By Tyler Johnson
Here in Waverly, there has been a substantial and consistently growing interest in Iowa high school girls wrestling. Summer and Rafael Diaz moved their family from Miami, Florida to Waverly, Iowa in August 2020 for their daughters Madison and Eva Diaz to wrestle. Diaz’s family has a history of wrestling and that is why they started wrestling in the first place. While Summer Diaz was not sure about moving to Iowa, once they visited the Waverly-Shell Rock High School, she knew it was the right thing to do. With the renovated weight rooms and seeing the support from the community, they made their decision to move.
“I love that I can tell people that my kids wrestle, and they know what I’m talking about. In Miami, it’s like, ‘Oh, you mean like WWE?” Summer Diaz said.
All five kids of the Diaz family wrestle.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Diaz family considered the future of their family and decided that Waverly Shell-Rock provided the best of opportunities with two titles of state championship in both boys and girls wrestling.
Eva Diaz won the state-championship title in 2021. Madison and Eva Diza are currently studying at and wrestling for Grand View University.
The national outlook on girls wrestling overall looks bright with a lot of room for growth. Although the sport has been long regarded as a male sport, the tone has shifted to being inclusive for both genders. Furthermore, girl’s wrestling has a lot more wind in its sails than boy’s wrestling. With boys wrestling on the decline, girls wrestling is skyrocketing. This has allowed many to still generate interest for high schools to keep providing resources and sponsorships to the sport. With this, high schools all over the country are allowing girls to join the sport even if there is no official female led team. Although this may cause some controversy in the eyes of some, it still gives the opportunity for girls to try out a sport that they were never given the chance to.
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