City College now has a competitive women’s wrestling for the first time.
Leading the team is head coach Marques Gales who is in his fourth year as coach for the men’s wrestling team and his first year as coach for the women’s team.
“Women’s wrestling has been a thing at the university level for about 20 years, but this is the first year of California junior college competition,” Gales said.
City College decided to add the sport as a club first, before adding it into the athletic department. This year, the women’s wrestling team are hoping for approval to be officially added as an intercollegiate sport for the 2023-2024 school year.
In order to get players for the team, sports administration relied on the creation of the new women’s wrestling club, which attracted interested students.
There are currently 12 wrestlers on the women’s roster, but only nine are competing this year. Gales hopes to see the team finish in the top three at the state championships in April and said he is excited to see the program grow and evolve.
“For junior college in California, women have the same rules as men. However, at the 4-year level, women wrestle freestyle,” Gales said. That means that at the community college level the wrestlers do folkstyle wrestling, where a wrestler tries to control their opponent. Then at the higher level they do freestyle, which places more emphasis on exposure points and pinning or exposing your opponent’s shoulder to the mat.
“For the first month of our season, we compete against 4-year schools in freestyle but switch to folkstyle for the rest of the season,” Gales said. “We defeated Simpson University, 24-20 in freestyle and defeated Fresno City College 30-16 in folkstyle.”
One of the athletes on the inaugural team is Atziry Chavez. “I fell in love with wrestling because of the mentality that comes with it,” she said. “Wrestling is the ultimate form of respect, we shake hands at the beginning and leave everything out there on the mat. Then win or lose you shake hands again gaining experience with either outcome. I feel proud to be a part of the first women’s wrestling team in Sac City history.”
Her teammate Sirauh Teng agreed. “To compete at the junior college level feels like a privilege,” Teng said. “I represent Sac City women’s wrestling with pride. It’s such a genuine experience to be a part of this emerging sport.”
