Pioneer of girls wrestling hails OSAA sanctioning of the sport
North Salem coach Andy Pickett has been putting girls on the mats for 13 years
There is a large poster masking taped on a hallway wall at North Salem High. Here it is—a symbol of this week’s action by the Oregon School Activities Association’s delegate assembly, which voted unanimously to sanction girls wrestling.
The formal addition of girls on the wrestling mats is the first new OSAA sport since softball was added in 1979. The history of girls wrestling could be described a slow crawl forward. OSAA executive director Peter Weber characterized the authorization as “the natural evolution” of the sport in Oregon.
Among the pioneers of the girls wrestling in the state is North Salem wrestling coach Andy Pickett. He first worked with girl grapplers in the early 2000s as an assistant coach at his alma mater McKay High while he was in college.
“The girls just used to compete with the boys,” recalls Pickett.
By the time Pickett took over the North wrestling program in 2010, coaches—some of them reluctantly—established unofficial girls divisions at meets.
The Vikings had female competitors ready to square off against like-minded opponents. Pickett had some early success. His first “state champion” was Alexis Benn (Mastenbroek) in 2011. Her award did not come from the OSAA.
“The first medals came from the Oregon Wrestling Association,” remembers Coach Pickett.
Other top performers for North in the early years include Sandra Hernandez—who got to the championship round, and Kiera Gabaldon—who won a championship—then proceeded to college, competing at Warner Pacific College in Portland, where she was a four-time NAIA all-American. Gabaldon is now the head girls coach at Portland’s Cleveland High—which finished fourth as a team at this year’s state championships. One more grappler, Quilatzli Miguel-Lapham also brought home a championship medal for North in previous seasons under Pickett’s direction.
Over his 13 years at the helm of North Salem wrestling, Pickett figures he has had 25 or more females on the squad with many more state medalists just shy of the championship level.
This season, North had two of the five Central Valley Conference girls in the state girls wrestling finals at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland. Unseeded Viking Icela Sanchez Rodriguez lost to top-seeded Reese Lawson of West Salem at 145 pounds, while North Salem junior Mariko Sonis took the 120 pound championship. She joined Lawson and McNary’s Ali Martinez (190 pounds) as state champions out of Salem-Keizer. McKay’s Sarahi Chavez finished second by just one point in the title match. Team wise, McKay was fifth, and North Salem sixth in the 5A/6A standings. A very good showing by the Central Valley Conference.
Pickett says there was obvious resistance to girls wrestling when he first started coaching. But that has changed.
The OSAA reports there are now several schools which have as many as 20 to 30 females on their wrestling teams, and that the number of girls participating in the sport this past year has increased from 850 to over 1100 on a statewide basis.
Pickett says he is glad to see the change in attitude across Oregon—and hopes schools will all follow his program’s lead.
“I don’t care about gender,” says Pickett firmly.
“If a kid wants to work hard, North Salem will help them achieve certified bad-ass status.”
In the wokeness of the world these days I'm sure the OSAA looked at all sides. I'm
not in-favor of this, but that's what makes USA Great is are freedoms, for now anyhow.
Andy Pickett is very fine coach.
Congratulations!