Despite only having five wrestlers on the FHC girls’ varsity wrestling team, the success and perseverance the sport enables have drastically shaped the girls’ lives for the better. Although the sport is male-dominated at the high school level, which is in part due to its physical nature, more girls are starting to get involved in the sport. Freshman Zetta Anderson recognizes this after having wrestled competitively for four years.
“[Wrestling] is a contact sport, so that’s pretty scary to a lot of people, and it kind of has a bad reputation,” Zetta said. “[But] we’re just as good as the guys, and there’s so many girls [that] are starting to do football now and [other contact sports] like that. We can do just the same thing as guys do.”
For senior Ruthie Bray, not only does wrestling make her feel safer and stronger, but it gives her a community within the wrestling program—one that she hopes to introduce more girls to.
“[We need to] put out invitations or say, ‘This is a good thing, girls are doing this, and they’re not mean,’” Ruthie said. “I feel like a stereotype is [that] all the wrestling girls are just mean… [But] we’re always right there on the sidelines cheering for each other whenever our teammates are having a match. We’re super caring about each other.”
Although there are only five female wrestlers, with four actively wrestling, this is not too uncommon at the high school level. Most girls’ teams have up to ten wrestlers on their rosters, but programs and coaches are looking to expand, especially as youth programs gain traction. Since the sport isn’t immensely popular at FHC, it’s important to get the word out about the incredible benefits of wrestling. According to boys’ and girls’ varsity wrestling coach Brad Anderson, wrestling teaches skills that other sports lack and has many benefits for high school athletes.
“Wrestling is a great opportunity to learn about discipline, adversity, overcoming [difficulties], learning about your inner fortitude, [and] developing an inner warrior,” Anderson said. “I think every young lady should learn how to defend themselves [in] this day and age. It doesn’t hurt to know how to handle yourself in a physical situation, and it also is very rewarding intrinsically. It’s a great sport for any young lady looking for an activity in the wintertime.”
Not only does wrestling teach discipline and physical strength, but it also creates a climate of pressure and difficulty, which causes perseverance to be learned by all wrestlers in different forms. For Ruthie, this meant overcoming her first season wrestling when she was a junior and sticking with the sport for the following year.
“[During] my first season, every single time I wrestled, I [lost] because I just didn’t know what I was doing,” Ruthie said. “It’s really uncomfortable to have someone tackle you over and over again, and you just can’t get up. But it was really good that I overcame that because it [made me] stronger… I kind of had to mentally push through [and say], ‘I’m not a failure. I’m not weak just because I keep losing.’”
The mental fortitude wrestling builds can also be attributed to the solitary nature of the sport and the independent nature of wrestling. Although the wrestlers play for the team, at the end of the day, it comes down to their own performance. For some, this could be a deterrent to the sport, but for others, the pressure is helpful.
“[In wrestling], everything’s depending on you,” Zetta said. “When you’re on a team, it can be other people’s fault that you lose, but when you’re wrestling, it’s just you. So you know what you need to work on and how you can get better.”
In terms of the team, although they have done extremely well throughout the season, their competition has pushed all four wrestlers to challenge themselves. By competing in challenging tournaments with their sights set on the state tournament in March, the team has earned its way to success.
“[The season has been] fantastic,” Anderson said. “[The] ladies have done wonderfully. We have a really young group… and everywhere we go, [they’ve] been performing well. They’ve wrestled really tough competition. We’ve really stepped up our schedule, and so every weekend, we’re battling with the top-ranked opponents and some of the best girls in the state, and our girls have really fared well against them. We won some tournaments, [and] we’ve placed high in some really tough tournaments.”
With the success the team has seen, combined with the growing youth program, FHC girls’ wrestling is sure to grow in the upcoming years. From overcoming adversity to learning lifelong lessons about discipline, strength, and community, girls’ wrestling is clearly an appealing choice for a winter sport.
“Our program will get you in the best shape you’ll ever be in [during] your entire life,” Anderson said. “You’ll learn about discipline, training, [and] habits. You’ll become stronger and tougher than you ever thought you could be. You will learn about self-defense, and you’ll be right alongside some of the best role models in the coaching staff that we have in the district.”
