Sports Article:
By Jenna Buck Sports Writer 10/12/22 For many years at SHS wrestling has been a boys only sport, but recently the NSAA has approved girls wrestling to be its own sport. Before, the girls wrestled with the boys and against them. Dave Hoxworth, Athletic Director of SHS, is excited to start the season for the girls and watch them progress into a strong program.
“The NSAA approved girls wrestling a couple years ago as an emerging sport and we chose to not start it at that time. Since then it has become a regular NSAA sport. It offers the same opportunities as girls and boys basketball and girls and boys cross country. If girls were choosing to wrestle before this, they were having to wrestle against the boys and with the boys,” Hoxworth explains. From elementary to high school, girls wrestling has been growing in popularity. Hoxworth wants to give the girls here at home a chance to compete and further their careers in wrestling. “Girls wrestling is growing crazy by percentages. It was time for us to get on board. There are other schools in the Panhandle that have already started it in the last couple years,” Hoxworth states. Coaching staff is a difficult find as it has only been an official NSAA sport for two years. Nonetheless, the search will continue. “Right now coach Stadola will be the coach of both, just like coach Carrizales does both girls and boys cross country. We are looking for a female assistant. Depending on the number of girls that go out in the next couple of years, if it grows and is needing its own head coach, then we would look at dividing the program,” Hoxworth says. The community is extremely supportive of the girls getting their own season to wrestle in their own category “It’s encouraged. At this point, if we didn’t offer girls wrestling and we had a girl that wanted to wrestle she would have to wrestle against the boys. There are a lot of different reasons but having the girls wrestle the boys just creates an unfair competitive advantage for the girls,” Hoxworth explains. |
Although this is a new sport at our school, interest has been piqued. Girls are showing up to meetings and ready to commit to the season.
“Last year I had a couple of meetings at the end of the year and this year I had about 15 girls show up. About 5 or 6 of them were freshmen,” Hoxworth says. The girls will have upcoming opportunities to practice and get their feet on the mat. “We are going to offer them some open mat time in the next three or four weeks before the season starts. This gives them an opportunity to decide if they like it and decide that it's what they want to do,” Hoxworth explains. Not all of the girls have had a chance to wrestle before this, so offering multiple times for each of the girls to gain experience is important to the school. “I want to provide them with the open mat time just to give them a chance to figure out what they’re getting into and if they want to commit. I don’t want girls going out and then deciding they don't like it and quit. I’ve told the girls, “If you’re gonna go out stick it out for a year,”. Hopefully we’re going to have some ladies coming into open mats next week,” Hoxworth says hopefully. Hoxworth is excited to see the full turnout for girls wrestling this season. Something that could advance girls wrestling is allowing a couple of the guys, who have been wrestling for awhile, to coach the girls during open mat times and offer them advice on how to progress further this season. Building up our female athletes will better the school in the long run. |