‘24

Last year, Drumbeats highlighted the changing sport of wrestling and its inclusivity of women and non-binary individuals. Samantha Goworek, current junior, began wrestling in her freshman year. The wrestling team has been making a push to improve recruitment, particularly of girls. Sam put up many posters around the school to pique interest. Currently, there are two girls on the Indian Hills girls wrestling team. 

When asked why she joined the girls wrestling team at IHHS, Carlin Fatuova, senior, said, “ I decided to join wrestling because my cousin Reeve started the Ramsey High School girls teams and she really wanted me to try it out. I have wanted to try out wrestling since my freshman year, but I never had the time, but since it is my senior year I decided to do it!” She plans on continuing to be involved in the wrestling scene in college, but likely on the managerial side of things.

Girls wrestling is taking off across the nation. Sam says, “The club I go to has all girls practices and at least 20 girls show up for every practice and there are more. Many schools have all girls teams: Ramsey, Vernon, Newton-Kittatinny, Jackson Memorial, and Lakewood just to name a few.” The Indian Hills wrestling team is in Region 1, District 3, with several of these schools having female wrestlers.

This season, the New Jersey girls state wrestling championship tournament will be hosted in Atlantic City during the same week as the boys championships. This is in hopes of gaining new interest from athletes and coaches. Previously, the girls tournament was held at Phillipsburg High School.

Organizations like New Jersey Girls USA Wrestling, present online on Facebook and Instagram, aim to “grow female membership and awareness within USAW-NJ.” NJ Premiere Wrestling is currently working on “providing 10 regular season, local, competitive matches between the months of November and February.” 

Though girls wrestling is a relatively new sport, it isn’t dissimilar to boys wrestling. “All the rules are the same for girls and boys wrestling in high school which is awesome because it shows we’re equal to the boys, if not better. The only difference in college is women do freestyle, which is the style of wrestling that’s done all around the world and men do folk style, which is just the American style,” Sam explains. At Indian Hills, the girls attend just as many practices as the boys and attend the same events. 

New opportunities for athletes are constantly springing up, waiting to be taken advantage of. Carlin encourages other girls to join wrestling: “I definitely think girls should take part in wrestling. To the girls who are considering it, I say do it! It never hurts to try something new, and you will learn cool and fun things, and you will be around some great people! I say go for it!”  Sam adds, “My message for any girls who want to do this is you can do it no matter your size or shape because this sport is for everyone as long as you’re tough and willing to work hard. Me and the coaches will welcome you with open arms!”