Wrestling: Not just a match for boys
Over the past decade, the sport of high school girls wrestling has grown by leaps and bounds in East Tennessee as schools throughout the Knoxville area have been fielding teams.
Knoxville Halls, Farragut, Gibbs and Hardin Valley Academy have built successful programs since the sport’s popularity has skyrocketed.
Now the sport is taking off in Anderson County, as Clinton Coach Channing McDonald started the 2022-23 season with six female grapplers.
Anderson County is also fielding a team for a second consecutive season and the Lady Mavericks have four athletes after eight girls showed interest during the preseason.
“We started with eight girls, but I don’t think they all quite understood the sport,” ACHS wrestling Coach Matt Slone said. “Now, we have four girls this season.
“The sport is growing. Some schools at the (NCAA) Division I level are starting programs.”
Female wrestlers from Hardin Valley and Farragut have continued wrestling in college.
The Lady Devils and the Lady Eagles have had state champions in their respective programs. Halls head Coach Shannon Sayne has hired a head girls coach.
“Halls has a girls head coach,” Slone said. “She wrestled there and then came back to coach.”
Slone said that would be a likely next step for the Lady Mavericks. The school’s four female wrestlers include Brianna Merryfield (junior, 132-pound weight class), Emily Fairbanks (junior, 114 pounds); Kaydence Brooks (sophomore, 145 pounds) and Kennley Reid (junior, 138 pounds).
“The next thing we need to do is hire a girls coach, and the county has been really supportive with that,” Slone said. “We need to hire a girls coach because the tournaments for the boys and girls are in different places and we need somebody to travel with the girls.”
Wrestling is an individual sport within a team concept, and females have wrestled in high school since the 1980s.
The handful of girls would compete against boys.
No more.
Since the TSSAA began sanctioning girls wrestling, girls can no longer compete against boys if they want to compete at the state championships.
“Sometimes, it’s hard to get matches for the girls, and we try to have dual meets with schools that have girls,” Sone said. “But I understand the rule. It wouldn’t be fair for a girls basketball team to play against a boys basketball team.”