Shaking out for a meet, South’s Girls Wrestling Team fights through their small size. With only three girls, they make the best of their circumstances through team bonding and cooperation.
Returning varsity athlete Kloie Roy ’24 said she utilizes the close-knit group to bond with her teammates, but also prefers to wrestle with some others sometimes.
“I get tired of wrestling the same people over and over again,”Roy said.“And I like having a bigger team so I can compete or practice against new people.”
One of the disadvantages is the scores they may receive at meets. Since every match counts asa point, the lack of athletes prevents each category from being filled. Zofia Tabaczynski ’27 has been wrestling for years. After moving from Washington where women’s wrestling is more popular, she thinks of this change as significant.
“We’re missing several weight classes, you need pins and every match is a point,” Tabaczynski said.
Despite the scoring disadvantage, smaller teams have some significant superiority in opposition to popular belief.
“I like having a small team because it helps everyone just focus on themselves and since it’s a smaller team we can all help each other become better, easier and faster,” Roy said.
With practices in the same room, the boy’s team also is affected by the girl’s team’s size. Varsity wrestler Blake Jordan said ’24 wishes to support all as much as he can.
“(The girls team) is too small andhere are not enough girls,”Jordan said. “We could use a few more; we need more because it’s not just a boy’s sport.”
Newcoming athletes also appreciate the diversity of the team. First-year Harmon Meldrum ’26 thinks of this as a positive experience,
“We practice (together) every day,” Meldrum said. “It’s a joy because they are great. They compete really well in tournaments too, but I think it should be bigger. We need more girls’ support.”
Training together, Jordan said he believes strongly that the awareness of women’s wrestling should become more mainstream.
“(Tabaczynski) used to wrestle in Washington and they used to have just girls tournaments all over,” Jordan said. “In Michigan, we don’t even have districts for them. There are regionals and states. For boys, we have districts, regions and states.”
Roy plans on hosting team parties to further strengthen relationships.
“We’re all close as a team, it’s fun having everyone (on the team),” Roy said. “It’s not weird; it’s just fun.”
