Girls varsity wrestling gains momentum across Coshocton County

Interest in girls varsity wrestling is growing in Coshocton County. Ridgewood and River View have their own girls teams this year, and Coshocton has four girls on its boys roster.

Kyle Bethel is the Ridgewood boys wrestling coach and said Brittany Arnold was hired to coach the girls. They have several girl youth wrestlers, three junior high girl wrestlers, and three freshmen and one sophomore on the high school team. Three out of the four high school wrestlers have never wrestled before.

“The numbers and interest throughout the program have definitely increased,” Bethel said. “They are wanting to try wrestling to be involved in a new opportunity that can be fun and fulfilling to them.”

The freshmen on the team are Ava Mencer, Jaycee Wiggins and Miley Walker. Sophomore Brayleigh Cox is a returning district qualifier.

“Her goal is to qualify for the state wrestling tournament,” Bethel said.

Cox has wrestled for two years and started her journey after watching her younger sister wrestle for a couple of years.

“After watching her, I wanted to prove to myself and everyone else that girls can excel in a male-dominated sport,” she said. “I would encourage other girls to try wrestling because it’s more than just a sport. It’s the self-discipline, the mental toughness and life lessons that you learn. It teaches you to respect not only your opponents and coaches, but yourself as well. It forces you to dig deep when you want to give up. It’s a sport like no other sport, and once you wrestle, it becomes more than just a sport but a way of life.”

The girls practice at the same time and in the same space as the boys high school program.

“They learn the same technique and drills as the boys team; however, they drill and wrestle with the other high school girls,” Bethel said.

The Lady Generals have five regular-season tournaments on their schedule: Mapleton Girls Tournament, Tri-Valley Girls Tournament, New Philadelphia Girls Tournament, Utica Girls Tournament and Carrollton Girls Tournament.

Coshocton’s varsity boys wrestling coach Sean Collins said they currently have four girls on their roster and in the past have had one to two girls per year. All four of the girls this year are freshmen.

“With limited practice times and training partners, the girls practice with the boys and compete in boys events,” he said. “Our hope is to attend at least one girls tournament this season.”

The Lady Redskins on Coshocton’s wrestling team are Alexis Meek, Candy Wilson, Ava Wells and Chris Little.

River View boys head wrestling coach Devin Klein said they have a girls team of five wrestlers. Four are in ninth grade and one in 10th grade.

“This is the first time we have had any girls at the high school level,” Klein said. “It's one of the fastest growing sports and becoming popular. I think that is why they joined.”

The Lady Black Bears are a team of their own.

“They do not practice with the boys or compete with the boys,” Klein said. “They have their own schedule where they will only compete against other girls teams. Chad Cunningham is the girls coach this year, and his daughter Parker is a freshman on the team.”

In addition to Parker, River View’s varsity girls wrestling team includes Adrianna Lees, Rosaley Poland, Andrea Waldren and Zoey Stanley.

“My brother wrestled, and I always wanted to, so I asked my dad about us getting a girls team started,” said Parker, who is a freshman.

She likes the bonds you make with others while wrestling and encourages other girls to give it a try.

“If you are thinking about it, go for it,” Parker said. “You never know if you’ll like something until you try it.”

Lees, a sophomore at RVHS, gave wrestling a shot to try something new.

“So far it’s been going really well,” she said. “It’s tiring but rewarding.”

She also encouraged other young ladies to try the sport but reminded them to show up and work hard.

Freshman Andrea Waldren started wrestling in seventh grade, but this is her first year wrestling at River View.

“I was going through a hard time and wrestling helped,” she said.

Her piece of advice for young ladies applied to both wrestling and life: “Don’t let your mistakes define you.”