The recently completed girls state high school wrestling meet- only the third in history – featured a record number of participants. The first state tournament saw roughly 90 athletes; there were over 300 competitors in 2020 and 457 girls from over 100 different schools wrestled at the Xtream Arena in Coralville Friday and Saturday, Jan. 22-23.
Despite that growth, area coaches say the sport has hurdles to overcome.
For starters, girls wrestling isn’t an officially sanctioned sport in Iowa. Waukon girls’ coach Mason Berns said it’s realistically more of a club sport “with some high school expectations.” For example, each participant at the girls’ state wrestling tournament must have a state-certified coach with them. “If it was truly a club sport, then each girl could just bring her dad to the meet,” he said.
Decorah assistant coach Matt Simon said that, though the state has had a girls’ state tournament for three straight years, it’s actually being run through the IHSAA (Iowa High School Athletic Association), the governing body for boys’ sports.
Like Berns, Simon also noted this is due to the sanction status.“I would love it if Iowa would sanction girls’ wrestling as an independent sport unto itself,” he said. “It’s time.”
Local Programs Begin
The interest in girls wrestling took off at Decorah when Lee Fullhart was named the head coach. He wanted to make sure that wrestling opportunities appear equally for all interested. They put together the first team last year, and a dozen female athletes showed up.
“He said the first group of girls that came out for wrestling would open up opportunities and interest for other girls who might be thinking about taking up the sport,” Simon said. “I think we’re doing a good job of promoting girls
wrestling here in Decorah.”
In nearby Waukon, girls wrestling is not exactly a new phenomenon.
“A lot of girls would show up and wrestle here at the lower levels,” said head coach Mason Berns. “They’d be wrestling with the boys for spots in the lineup, and then by the time they were freshmen, they’d be done.
“Our girls practice together, but once in a while, they will wrestle the boys,” Berns says. “Meridian Snitker started with us during her freshman year, and she was the only girl practicing that season. She would pop into the varsity lineup once in a while and wrestle the boys. Freshman Jada Bushaw was the other female out for wrestling this season.
Snitker and other female wrestlers in the state have a fantastic example to draw inspiration from. Seeing Felicity Taylor (of South Winn) wrestle so well made me even more interested,” Snitker said. “I really enjoy competing.”
“But getting into this was difficult,” she adds. “Wrestling the guys was tough because they tend to be a lot stronger. Plus, learning all the different moves and stances was a challenge. But I remember soon after I got started, some fans came up and told me that I did a good job. That’s when I knew I could do this.”
Decorah’s Simon said the girls who started wrestling last year came in with no experience at all, which meant beginning with a focus on the sport’s fundamentals.
“We had to teach them a lot of things, such as basic body positioning,” he recalled. “They had to learn simple things like what a takedown is, what pinning combinations are, and about moving their body in the space out on the mat. Wrestling is a movement-based sport, with a lot to learn.”
Practices
Anyone familiar with wrestling knows how grueling practices can be; there’s running, technique work and conditioning drills. For both seasoned and new athletes, wrestling is a challenge.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or girl, you earn a spot in the lineup,” Berns said. “Wrestling practices are two hours of grueling work every day. It involves drilling, repetition and working on technique. We do live wrestling, circuit workouts, a lot of running and maintain a healthy diet outside of practice.”
Simon said mental toughness is key to wrestling success.
“A willingness to accept challenges is something they need to either have or learn to be successful,” he said. “It’s one of those fundamentals required to succeed.”
Breaking barriers
Berns says he’s grateful that Waukon wrestlers never encountered any pushback from other teams when he’s sent a female to the mat against a male athlete. He says the career of Felicity Taylor of South Winneshiek broke down many gender barriers. A successful high school athlete, Taylor now wrestles for McKendree University in Lebanon, Ill.
“She wrestled for them for four years at South Winn,” he recalled. “Our boys were crossing paths with Felicity ever since I started coaching here. That meant it wasn’t anything new to us when Meridian started making appearances in our varsity lineup.”
Decorah’s Simon said those voices that say “girls shouldn’t wrestle boys” or “girls shouldn’t even wrestle other girls” are out there. To pretend that those voices don’t exist would be “disingenuous.”
“The louder voices are saying these are opportunities that girls should have,” he added. “The reality is that this has grown to the point that it should be a separate entity from the boys. The people that are getting together to make it happen are working hard on the idea.”
Growing Sport
Northeast Iowa could be considered the “mecca” of girls’ wrestling in the state, Simon said.
“I’m in no way trying to imply there aren’t many teams in other parts of the state,” he said. “Waverly-Shell Rock definitely has the largest team in the state. They had the foresight to get a wrestling team up and running first and committing to it. We started a year later.
“New Hampton also has good numbers,” Simon added. “So does Osage. Waukon too. Oelwein has a couple of girls and Dubuque has some female wrestlers. There’s a lot of competition in this corner of the state.”
Berns also expects girls wrestling to grow in Waukon and throughout the state.
“If the COVID restrictions eventually loosen, I think we’ll see more wrestlers on my roster and at other schools around Iowa,” he added.
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