The women’s wrestling team has experienced tremendous success, with more competition opportunities between schools and an increase in members over the past few years. Back in 2012, there were only three girls but that number has since doubled.
“My freshman year the team was five girls. Last year was ten. Now we have 21.” junior Shereen Mehta said.
A lot of the team’s growth can be attributed to the incoming freshman who learn about the sport through the wrestling P.E. unit, a relatively new program that was introduced two years ago.
“I’ve taken two days off my work to teach with our great P.E. teachers and just show freshmen, every freshman P.E. class wrestling, and that’s what brings in numbers,” said Coach Huy Nguyen, the wrestling coach for both the women’s and men’s team.
Despite there being a separate men’s and women’s wrestling team, there are virtually no disparities between the two. They do the same drills, have tournaments, and although relatively new for the women’s team, attend dual meets, competitions that use a team scoring system.
“When one school wrestles another school, you take the best of each weight class and pair them up and how you win determines points for your team. That didn’t exist for girls until I created it this year.” Nguyen said.
With the lack of women wrestlers, schools must collaborate with each other for their own Women’s Wrestling dual meets because the North Coast Section (NCS) does not do it.
“Most schools don’t have big enough girls teams or not enough girls. So they don’t do that for girls, boys have NCS duals but we don’t,” Mehta said.
Regardless, Nguyen has continued to make more changes to the system, hosting a girl’s JV tournament instead of having JV and varsity athletes be paired up.
“There’s no way I’m going to send a girl who’s been wrestling for three weeks against girls who have been wrestling for ten years,” Nguyen said. “It’s to level the playing field and create a different environment for them to grow.”
Over the past few years, support and interaction with the school and affiliated programs such as yearbook, leadership and journalism has increased, allowing more information about wrestling to get out to the student body. And while the team’s numbers and competition opportunities continue to grow, so has their spirit and camaraderie.
“I learned that when you create communities, they last longer. Our girls team typically stick with each other. They’re all freshmen. They’re all going through the same things: the practices are hard, the days are long, but they do it together,” Nguyen said.
