Women’s sports have been rising in popularity in the past couple of years—with popularity surrounding women’s basketball, volleyball, and soccer, and the bar that only shows women’s sports—A Bar of Their own—in Minneapolis, gender equality in athletics is a growing conversation in the RAHS community and throughout all over the world.
Over the last couple of years at RAHS a girls wrestling team has been formed. Since last year, the Roseville wrestling team has had enough women participating to make Roseville’s first Girl’s Wrestling Team. So far, the team has experienced much success—competing in tournaments all season, winning matches, and making the podium.
One of the hardest things about coaching a new team is encouraging others to stick with it. One of the team captains, Bo Barze (11), said, “the amount of girls who…show up to practice daily makes me want to work even harder so they have someone to look up to.”
Girls wrestling is all about the community—team bonding is everything. The captains put together holiday parties, exchange gifts, and make t-shirts. Since the team has been created, the number of members has doubled, and everyone on the team works together to keep the numbers climbing.
Alyzabeth Hiler (11), another team captain, encourages everyone to give wrestling a try. She said, “this sport is hard, but I do believe that even if you do this sport for just a year, what you gain from it will continue to benefit you for the rest of your life”.
Wrestling is for everyone, and Barze and Hiler made this very clear. They’ll take anyone, no matter your grade, gender, or experience level. Both captains mentioned how much wrestling has impacted their life.
Barze said, “I’ve learned that I’m a lot tougher than I thought” and continues to encourage the other girls on the team to realize the same.
This year, don’t forget to support your girls wrestling team—and check out the wrestling website (rosevillewrestling.org) and the girls wrestling Instagram (@roseville_girls_wrestling) for tournament updates and fundraisers!