Freedom High School girls win first FHSAA sanctioned wrestling championship

ORLANDO, Fla. - It's a moment the Freedom High School girl's wrestling team will savor for a long time.  

"It’s something I’ve been waiting for years because I started my freshman year. So to finally get it my senior year, it’s upper rewarding," senior Rachel Ferreter said.  

The team won the 1A state title. It's the first year the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) held a sanctioned championship event for girls' wrestling. 

"It’s really exciting because we all work super hard. Like just as hard as all the boys. We go to all the practices. And for them to have a huge state tournament and ours not to be the same didn’t feel fair," junior Cameron Galvin said. 

In years past, the girls competed in make-shift championship tournaments to cap off the season, where just about everyone got to go. 

This season the girls had to qualify at district and regional tournaments to make it to the big stage. 

"For this year for it to be actually inside and everything like that. You could see the mentality of every single girl change," Kailey Rees said. 

It's a change that these girls hope continues drawing more athletes towards this sport.

"It shows that opportunities are growing, and the sport is growing. This is just the start of something that hopefully will be able to continue,' Rees said.

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