Wrestling isn’t just for the boys: Idaho’s largest tournament adds all-girls division.

The 18th annual Rollie Lane Invitational kicked off Friday with many familiar sights. But Idaho’s largest and most prestigious high school wrestling tournament sports a new addition this year: a separate girls division.

The two-day tournament will crown individual champions in six all-girls weight classes and award a female team title for the first time Saturday at Nampa’s Ford Idaho Center. The championship round kicks off at 4 p.m. alongside the boys title contenders. And with a separate girls division, the number of girls taking the mat at Rollie Lane has skyrocketed from a record four last year to 85 this weekend.

“It’s a ‘build it and they will come’ kind of thing,” said Annie Foster, the women’s director for USA Idaho Wrestling.

Girls high school wrestling already saw impressive growth inside Idaho last year, with 93 females participating in the world’s oldest sport, up from 40 in 2016-17, according to data from the National Federation of State High School Associations. And that was with little opportunity for girls to compete against their own gender.

Columbia coach Todd Cady founded the Jaybird Memorial Tournament last February, the first all-girls wrestling tournament sanctioned by Idaho’s high school governing body. Now there are eight tourneys all over the state this winter, with the addition of girls divisions at respected events such as Rollie Lane, the Idaho Hall of Fame Classic, North Idaho Rumble, Madison Invite, Clearwater Classic and Potlatch’s Dick Griswold.

Capital High has a new all-girls tournament called Tough as Nails.

“Last year, there were about 100 girls (wrestling) in the state, and there are nearly 100 girls here today,” said Homedale coach Jake Levinski, who entered five girls at Rollie Lane. “That just goes to show that putting an effort there is building it.”

Melba senior Bethany White started wrestling in the sixth grade and spent most of her career battling against boys. She said requiring girls to face boys, with their muscular advantages, prevents other girls from trying out.

Even with all her experience against boys, she said she’s just more comfortable wrestling other girls. She jumped at the chance to compete in Rollie Lane’s first all-girls divisions and enjoyed seeing her gender so well represented Friday.

“It’s just wonderful to see girls having more confidence and coming out and wrestling,” White said.

Coaches and wrestlers throughout the state have started beating the drum for Idaho to host a separate girls state wrestling tournament. Six states (Hawaii, Texas, Washington, California, Alaska and Tennessee) held separate girls tournaments last winter, and six more (Oregon, Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maine) will host their first state-sponsored tournaments in 2019.

Another three (Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado) are working toward sanctioning, with exhibition state championships to showcase the growing sport. But Ty Jones, the executive director of the Idaho High School Activities Association, told the Idaho Statesman last year that the state would like to see more growth before adding a sponsored girls tournament.

Every state has watched its girls wrestling ranks swell after state sanctioning, with neighboring Washington standing as the poster child. It had 208 female wrestlers before sanctioning the sport in 2006. The state fielded 1,071 six years later, a 415 percent increase.

“If you look at the trend, it speaks volumes,” Kuna coach Pat Owens said. “That’s where we’re going. We might as well get in front of it.”

But state sanctioning likely remains years away, so coaches at the high school and club levels have focused on building the sport from the bottom up. Rollie Lane represents a splashy milestone. But it’s possible thanks to growing numbers at the youth and club levels.

Of the 85 female wrestlers at Rollie Lane on Friday, only 12 were seniors.

“It’s OK now. It’s OK for your daughter to wrestle,” Foster said. “Look around at what they can do.”

Timberline freshman Mercedes Ellison started wrestling in kindergarten thanks to her stepfather, a wrestling coach. She used to go years without facing another female. But battling as part of a 20-girl bracket at 145 pounds, the largest she’s ever competed in, made her proud.

“Girls just need to be introduced to the sport,” Ellison said. “Now that there are a bunch of girls wrestling, more girls are going to want to try it out.

“There a lot of aggressive girls out there, so there should be a ton in wrestling. They just don’t really know about it.”

This story was originally published January 4, 2019 at 6:38 PM.