For 50 years, girls officially competed in just one Arizona high school sport

If you took a moment to think back into early 20th-century history, you might guess what it was. It’s not softball or track and field. It’s not even golf and definitely not beach volleyball.

If you guessed tennis, score an ace.

According to the Arizona Interscholastic Association championship archives, Tucson High School won the Arizona high school championship for girls team tennis in 1916, just four years after Arizona became a state. Phoenix Union High School came in second, followed by Mesa High. It was the first-ever official girls high school championship in the state that's recognized in the AIA archives.

Wilhelmina Rebeil of Tucson High won the first girls singles title that year and again in 1917. Doubles weren’t awarded until 1931.

Tennis had been a socially accepted sport for women since the late 19th century, primarily at elite clubs during the emerging Gilded Age, but it began to spread in popularity elsewhere. So maybe it's not too surprising that girls were officially competing prior to World War I in the state.

Boys tennis was also first awarded a state title in 1916, though the AIA's online archive doesn’t note a boys singles champ until 1922, Milton Coggins of Phoenix Union.

Not a whole lot about Wilhelmina Rebeil can be found online, but she did attend the University of Arizona, where she was a standout tennis player. An excerpt from a 1920 UA yearbook mentions her among "players of promise," after she won a girls tennis tournament ("girls" was the term they used). The excerpt said tennis was among the activities encouraged by the Women's Athletic Association.

That event is mentioned among other "physical training" activities for female students at UA spotlighted at the time. Another was hiking, which it says was "particularly well suited ... in this land of abundant sunshine." The excerpt explained: "Little equipment is needed for hiking; low-heeled shoes and khaki clothes suffice, and the desert presents varying interests and an ever-present charm to those who wish to explore it."

Tennis wasn’t the first boys high school sport recognized with a state title in Arizona, according to the AIA archives. Official titles in baseball (Tucson beat Tempe) and track and field (Phoenix Union won) were first awarded in 1912, the same year as statehood.

Although unofficial athletic activities were held at high schools for girls, it took nearly 50 more years before another girls high school sport was officially sanctioned for competition in Arizona. That was golf, in the 1964-65 school year. Boys golf had been recognized since 1938-39. Girls volleyball followed a few years later.

Not surprisingly, it was the 1970s that saw official recognition of many more girls high school sports in Arizona. The 1972 adoption of Title IX, the federal law that barred discrimination against women in sports at schools receiving federal funds, led to the explosive growth of programs at colleges and high schools across the country.

The 1970s is when softball, basketball, track and field, cross-country and swimming/diving were sanctioned for girls as competitive Arizona high school sports (the latter two had been recognized boys sports since the 1950s).

Others followed in the 1980s, and more recently, sports such as beach volleyball in the spring, wrestling in winter and flag football in the fall have been sanctioned by the AIA for girls.

And, of course, tennis remains a popular high school sport for girls and boys. About 150 schools have tennis teams across three AIA divisions today. The Scottsdale Desert Mountain girls team has one of the top recent dynasties in Arizona high school sports under coach Kim Dever, winning six Division I titles since 2017.