Ari Tyson won the first girls’ wrestling state title at Cherry Hill West. Her family helped power that success.

The Tyson siblings have a habit of tapping their legs when they get nervous. So when Briheem Tyson noticed his daughter, Ari, moving her leg rapidly up and down, he asked if she was OK.

Ari, a sophomore at Cherry Hill West, was a few moments away from taking the mat in the NJSIAA girls’ wrestling regional championship. She’d been there before. As a freshman competing in the 185-pound weight class, Ari was pinned in the semifinals last season and finished third.

But this year was different. Ari was different. She dropped a weight class, competing in the 165-pound bracket, and had only one loss on the season. Her father relayed that message.

“I started this thing, tapping on her face, I tapped on her forehead, under her eyelids,” Briheem said. “I tell her, ‘You’re a great wrestler. You’re a fantastic wrestler. You can do anything you want to do.’”

She listened to her dad’s words, and, two pins later, earned her first South Region crown. But it didn’t stop there. Ari advanced to the state finals at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City and defeated Rancocas Valley’s Savanna Marlin, 10-6, to win the state title.

“It was neat to see her after she won,” Cherry Hill West coach Zach Semar said. “She was able to flex her muscle for like a half a second then shook the other coaches’ hands, even before coming over and getting congratulated by her coaches. It shows the true character of her.”

Ari became the second wrestler in Lions history to secure a state championship following Ryan Cunningham, a 2002 graduate who won four district titles and three region championships and placed four times in the state tournament.

Over the last decade, girls’ wrestling has expanded at the local and national level with 38 states now having sanctioned state championships. New Jersey provisionally sanctioned the sport in 2019, but Ari’s wrestling career began long before then.

Her introduction to the sport came from watching her older brother, Briheem Tyson Jr., wrestle for Pennsauken High School, and she was instantly hooked. Ari and her younger brother, Clay, then became involved in a youth program through Camden Catholic High School, where their father helped with practices.

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Ari didn’t mind being the lone girl on the team. She was eager to learn and knew she could compete against the boys. It also was a way to connect with her father and brothers. But before she reached middle school, Briheem asked his daughter if she would consider playing a different sport.

“She kind of ignored me,” Briheem said. “She was like, ‘No, I’m going to wrestle.’ I told her OK. But it was kind of hard to watch your daughter as she grows and starts developing [into] a young lady wrestle with the boys.”

Ari added: “I guess the difference is when you get older, you kind of get excluded because you’re a girl, so I kind of got excluded, but I didn’t really care.”

Semar remembered the Tyson family name because he wrestled at West at the same time as Ari’s father was competing at Pennsauken. When Semar watched a few of her middle school matches against boys, he instantly thought she had talent.

Semar has coached other girls in his 15 years at West, including Skyy Hills, who’s now a sophomore wrestler at North Central College, a Division III program in Naperville, Ill.

“They want to learn, and they can roll with the punches,” Semar said. “They remind me why I got into coaching in the first place to help see the athletes try to be the best that they can be.”

Ari already was mat-savvy as a freshman with her quick motor and calm demeanor. But her coaches and Briheem wondered about the best way to train her because of her soft-spoken nature. But they quickly learned that “she’s the captain of her own ship,” as her father said.

Ari went 11-2 her freshman year, which culminated in that third-place finish at 185. But Briheem said he could tell she sometimes was uncomfortable with her weight. So during the offseason, she worked out every day and stayed disciplined with her diet. When the season came around, Ari had dropped 10 pounds and a weight class.

“Mentally, I think she was more confident,” Briheem said. “Physically, her moves got more aggressive. They were cleaner. She believed in herself, especially with her double-leg takedowns and single-leg takedowns. Just to watch her be a better wrestler was really nice to see.”

Ari’s wrestling success is only the beginning. Her mother, Ashia Thomas, said her daughter has talked about wrestling in college if an opportunity presented itself. The sport, however, has given the sophomore a stage to blossom to find self-confidence.

“She does a lot of her talking on the mat,” Thomas said. “That’s where you know where her head is at.”

Her father added: “The sky’s the limit. She can be the three-time state champion; she can be crowned regional three years in a row. ... She’s been smiling more ever since [state]. She smiles for no reason. It’s so exciting that I can say my daughter is a state champion.”