KELSEYVILLE >> With colleges such as York College in York, Nebraska, adding women’s wrestling to its roster of sports offerings for incoming students, opportunity is knocking at the high school ranks.
That’s because the few states that now offer a dedicated high school girls wrestling championship, such as California, aren’t turning out the quantity of wrestlers needed to fill college rosters. While participation in the sport continues to accelerate at the high school level, many tournaments do not offer anything close to full brackets such as their boys tournament counterparts. But that’s slowly changing.
The beneficiaries of this supply and demand problem are high school girls wrestlers who find many suitors at the collegiate level. They not only have a highway open to continue their education, but to continue wrestling, and on the college’s dime no less.
Kylie Marlin-Ambriz, an 18-year-old senior at Kelseyville High School, is among that first wave of recipients to really cash in. A four-year wrestler with the Knights and one of the first girls to wrestle at the middle school level in Kelseyville, Marlin-Ambriz signed her letter of intent on Friday to attend York College on what amounts to a combined academic-athletic scholarship that is nearly a full ride.
Accompanied by parents Tessa and Julio Ambriz, members of the Kelseyville High School coaching staff, including current head coach Adam Garcia and past head coach Rob Brown, and York College women’s head coach Jeff Albers, plus many family friends and teammates, Marlin-Ambriz took part in a brief signing ceremony at the school’s cafeteria, decked out in a York College T-shirt.
Her timing is impeccable, too. York College is fielding its first women’s wrestling team during the 2018-19 season, just in time for Marlin-Ambriz’s freshman year.
Albers said the school is looking to field a team of 15 and 10 wrestlers have committed to York so far. Marlin-Ambriz is the second Californian and she joins other wrestlers from Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa and Nebraska.
Albers said he is hoping to land five California wrestlers in all. He scouted Marlin-Ambriz through tournament results and contacts in the area and said she’s a perfect fit for the NAIA school, which has been around since 1890.
“They were feeding me names and hers was one that kept popping up,” Albers said. “We made her the offer and we were happy she accepted.”
“It’s good for her and it’s good for our school and our program,” Garcia said. “I’ve told our wrestlers that if they put in the time and the hard work things like this are possible. When something like this happens it’s making your words come true.”
With many other talented girls currently working their way through the Kelseyville High program, including junior standout Jasmin Clarke, Marlin-Ambriz probably won’t be the last Knights wrestler signing a letter of intent.
“It’s one of the fastest growing sports,” Garcia said. “This is all bittersweet for me because while I’m happy for Kylie, I’ll be sad to see her go.”
Marlin-Ambriz is certainly one of the trailblazers for girls wrestling at Kelseyville. Garcia and Brown said their was “pushback” five years ago to allow girls to wrestle at the middle school level although the wrestlers finally won the day. Kylie and twin sister Korbin, another four-year veteran at the high school level, helped blaze the path for other girls who follow them.
“I’m so proud of her she’s such a good kid, one of the most coachable kids ever,” said Brown, the longtime leader of the high school program at Kelseyville. “We tell freshmen your chances of getting a scholarship are better than in any other sport.”
In fact, both Garia and Brown said that girls wrestling in Lake County is rejuvenating a sport that has seen a decline in boys participation for more than a decade.
“It’s generated a whole new set of fans,” Brown added of girls wrestling.
Troy Davis, an assistant coach with the Knights who accompanies the girls to their tournaments on the same weekends when the boys are competing at other venues, said Marlin-Ambriz, has the heart of a champion and put it on display often.
A 106-pounder, she often worked out with girls in higher weight classes, which was physically and emotionally demanding.
“There were times I thought she would break, but she just came out tougher than before,” Davis said. “She wrestled very well against some tough, state-ranked wrestlers. No matter how tough things were for her, she always came back for more.”
Marlin-Ambriz just fell short of the medal round at the North Coast Section Championships held earlier this year.
“This is a huge thing for all of us,” Davis said of Kylie securing a nearly full-ride scholarship to a college program. “Hopefully it starts a trend.”
