Women In Wrestling
Wrestling is known as one of the toughest sports around. It’s a mix of strength, endurance, mentality, and ability. It’s a spotlight sport. Everything is on you, not the team. And women are starting to make their presence known.
The advancement started in the mid 1990’s and kept going from there. The girls wrestle on the guys teams and have competed against them as well.
Urbana High School Junior, Steven Gray, said, “It’s different when you see a girl step onto the mat. It’s almost intimidating when you watch them beat the guys.”
Hawaii became the first state to offer an all-girls state championship. Now there are around 1,600 women’s high school wrestling teams in the U.S.
According to the National Coaches Wrestling Association (NCWA) in 2012-13, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) reported 8,727 girls competing in high school, representing 1,602 programs. This, however, isn’t completely accurate. 17 states don’t report women’s statistics for wrestling.
This is a big step for women everywhere. It shows how far women have come from day one. They are now competing in one of the hardest sports around.
Coach Charles Trabaris said, “It takes a very special female to walk onto a team knowing that they’ll have to practice and compete with the boys who do it.”
Urbana High School is experiencing these changes as well. The upcoming season will have at least one female face.
UHS Freshman, Savannah McQueen, has started training in this demanding sport.
This will be the first girl Urbana has had on the wrestling team.
Trabaris said, “Having a girl in the [wrestling] room doesn’t change the atmosphere. The change is in balancing teaching someone who’s brand new and the people who are more experienced. It’s nice having my assistant coach there to help.”
Although the atmosphere in the room doesn’t change, the reactions from some parents aren’t very welcoming. Many parents don’t like the idea of females stepping into their sons’ sport.
Trabaris said, “I’d like to say yes, that people will change, but some people won’t let go of the idea that it’s a male sport.”
Only time will tell if people will lighten up and embrace the change.
About The Author
At the worst, our ladies cuss, and use a couple of moves that are female oriented (only), but I do find it amazing the double standard that is out there. We have no nudity, never will, but there is an extreme small chorus of people who liken what we do to porn.
I tell them, they simply have a double standard. It’s ok for the guys on TV, with kids in the crowd, to wear next to nothing, but somehow it’s not ok with us if our girls choose to dress sexy.
Good write up and good luck.