America's Top Girls HS Wrestling Clubs: Who's Getting It Done?

Victory School of Wrestling’s Ngao Shoua Whitethorn battles Oregon’s Isabella Amaro last summer at Fargo. Photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo / WrestlersAreWarriors.com.

by Derek Levendusky
Twitter: @AWWderek

Fargo is right around the corner. The best girls from the best clubs in the country will converge in North Dakota for the annual Mecca of high school wrestling in just a few weeks. So, methinks, let’s do an article on girls’ high school clubs.

I have to admit, as up as I try to stay on the women’s wrestling scene, I was not prepared for what I’d learn when I stepped into the world of high school girls wrestling clubs recently. Though I know the top 10 individual rankings pretty well, I’m surprisingly ignorant of a lot of who the movers and shakers are in the club scene. Often their name is quietly there on TrackWrestling or FloArena, right next to the name of a hammer or champion, and it’s so easy to miss what’s happening behind the scenes to develop these talented young women.

And I thought—“Dang, if I’m clueless, and I’m in the media, how many wrestling fans are clueless?” I think a lot of club coaches and parents might be the functional experts on this one as they’re in the arena, squaring off against a rival club in a dual or a wrestler from a rival club. So, with a nod to the men and women in the trenches, here’s my first attempt to put an article out there to highlight girls high school clubs that are making their mark on the national scene.

I publish this with the disclaimer that I am surely missing some mentions that ought to be in a piece like this, but perhaps this article and the response to it will help educate all of us on who’s out there. Keep in mind, what might be obvious and a big deal in your part of the country might be totally invisible to another part of the country. Another worthy note is that most of these clubs aren’t strictly girls’ clubs, but are being just as successful developing girls as they are the boys.

There’s no “top 10” list (yet), as that’s honestly hard to quantify and find metrics for that. There are regional duals that show us some of the top teams, but at the national level, the best team events we have are by state. All that said, here’s five girls’ high school clubs you should know about right now.

MI Revolution Girls Training Center (Highland, MI)
“Super Girls Wanted” the camp flyer reads. And that’s what’s growing out of Michigan. Super Girls. When I posted on Twitter that I was doing an article like this and asked for help from the wrestling community, one thing became obvious pretty fast—we need to pay attention to what’s happening at the Michigan Revolution Girls Training Center as there were numerous mentions of this program. “MI-Rev” Coach Mario Flores is in the fast lane, providing and promoting developmental opportunities for female high school wrestlers to succeed at the highest level. Working with local high school programs, the club boasted 8 state champions this year, including 4x state champ Eliana Bommarito, currently ranked #1 nationally at 225 and #8 in the P4P ranking. Sabrina Nauss is also ranked #1 at 180, putting MI-Rev in rare air with two #1 nationally ranked wrestlers. But Bommarito and Nauss aren’t the only ones making their mark on the national scene, as the club landed over ten wrestlers in national rankings. Amarisa Manuel won the USAW National Showcase, and 69 kg Mishell Rebisch won a gold medal just last weekend at the 17U Pan Am Championships. The club also has some young talent coming up the ladder, like Isabella Cepak, a young wrestler who has successful on the scene for years at the youth level. She’s now entering the high school scene, where she was a state qualifier this year. Looks like they’re only getting started, folks. Get used to seeing this club’s name on the national scene for years to come. If all this wasn’t enough, the club took 2nd at Women’s Nationals this year in the U17 division, not to another club, but to Illinois.

Izzy Style School of Wrestling (Addison, IL)
Welp, as they say, the proof is in the pudding, so I’ll just mention four names here—Korina Blades, Reese Larramendy, Kennedy Blades, and Sydney Perry. That enough for ya? That’s two #1 nationally ranked young women in Korina Blades (138) and Reese Larramendy (144), and a #2 in Kennedy Blades at 164, which is almost silly considering she was a Junior world champion last year. The only reason she’s #2 is because another world champ, Kylie Welker, is the current #1. Korina won a bronze at Junior Worlds last year. Perry is #7 at 144. Of course, some credit has to be given to #1 high school program Wyoming Seminary, where the Blades sisters and Larramendy attend, but no one is unaware of the role Izzy Style has played, and plays, in their careers. Since 2005, the Chicagoland club, led by Israel “Izzy” Martinez, says their website, “has been creating champions both on and off the mat. Our unique training environment paired with an elite-level coaching staff is guaranteed to benefit those who are hungry for success.”

