starts with a scrimmage on Saturday, November 23, giving the students who make the team a week of practice time before their first matches.
Junior Alae Houmane, who is in her third year wrestling for Justice, is excited to have an all-girls team. At the State Championship level, “we only wrestle girls,” she said. “It’s beneficial to have our own team. I prefer it and I’m really excited about it.” Alae is especially thrilled about the girls’ new uniforms, which for her will include an athletic hijab. She explained with a grin: “It really made me happy that I can continue the sport.”
Before this school year, girls wrestled on the boys’ team. Justice Varsity Girls Wrestling Coach Benjamin Alvarado explained the girls’ team will do much more than give the girls a level playing field: “This makes it more open and inviting to them,” he said. “From everything from the uniforms to the locker rooms to the camaraderie, it’s difficult when you’re only two or three girls out of a group of guys.”
It’s something the girls trying out for the new team can relate to, including Sophia, who remembered when she originally tried out for the boys’ team. An older friend’s sister convinced her to: “I wanted to participate, but I was too scared,” she recalled. “She was like, ‘Don’t be scared. I know there’s a lot of guys, but you’re gonna do great.’”
Junior Dayana Meruvia can relate to Sophia’s story. “I was really scared to try out my freshman year, so I did track instead,” she said, “but my sophomore year I noticed a few more people joining in and I was like, ‘might as well give it a try.’ I just thought it was really unique because that’s a lot of conditioning, a lot of sweating, a lot of working out. I thought that was really interesting the way people just pin people, I thought that was cool.”
Dayana was eager to try out for Justice’s Varsity Girls Wrestling team and expressed her enthusiasm to FCPS Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid when she visited Justice on the first day of school. “I heard her talking about girls wrestling,” she remembered, “and I was like, ‘Oh, gosh, hello, nice to meet you. I’m a girl wrestler as well! I can’t wait!”
Dayana also participates in soccer and cheerleading. She said wrestling has helped her in every other sport she played, from the physical benefits to the emotional: “It helps me persevere through everything.”
Coach Alvarado says that’s a big takeaway students get from being on the mat: “The opportunity to shake hands with somebody and then compete with them ferociously, and then shake hands with that same person and walk off the mat and accept the outcomes is something anyone can take home with them as a lesson in life, and it will serve them throughout their life,” he explained.
It’s a lesson Alae is learning, too. “I took things really personally my freshman year,” she explained. “I’d be upset, I’d be crying, and then the losses really helped me improve. Wrestling taught me how to manage stress. It taught me how to manage losses. It taught me how to manage my emotions.”
To these girls, wrestling is a sport that’s worth getting out of your comfort zone for. “Wrestling is a growing sport for women, and I think if you’re on the fence about it you should just try one day,” said Alae. “I guarantee you’re gonna fall in love with it. It teaches you so much about life. Everyone should do it.”