On the mats, wrestlers move through drills at full speed, rotating partners and taking instruction without pause. Among the members of the team are the girls who train under the same standards as the boys beside them. At Woodbridge High, members of the girls wrestling team are ready to work just as hard as any guy on the team. Each time they step into practice, they are held to the same rigorous drills and high expectations as the boys. For some, when looking at the team, it can take a moment to notice that the team isn’t entirely male.
Other than gender, the girls run the same drills, practices and have the same expectations as anyone else on the team.
The wrestling team at Woodbridge High has five girls. They are heavily outnumbered and this obviously brings challenges with the different dynamics. Although there are significantly less girls on the team, they are still held to the same standards.
“By some, boys we are seen as ‘less strong,’ but in reality we have to meet the same expectations as they are in wrestling and we are/can be as strong as the guys in strength, and technique wise, we…have to put in the work towards that!” sophomore Abby Verela said.
On a wrestling team, girls should not be viewed as weaker or less than because they remain strong even when participating in a male-dominated sport.
Another hard dynamic girls have to face is the physical aspect of the sport. Cutting, or bulking which is reducing body fat and adding muscle, is harder for females than it is for males. This is a big aspect of wrestling as a sport. They have to meet a certain weight class or standard to compete in the right tournament.
“It’s a whole different experience for girls, especially with our cycles making our weight fluctuate constantly. The guys don’t deal with that, so it adds an extra layer of mental toughness for us,” sophomore and wrestling team athlete Morgan Neill said.
It’s an added difficulty that makes being a girl on a male dominant team all the more impressive. Female bodies work differently and physically, so the sport becomes very demanding.
“Since girls’ bodies work differently, [they] have to do different things to lose weight and it takes longer to lose fat than guys. Women are more prone to fractures [in general]. Another thing is that while going for a specific weight in wrestling, when we have our cycle (menstruation), it becomes harder to gain weight and to feel 100 percent for tournaments and even for practices,” Verela said.
These challenges don’t stop them from showing up. They adapted and have learned to adjust their routines to support each other, trusting themselves to push through and put in 100 percent in order to manage themselves and stay on the same level of expectations as the boys on the team. This additional work and support has become another part of the sport.
The girls on the team have to have great self discipline.
It’s essential that the girls on the team support one another, build each other up and have confidence in themselves. The girls have each other to lean on, give each other assurance and to serve as a reminder that they are not alone.
“Girls can do just as anything a man can do as long as you put your mind and heart to it,” Varela said.“Woodbridge [High] wrestling is a positive environment where we all share the same goals, work ethic, passion and commitment.”
Also, having a positive and close environment is important.
“[We] are really close like [our] own squad. Being around mostly guys definitely makes you tougher. It pushes us, but it also shows what we are capable of,” Neil said.
Mindset is everything to build a community and being there for each other is just as important as the game itself.
“It’s just showing up every day and trying to get better. But as a group, we hype each other up constantly. If someone’s nervous before a match or a tournament, the rest of us are right there lifting them up,” Neil said.
The Woodbridge High Wrestling Team is close and they all lean on each other, especially the girls on the team, while pushing themselves to live up to the same standards as the guys.
Girls on wrestling are constantly beating many stereotypes and misconceptions such as wrestling is a boys sport and has no place for girls as a sport. Their resilience to prove that this sport is just as much for them as it is for boys is admiring.
The sport can be relentless and extremely physically demanding. Constant practices and conditioning are necessary to give the very best performance. A proud performance.
As demanding as the sport can seem, it is growing rapidly and becoming more and more popular every year with girls at the high school level.
The growth that Girls wrestling has experienced is breaking long standing perceptions and expectations about who the sport is for. It’s crazy that it was seen as a boys sport and is now easily seen as one of the fastest growing competition sports in high schools today.
As the participation grows, so does the level of competition in high schools. More schools today are adding girls wrestling to their program creating more opportunities and expanding as a whole sport.
Being a girl on the wrestling team is not an easy task, but the female wrestlers at Woodbridge High prove that they really can do anything and should be recognized for all their accomplishments. Their support towards each other and self confidence they have in themselves can encourage other young girls to participate in wrestling and break the stereotype that it is a boys sport. In reality, it is a sport for all.