Spartan Mat Club (Fort Worth, TX)
A quick peek at the brackets of Women’s Nationals and you’ll see the name “Spartan Mat Club” appear often—not to be confused with Spartan Combat RTC. The club, led by Coach Ray Bedford, has seen a number of elite wrestlers enter the college scene, including Texas Wesleyan NAIA national champion Lexie Basham, who recently just competed at Final X. Among other names the program has produced are Texas hammer Samara Chavez, ranked #1 in high school before she went on to compete for one of the top NCAA college programs, King University; Jolie Lucas, a Texas state champ who went on to join the national champion McKendree Bearcat program; Texas high school freestyle champion Madison Brown, who went on to join the Texas Wesleyan program where she became a 2x NAIA All-American; Camille Fournier, a 2x NAIA All-American for Texas Wesleyan; top high school wrestlers Maryellen Lafferty, who also joined the Texas Wesleyan program; and both Mattison Parker and Kaycie Tanimoto, who went on to wrestle for Oklahoma City. There are others, but certainly seeing what the program has produced tells the story about Spartan Mat Club.

Victory School of Wrestling (River Falls, WI)
Since 2006, Wisconsin-based Victory School of Wrestling has been aiming “to build championship wrestlers with championship character and work ethic.” Offering camps and clinics and a variety of programs, the club is developing their fair share of young women at every level. Recent high school success is evidenced by the likes of Skylar Little Soldier, who earned a silver medal at the U17 Pan Am Championships just last weekend in Argentina. Ngao shoua Whitethorn is another name making waves, the Junior Fargo champ last summer who also took 7th at the U20 world team qualifier in May, a bracket loaded with top college talent. Top 10 Senior level talent Alisha Howk is also in the club. The club was founded by coaches Kevin Black and Derek Miller, and in recent years, Gabby Lord-Klein joined the staff as women’s head coach.

Somar Wrestling Club (Placentia, CA)
It would seem wrong not to mention a club from California, the top girls high school state in the country. Coach Richard Ramos started coaching back in 2002 and began a journey that led him to launch Somar Wrestling Club for girls. With a “process is greater than outcome” philosophy, they continue to develop young women to compete at the highest level. Two familiar names in the club are 2021 Fargo co-champs, twin sisters Brianna and Emilie Gonzalez, who recently both committed to Iowa. Somar also produced a certain young woman named Dymond Guilford, the 3x college national champ that just made her first Senior world team at Final X.

Post-publishing note: Please note that though Richard started the club, his daughter Desiree Ramos has been the head coach since 2018.

Here’s a few other mentions from my research and dialogue with the wrestling community:

Ascend Wrestling Academy (Woodinville, WA)
Bella Vista
Betterman Elite Wrestling (Colorado Springs, CO)
Best Trained Wrestling (Allen, TX)
CT Marvels (Norwalk, CT)
Curby Three-Style (Troy, NY)
Doughgirls (Lowell, MA)
Kodiak Attack (Toledo, OH)
Legends of Gold (Beresford, SD)
Nebraska Wrestling Academy (Omaha, NE)
Pinnacle Wrestling School (Roseville, MN)
Summit Wrestling Academy (Northfield, MN)
Venom Girls Wrestling Club (Otisville, NY)
Waverly Shell Rock Wrestling Club (Waverly-Shell Rock, Iowa)
West Suburban Girls WC (Naperville, IL)

Eventually, we’ll put out a club ranking. If you have a club you wanted to mention, contact derek@americanwomenswrestling.com.