Matadors Wrestling Club clinic spotlights girls wrestling growth in Yuma County

Thirty youth wrestlers filled Matadors Wrestling Club for an all-girls clinic in Yuma, a sign that girls wrestling in Yuma County is no longer a side development but a growing lane that local institutions are being pressed to support. The clinic brought together beginners and returning wrestlers ages 8 and older for instruction, mentorship and team-building, while also putting elite women’s wrestling in front of kids who may now be imagining a longer future in the sport.

The session was led by club owner Pepe Moreno, three-time NAIA national champion Carolina Moreno and three-time NAIA All-American Emma Baertlein. On the club’s registration page, the event was described as a three-day girls wrestling camp in Yuma, with Carolina Moreno headlining the instruction and Lillian Gradillas, a national champion, and Baertlein also listed as leaders. That lineup mattered as much as the drills themselves: it put accomplished women at the center of the room, offering young wrestlers more than technique and conditioning, but a visible path through high school and beyond.

That pipeline is taking shape across the county. In January, girls wrestling was already showing momentum at a jamboree at Gila Ridge High School, where teams from Buckeye Union, Cibola, Desert Edge, Kofa and others gathered to compete. At that event, Cibola junior Madison Pawloski said her program had grown from three original wrestlers to 10 or 11 girls, a concrete measure of how quickly interest has outpaced the old assumptions about who belongs on the mat.

The growth in Yuma County mirrors the broader national rise of girls wrestling. The NFHS reported that high school wrestling reached 374,278 participants in 2024-25, including 74,064 girls, the first time the annual survey topped 370,000 total wrestlers and 74,000 girls. That rise has been paired with more formal support, and the Arizona Interscholastic Association now maintains an official girls wrestling championship pathway and tournament information for the 2025-26 season.

For Yuma County, the question is whether schools, clubs and governing bodies can keep building fast enough to match the demand. Matadors Wrestling Club’s clinic showed one answer in real time: when local programs create a dedicated space, girls show up. The next test is whether that support extends beyond one clinic and into steady coaching, practice space and a full competitive ladder that lets the county’s newest wrestlers keep moving up.