And now it’s official.

YES! Athletics is a sporting goods company by women, for women. The company is based in Kansas City, Missouri. “Born during a wrestling gear shopping trip with her youngest daughter Annie, Deb (North) founded YES! Athletics to empower young female athletes by filling the gap in sporting goods for girls in sport. Youth girls participating in traditionally male sports are both vulnerable and brave… YES! Athletics is sports gear made for girls and women who are brave enough to enter the world of male-dominated sports. Our mission supports girls in athletics, offering shoes male athletes have traditionally worn, in styles and colors appealing to female athletes.”

Jenna is one of those athletes. More than that, she was recently named a brand ambassador for the company’s wrestling gear.

“My dad posted a video on Facebook of a super-cool bridge move I pulled off at the Tournament of Champions in West Virginia while wearing their shoes,” said Jenna. “I didn’t even realize myself what I did until I watched the video of my match. The video went viral and had thousands of views and comments across several social media platforms. YES! Athletics saw the video and wanted to share it on their social media, and they also asked if I would also be interested in being a brand ambassador for them. I was excited about the offer and figured, why not? Whatever I can do to help bring more attention to the sport of girls wrestling, it would benefit more people in the long run.”

Warren’s Jenna Kophazy is a youth brand ambassador for YES! Athletics, which makes wrestling gear for girls. Photo submitted to Times Observer

The video — posted on Facebook at https://fb.watch/eQ2G1Kzjbm/ by Yes Athletics — is captioned “Roll through. Look at that! We love seeing our shoes in action.”

Kophazy has represented the Crawford County Girls Wrestling Club locally and wrestled for Team Pennsylvania at the Junior National Duals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A well-rounded athlete and excellent student, Kophazy is taking her new responsibility for YES! Athletics seriously. She has been posting product updates and sharing her personal discount code for YES! Athletics on social media.

“I just wear their shoes and shirts, which I was already doing,” she said. “But one of the coolest things I get to do, they sent me a bunch of stickers that have their logo or sayings for girl wrestlers that I just get to hand out to other girls that wrestle. They also printed me business cards with my name on them to hand out to other girls that like my shoes or any of the their gear I’m sporting, but not only does that tell them where they can get the same things, it also gives them a special discount code they can use to save a little money on their purchases. I do a post online for their products and share pictures of me wrestling in their gear.

“YES! Athletics has shoes, water bottles, backpacks, singlets, etc. — all just for girls. I myself had almost all their products even before I became a brand ambassador.

“Being recognized by the company let me know that people were watching and saw what I was doing in the sport, which made me feel pretty good,” said Jenna. “Being an ambassador for them is almost a perfect fit because I know so many girl wrestlers, so I could help spread their mission and products to the fastest-growing sport of girls wrestling.

A pair of YES! Athletics wrestling shoes are pictured. Photos submitted to Times Observer

“Wrestling this summer has been coming along very well,” added Jenna. “I’ve gone to some very exciting girls’ tournaments where I got to wrestle some of the country’s top-ranked high school girl wrestlers, and I have fared very well. … I got to watch younger girls wrestle and I feel I have become a role model because my favorite thing is to watch, talk, hang out and even go out on the mat and warm up with the younger girls. My shoes help with that because they come in colors most young girls like, and a very common question I get asked is, ‘Where did you get those shoes?'”

You don’t have to look far to find female wrestlers joining Jenna in building the sport.

“Being a first-year wrestler in my sophomore year, I do see the sport growing within the area,” said Jenna’s sister, Kasey Kophazy. “Many of the tournaments now are starting to have girls’ divisions for youth and junior high levels, but few offer it at the high school level. The youth girls’ numbers are growing fast, but at the junior high and high school levels, they are growing more slowly. The reason for this is, by time the boys reach these ages they are physically stronger than their female counterparts and the girls have to rely on techniques to even have a small chance and risk career-ending injuries pushing their bodies beyond their limits. Many of the tournaments I have been to are having larger numbers of girls show up each time with growing numbers in the girls division. In the past couple years, 55 high schools in Pennsylvania have sanctioned girls wrestling teams with the majority of them coming within the last six months. Places like Seneca, Saegertown and Mercer are some of the school districts that have made the commitment. With 14 colleges in Pennsylvania adding women’s wrestling teams to their sports programs with more on the way and over 130 colleges sanctioned nationwide and some of the major universities adding programs this year, this opens a door for fantastic scholarship opportunities that had previously never existed before for lady wrestlers. There are several girl wrestlers already at each of the schools within our district, enough for us to have a team already. If we held some ‘try-it nights,’ I believe we could build a team of all-girl wrestlers that could be one of the best in the state.”

Sheffield’s Shelby Lobdell has no problem wrestling a boy or a girl, but sees the benefit of girls’ programs. She wrestled Youngsville senior Allyson Henry in a 113-pound varsity match Feb. 11 at Youngsville High School.

“Some girls are intimidated because it’s male-dominated and the girl clubs and whatnot are a huge help,” she said.

Kasey said girl wrestlers are ready to shine.

“I placed first in the Bragging Rights Tournament in Waynesburg, and also first in the Dean Johnson Memorial, held at our county fairgrounds,” said Kasey. “I have wrestled over 40 matches in dual meets with Crawford County Girls Wrestling and individual tournaments in my first year of wrestling, winning an average of 50 percent of them. I may be new, but I’m focused and eager to learn.”

Girl dads are on board.

“With the sport growing, our athletic director has let the (school) board know it is coming,” said Keith Kophazy. “We have gotten permission to ask the schools in our county to see if any of their students are interested. We would like to have a ‘try-it’ night in the near future and take it from there. You don’t have to have a full team to be sanctioned. The girls wrestle tournaments and possibly other area teams in the meantime; there are already regionals and state championships (of which Lobdell has qualified) in place, so it takes very little funding to start a team. If any girls are interested in trying the sport, reach out to us.”