Laney Napoli is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Arizona College Preparatory High School for AZPreps365.com.

Entering their fourth year, coach Adam Lindstrom and the Arizona College Prep girls wrestling team has produced many state-placing wrestlers. A focus on fun and academics allows the wrestlers to connect on and off the mat.

Girls wrestling at ACP is not a cut sport, but rather organized by where the girls are predicted to weight certify. This year there will be 20 girls competing for the Knights, making them one of the largest teams in their division.

“My goal is just every year the kids have fun,” Lindstrom said. “I don’t care about championships, wins, losses; I do this job because it promotes good people.”

In the previous year not only did the Knights rank second in their preseason with multiple state placers, their graduating class grade-point average was 4.15.

Lindstrom recruits all of his wrestlers within ACP at club fairs where he can be seen dressed up and wearing a sign that reads "ask me about girls wrestling." The sign currently hangs in his classroom for anyone interested. 

To recruit athletes, Lindstrom puts emphasis on creating a team and family atmosphere, taking the team to get pedicures and providing an after-school camp to educate new wrestlers on what wrestling is all about.

Willow Arnold, one of the Knights state placers last year, had no previous wrestling experience when she entered high school. She joined the team under the recommendation of her friends and now is one of the top-ranked wrestlers in the state.

“I made a lot of friends and a lot of family, like my two closest friends,” Arnold said. “Well, all my closest friends are from the wrestling team. It was like something that really wasn’t supposed to happen.”

After moving across the country from Indiana, the ACP girls wrestling team provided a welcoming community of athletes that opened up opportunities Arnold didn’t know she had.

With the 2023-24 season just beginning, Arnold believes the Knights should compete for third in the state overall.

Lindstrom said Rosa Maria is one of his most aggressive  wrestlers and Maria is looking to place in first or second at state this season.

Maria, like Arnold, had no previous experience in wrestling before she joined the ACP team, discovering the opportunity at the same club fair.

Lindstrom’s openness to new faces is what has created one of the strongest and most competitive girls teams in Div. II girls wrestling.

“The coaches were really excited about the sport and super supportive of new people,” Maria said.

The girls wrestling team does not have any promotional social media in order to protect the privacy of the wrestlers. Lindstrom takes pride in securing this as a fun, leisure activity for his athletes where they have little distractions.

The connections made through this program are some that outlast high school. Lindstrom said that his biggest success is the connections he has made with his wrestlers and bonds they have formed with each other.