Staff Photo/Preston Byers Poland's Ella Thomas will face Oak Hills' Brianne Graves in the OHSAA girls 100-pound state wrestling championship semifinals on Saturday in Columbus.
COLUMBUS — For the second year in a row, the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) sponsored the girls state wrestling tournament, hosting the event at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus and held at the same time as the 87th annual boys tournament.
Ohio is just one of several states that recently put their stamp of approval on women's wrestling, which has become one of the fastest growing sports in the country. The National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) announced in September that the number of high school girls wrestling participants increased by 55% from the previous year, and has increased nearly five times over the past 10 years.
“It feels like it's doubling every year. When I started, I was always seeing pretty much the same girls.” Howland assistant wrestling coach Mike Burns said. “It's pretty wild what's going to happen. It's going to continue to grow and more people are going to come here and learn about it. It's going to continue to grow until it's as big as the boys that are here. It will continue.”
Sloane McNally, Boardman's state qualifier in the women's 105-pound weight class, said she has personally seen the expansion of women's wrestling.
“It's changed a lot. We went from having very few girls to, if you're lucky, having a few girls in your weight class. [a point that] It changed a lot because we had to add pre-regions to qualify for statehood. I’ve grown a lot.” McNally said.
When Boardman head coach Hadi Hadi started coaching more than 30 years ago, there were female professional wrestlers, but not that many. With no women's-only divisions or tournaments, many people shunned the sport because of the necessity of men's wrestling.
Hadi said it's not really an issue anymore, but most parents and children still don't know.
“There's not enough publicity. There's a misconception that girls have to wrestle boys. Parents don't want that, I know that for a fact, and if I'm a girl and I weigh 150 pounds… Then you'd probably be scared to wrestle a boy.” Hadi said. “Coaches have to act as promoters…let the girls in your district know, 'We have a team, all you have to do is compete with the girls.'”
McNally agreed that wrestling for a teenage boy can be daunting.
“It was very scary, especially when I was in high school, because most boys were going through puberty at that point, and I was just being relentlessly pushed.” McNally said.
Educating parents and children about the realities of the sport is the first step, but there is still work to be done in convincing teenage girls, especially those with no prior experience in the sport, to join wrestling teams.
Unlike many boys and girls who follow their fathers or older brothers into the sport, people like McNally turned to wrestling in the seventh grade after other sports weren't working out as well as they wanted.
“I tried volleyball, but it didn't work out. I tried basketball, but I didn't make it. When I heard about this sport called wrestling, I thought, 'I'll give it a try.' I got a nosebleed at my first practice and said, “Oh, I love this sport.'' ”
Hadi said part of the reason women's wrestling is growing in popularity is that it's becoming a legitimate alternative for future winter sports athletes like McNally.
“Let's rewind to before women's wrestling. In the winter, there was only basketball. For men, there was an alternative — wrestling.” Hadi said. “If you don't make the girls basketball team, if you don't play some kind of club sport, you're done. That opportunity is being given to girls now.”
There are athletes like McNally, and others like Howland's Madison Burns and Boardman native Lexi Beadle, who placed fifth in Sunday's state tournament, whose respective fathers inspired them to become wrestlers. That's what it means.
Mike Burns said he was surprised when his daughter approached him about introducing him to the sport.
“One day I was sitting there and she came up to me and said, 'I want to wrestle.' I said, 'What?' Mike said.
Beadle is a three-time state elector who transferred from Boardman to SPIRE Academy in Geneva during his senior season. The daughter of Poland head coach Jordan Beadle and assistant coach Courtney Beadle grew up surrounded by sports, so it was natural for her to play sports herself.
“She's Big Daddy's daughter.” Courtney said. “He wrestled, his brothers wrestled, his family wrestled and everything. So she wanted to be a little bit like her dad, and that's kind of how it progressed. I fought a little bit because she was the only girl and I didn't know how the coaches or the other wrestlers would take it.”
More and more women are taking to the mat each year, but there is still work to be done.
McNally proposed the introduction of OHSAA. “Full Blast” By adding a division to women's wrestling. Ohio currently has one she division for girls and three she divisions for boys, regardless of school size.
As more girls-only tournaments are added to the schedule, Hadi said she also hopes the school will establish a coaching staff for girls wrestling. With more wrestlers and events, there is a risk of overburdening coaches who already far outnumber their teams and travel extensively.
Huddy said he plans to add at least one more coach. “Promote aggressively” Boardman women's team. McNally also said she will return to help coach the Spartans' program after she graduates this spring.
All in hopes that the sport continues to grow.
Do you have any interesting stories? Email Preston Byers at pbyers@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @PresByers.
