Pandemic Pins Passion for Standout Junior Wrestler Piper Cadden

By: Lauren Green

11/7/21

GILBERT, Ariz. — “This whole thing is just a joke to me,” Mindi Cadden jokingly said.

This was the reaction of Piper Cadden’s mother when Piper decided to go to a wrestling camp in eighth grade. 

Piper had only played softball in the previous years of her life, but this decision to try out a new sport was a decision that ultimately changed her future.

Being next door at a neighbors’ Father’s Day celebration is where Piper learned about the sport and eventually made the jump to try it.

It did not disappoint. 

“My neighbor, he’s a wrestling coach,” Piper said. “And I had just played softball, and I’ve been working out with him all summer. And then he mentioned a wrestling camp, a girls wrestling camp, and I went to that and just fell in love with the sport.”

These neighbors were not just ordinary people who liked wrestling — they are highly regarded in the wrestling community with Arizona State Hall of Fame accolades and a very successful club wrestling team in Arizona.

“If you look up on the wall [Desert Financial Arena],” Mindi said, “you’ll see Hall of Fame pictures of him [Eric Larkin] all over the place.”

Larkin was nominated for Best Collegiate Athlete of the Year at the 2003 ESPY Awards.

Piper began practicing with neighbors, Larkin and Mike Douglas, more and more after attending the wrestling camp until they came up with an idea to further their coaching skills.

“They came to us,” Mindi said, “and they said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna start our own school.’”

This wrestling school, or club, is Thorobred Wrestling Club. As of today, they’ve had many accomplished wrestlers come through and win the Arizona state titles, as well as multiple national championships.

With Piper starting this new sport, her mom wanted her to go back to the eighth grade to develop more. This is where Piper really grew her skills as a wrestler before making another big leap to further her career. 

Piper started her wrestling career at Valient College Preparatory — a school consisting of only 25 students, with Piper and her older sister being the only two girls in attendance.

In her first year there, Piper was the only girl on the team. Coming from a family of all girls with five sisters, she oddly seemed to fit in just fine with the guys on her team as they propelled her to become a better athlete.

“I like having the guys on my team because they are stronger, physically than me,” Piper said. “So I get to have more experience and get stronger in some positions and find ways to better myself.”

Primarily a wrestling school, Piper began to flourish at Valient Prep. Although they don’t wrestle in the AIA, Piper was seeing competition from all over the country as most of their tournaments were out of state. 

“She picked things up pretty quick,” said Angel Cejudo, head wrestling coach at Valient Prep. “And you know, being new to the sport, there comes a lot of anxiety and you’re nervous before competition. You never really saw that from her.”

Piper started winning tournaments in Arizona and eventually qualified for the Fargo National Championships — a highly notable tournament.

Her parents didn’t attend.

“We were like, she’s gonna lose, it’s her first year wrestling, she’s a baby,” Mindi said. “she gets seventh. She becomes an All-American.”

With Piper’s early success and passion for this sport, it’s as though nothing could stop her — until a global pandemic crept in.

Once COVID-19 entered, Piper lost out on a year of wrestling, but it was the year after the world shutdown that really affected Piper’s relationship with the sport. When things opened back up her sophomore year, wrestling tournaments were still not back to normal. They would often get shut down if someone tested positive for COVID-19, which occurred often. 

Piper’s sister transferred to Gilbert High School while Piper remained at Valient Prep at the time. At Gilbert, she had the opportunity to make numerous friends, go to football games and attend the homecoming dance — all of the typical high school memories one might make. 

“She [Piper] never had those relationships with people next to us,” Mindi said. “Because everyone she’s with is athletes there [Valient Prep]. It was business and that’s really hard being one of six girls and always being business.”

With the intensity involved at Valient Prep and her club wrestling team, Thorobred Wrestling Club, Piper started to realize the family activities she was missing out on as a 16-year-old. 

“She missed a trip to Havasu with the family,” Mindi said. “And then she was going to miss a trip to California to go to nationals and she was like, ‘It’s not worth it.’” 

Piper ended her national-contending wrestling career.

She then transferred to Gilbert to join her sister in school with no intention to continue wrestling — but her love for the sport remained in the back of her head.

A week before her junior year, Piper’s friend — another neighbor — talked her into checking out a wrestling practice that was going on. 

“She walks out of practice and she’s the only girl in the room again,” Mindi said. “And she has this big smile on her face. She pinned a couple of the boys. You can tell that her love is back.”

Shortly after that practice, Piper wrestled at a tournament with the team and won first place.

She’s the only female wrestler on her team this year, but that’s nothing Piper hasn’t already conquered. Even while missing the first half of the season due to AIA transfer rules, Piper looks to make big strides as a Tiger this year. 

“I think her coming to a public school, I think that kind of restarted the fire,” Gilbert wrestling coach Wyatt Richardson said. “And especially since she’s a junior, she has a chance to become a two-time state champion.”