One by one, the teenage girls on Webster Avenue in the Bronx stepped past the tire shops and the men barbecuing on sidewalk grills. With stuffed animals and wrestling shoes dangling from their backpacks, they made their way up a stairway into the Bronx Combat Factory.

The second-story boxing gym is the home of the Lucha Wrestling Club, where dozens of girls come to practice alongside sweaty men sparring in a boxing ring and pounding heavy bags.

“If you’re practicing in a gym like this, you know you’re going to be working hard and fighting hard,” said Josh Lee, who founded the club a year ago to support the growing number of girls competing on high school teams in the Bronx.

In 2013, so many girls were joining boys teams that New York City started one of America’s first all-girls high school wrestling leagues, with 16 teams and about 220 wrestlers. That has since grown to 21 teams and 395 wrestlers.

The Bronx is a hotbed, with six public school teams, more than any other borough in the city. Harry S. Truman High School in the Co-op City section of the Bronx has been a powerhouse, winning three consecutive team championships before taking second on May 10 to Curtis High School from Staten Island.

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