Wrestling is one of the few co-ed sports offered at Woodside. Playing on the team means boys and girls can wrestle each other, and they all practice together. So, what is it like for the girls on the wrestling team?

According to freshman wrestler Piper Needham, her experience joining the team was influenced by her stepbrother’s participation and her parents’ encouragement. Along with this, Piper added that she thought it would be something fun to do with friends.

“The team is very open and welcoming to newcomers,” Needham said.

Something Needham noticed was that around three-fourths of the team are boys. Freshman wrestler Stefania Gerola said most of them were seniors. Though there are more boys than girls, the team is co-ed instead of having a female and a male team.

“They might have made the team co-ed because of the room budget,” sophomore wrestler Evyn Ellis said. “Or, they didn’t have time for two teams to have separate practices.”

Ellis said that practicing with boys and girls means that the girls wrestle the boys at practice.

“I have an older brother that I wrestle sometimes,” Ellis said. “I’m used to wrestling boys, so I normally don’t mind wrestling them at practice.”

According to Ellis, during the meets, wrestlers have to wrestle people in their weight class. 

“The girls can choose if they would rather wrestle a boy or girl,” Ellis said. “Although, a boy can’t request to wrestle a girl.”

Gerola said that as a freshman, she feels nervous about her first matches, especially since they are weight-based, and she fears being outmatched. 

“I don’t really want to fight because there probably will be people there who are more experienced than me,” Gerola said.

While some people may have more experience, Ellis noted that during the matches, the sport is really interesting in how a person’s body type affects how they wrestle. 

“I, for example, am good at throws and moves that require longer limbs,” Ellis said. “However I struggle a bit more in moves that require a lot of power or momentum.”

Ellis added that while an athlete’s weight is brought up a lot in the sport, it can cause her to forget that asking someone’s weight during regular out of wrestling conversations is not normal. Along with this, the sport has changed her point of view on body types and health.

“In my eyes, as long as someone is physically fit and generally healthy, weight doesn’t matter as much as people think it does,” Ellis said.

According to Ellis, girls are only treated differently from boys based on the contrast of weight classes and small things regarding how girls generally wrestle. Play-wise, Ellis believes that the coaches have different expectations for the individual players as they all have different strengths and weaknesses.

“A coach’s biggest expectation for each athlete is to, of course, try their best and show improvement,” Ellis said.

Gerola remarked that the atmosphere is not intimidating, and there’s a friendly dynamic among team members and coaches. 

“We’re all kind of friends,” Ellis said. “The team has a total vibe since everyone is there to work hard.”

Though Ellis believes the team is close and tight-knitted, she was quick to add that she is looking forward to the new players this year.

“Then again, everyone there wants to fight each other so you’d better be prepared to get on the mat and get tackled,” Ellis said.