There have always been a lot of reasons for Natasha Phinney to simply not wrestle.

First and foremost, she's a girl, and that made her foray into the “most difficult sport in the world” even more of a challenge.

There were the critics, the lack of facilities, the money-factor, the 5 a.m. practices and the travails of travel.

And then there's that one thing that told her to keep fighting. Quite simply, she loves it.

“Just because I'm girl, that doesn't mean I love the sport any less than a guy,” Phinney said.

For Righetti High's first-ever female wrestler, it was never about proving the boys wrong. But, boy did she.

She never stood on a soapbox, but her actions have left quite a wake - just two years after convincing coach Dutch Van Patten she could compete, female participation has snowballed. This season, Righetti formed its first-ever female varsity wrestling team, and the first such group on the Central Coast. Coach Autumn Jennings is training 12 girls, using her own story as inspiration - and it's 10 years the elder.

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And while the world is changing, Phinney never meant to be one of the mavericks either, proving it only takes one person to make tremendous change. Soon, she might lead the international charge.

The current Fresno State undergraduate was in Colorado Springs recently, more specifically, the Olympic Training Center. America's foremost female wrestling coach was also there, testing 70 female athletes during a 10-day camp. Some might even stick to the 2008 Olympic roster, a team that made its Olympic debut in 2004.

“It's the greatest honor for a woman wrestler,” Phinney said. “It's an upcoming event that many people are not that familiar with. I'd love to represent the country.”

If not for their stubbornness, Phinney and Jennings would have been shut out.

But they WERE stubborn, breaking the female stereotypes and fostering hope for a new class.

It hasn't been easy.

Breaking the barrier

Since she was 3 years old, Phinney has defied those who told her to stay out of the “boys sport.”

Phinney watched her uncle wrestle for Righetti and waited for the day she might have the same chance.

“Dutch said there was no way he could let me wrestle. ‘You're uncle would kill me,'” Phinney recalls him saying. “Please give me an opportunity, I said. After three years of begging, finally my senior year, he gave me a chance.”

She wasn't guaranteed a spot on the team, but Van Patten allowed her to, as he put it, “see what we do here.”

At the time, Phinney didn't know a single move. However, she played soccer for three years at Righetti - two on junior varsity and one on varsity as a midfielder.

“I loved the sport, I was even on traveling teams and all-stars,” Phinney said. “But if I had to choose between them, I'd choose wrestling.”

That senior year, she did, dropping soccer to practice with the boys.

“It was the hardest thing I've done in my life,” Phinney said. “But I loved it.”

Phinney practiced with the boys and competed in separate girls tournaments.

“When we had spots, they could fill in,” Van Patten said of boys tournaments. “If there was a spot open and they were the next one on the depth chart, they would go.”

Though no varsity female wrestler has attended a boys tournament, it is not uncommon at the freshman and junior varsity levels.

Erika Barragan was the second female behind Phinney to make the varsity team - she had previously wrestled in a number of boys tournaments at the freshman and JV levels.

“With seniors, it's hard to break the team,” Van Patten said. “It's hard to beat even our No. 2 guy.”

Barragan is now an assistant coach to Jennings and her upstart Warriors.

Jennings got her start in the Winter of 1992 at Santa Ynez, the Pirates' first female wrestler. Like Phinney, she was a newbie to the sport, stumbling with the moves and terms her junior year. And like Phinney, she had to convince the boys she belonged.

Jennings did them one better. She made first-string.

Wrestling when they wouldn't

Jennings is a self-confessed “tomboy.”

She played on the boys water polo team - a squad with a number of other girls - and was on the swimming team.

One day, she came to a realization while training with one of the wrestlers.

“I was kicking his butt,” Jennings said.

Jennings soon made her mark, and broke the first-string boys varsity team before the end of her junior year.

“The coaches supported me and I was friends with the guys,” Jennings said. “At tournaments and league matches, the guys from the opposite team would refuse to wrestle me. So I automatically won.”

Yet, she would do anything to hit the mat.

At the time, she wore long hair, and remembers waiting for CIF approval.

“I think they were kind of purposely delaying approval,” Jennings remembers.

Santa Ynez coach John Pevis took matters into his own hands.

“What do you think of cutting your hair,” Pevis asked Jennings.

“Don't do a total half job,” Jennings replied, adding. “His best wasn't very good.”

And her parents weren't thrilled when she returned home from Christmas break with two broken fingers.

“They weren't very into it,” Jennings said. “They didn't think I should be doing it.”

In college, Jennings couldn't keep doing it because there were no female teams.

After junior college, Phinney also attended a university that did not field a female team. But like so many obstacles before, that didn't stop her.

Searching until she's found

After taking first place in her high school weight class in Regionals and third in California, Phinney was ready to tackle college.

She received a scholarship to wrestle at Lassen Junior College - where there was a female wrestling team. Soon she was waking up before 5 a.m. to start one of three daily practices.

“We're not trying to prove to other people were capable,” Phinney said. “I just love the sport. I could care less if Joe Schmo thinks I'm capable.”

In one year, she had also completed 42 units, enough to transfer to Fresno State.

“The reason I went to Fresno State was that I heard it was a powerhouse for wrestlers,” she said. “I thought, what a great place to start a female club team.”

Despite posting bulletins and offering to teach females how to wrestle, Phinney received little response.

Yet, her never-say-die attitude landed her on a club program at San Jose State.

The San Jose State team is composed of a number of girls who attend other universities that do not field female squads.

And then she hit it big. While competing in an event for San Jose State, USA Wrestling National Women's coach Terry Steiner spotted her talent and sent her an invitation to the Olympic Training Center.

Without the necessary funds to pay for the trip, Phinney set out to raise the money. Her story inspired a number of Santa Maria businesses and city council members, who contributed to her dream.

And all the while, her story also inspired Righetti to act on a growing interest.

Hoping for more

When Jennings applied to teach at Righetti, she threw in that she could “maybe coach one sport.”

“The principal's eyes lit up, seeing I was once one girl on the guy's team,” Jennings said. “One day after they offered me the job, Dutch called and said ‘Would you like to coach girls wrestling?'”

Jennings was hired three years ago to teach art, but she also took an assistant coach position on the boys freshman wrestling team. She moved up to the JV team and saw a growing number of girls trying out.

Righetti pulled the trigger.

“She's getting her feet wet and I've been trying to help her out,” Van Patten said. “It's her first year as head coach and there are some trials and tribulations.”

Funding has been the biggest trial, according to Jennings. Participation has not been.

“We're hoping for up to 20 to 25 girls next year,” Van Patten said. “I think a lot of girls were interested in the past and didn't want to wrestle.”

In the future, she hopes for three girls in each weight class - for now, the Warriors cannot field all the classes.

Jennings also hopes the CIF will sanction the State Championship. As of now, the CIF only sanctions the regional tournaments.

She hopes for the girls and guys wrestling seasons to be different - allowing easier access to facilities and shared coaches.

She hopes parents will kick their reservations to the curb.

“Parents are a little nervous,” she said. “They're thinking about what it was like when they were in high school and there was no female wrestling. It was a guy sport, but we're slowly changing the attitude.”

And while Jennings keeps Phinney's fight alive at Righetti, the long practices, fund-raising and traveling continue for those that persevere through college.

Nevertheless, the Warriors' maverick has her eyes set on Beijing 2008, while her love for the sport grows that much greater.

Jan. 14, 2007