Within the wrestling room at the back of the MacArthur Excessive College gymnasium, you’ll discover the 17-member women wrestling group honing its craft.
It wouldn’t be unusual to search out the music bumping as the ladies paired off to work on a transfer or working laps across the room to chill down from a protracted apply.
Whereas the scene could sound like a day’s work for any highschool sports activities group, the ladies wrestling group on the suburban Lengthy Island highschool is a little bit of a rarity.
Whereas highschool wrestling — and women’ highschool wrestling, specifically — has been rising throughout the nation, MacArthur was the primary all-girls highschool wrestling group in Nassau County.
It’s a distinction that the group — coached by Nick Rausenberger and Travis Cooksey and captained by senior Gabbi Schechtman — has taken delight in all through its first season in existence.
“I believe women wrestling is being seen in a brand new mild,” Schechtman stated. “I believe that girls’s wrestling is rising across the nation, particularly on Lengthy Island. And now that there’s developed women groups, I believe the stigma round girls’s wrestling is de facto reducing.”
In Nassau County, MacArthur and Uniondale Excessive College are the one all-girls wrestling groups at the highschool degree, and in Suffolk, there are simply 5 sanctioned highschool women groups.
The MacArthur program contains women not simply from the district, but additionally from different faculties corresponding to JFK Bellmore, Farmingdale, Syosset, Mepham, Herricks and Seaford.
It’s a mixture of athletes whose abilities vary from having grow to be concerned within the sport at a younger age to those that have stepped onto the mat for the primary time.
Their introductions to the game can fluctuate from having a member of the family or pal compete to easily listening to an announcement at college and desirous to attempt one thing new, however regardless, the eagerness for wrestling is clear.
“It’s a part of my life now and I adore it a lot,” stated junior Justine Zheng, who attends Seaford Excessive College and picked up the game for the primary time this 12 months.
Ladies wrestling has grow to be one of many fastest-growing highschool sports activities within the nation with the variety of members throughout each genders growing.
In New York, there was a 63 p.c enhance in highschool women wrestling participation from the 2023-24 tutorial 12 months to the present tutorial 12 months, in accordance with information offered to The Submit by NYSPHSAA.
Nationwide, the variety of women collaborating in highschool wrestling jumped to 50,000 in 2023, in accordance with a report from the Related Press.
In its first 12 months, McArthur didn’t compete in twin meets, as an alternative getting into women wrestling tournaments on Lengthy Island, primarily in Suffolk County.
It competed in tournaments in Huntington, Bay Shore and Copiague, Rausenberger stated.
This system will compete within the Nassau County women wrestling championships this weekend, and Rausenberger is assured he’ll have a number of wrestlers qualify for a spot in state championships.
Members of the group have observed the affect this system has had in encouraging different women to become involved with the game.
“There’s additionally like a bunch of younger women that come to the tournaments and youthful brothers and so they’ll like see, like, a bunch of ladies simply, like, being robust and it positively evokes them,” stated Gauri Sharma, a sophomore from Herricks. “I do know a variety of women from my faculty, they arrive as much as me, they’re not even desirous about wrestling, however they’re like, ‘You’re so cool.’ That is like opening a door, like, ‘I wanna do that.’ Particularly me once I was in sixth grade, I didn’t even know what wrestling was. And I simply, like, found it at some point.”
“I believe subsequent 12 months we’ll positively have extra women as a result of we’re getting extra acknowledged now,” stated Sophia Lombardo, a sophomore from Farmingdale. “Simply by phrase of mouth from all the ladies from completely different districts. So I actually hope this group can develop within the subsequent season.”
That’s the hope of Rausenberger as effectively, whose daughter is a member of the group and envisions the MacArthur program being a place to begin for different women highschool groups within the county.
“The purpose for that is to have these women know that it’s OK to return in right here after which hopefully different women out of your faculty attempt it out within the years to return,” he stated. “After which sufficient of them come the place they will then break off and grow to be their very own group.
“That’s how we will help develop this. And, you realize, at first, and an important factor, is simply to let the ladies on the market which can be like, ‘I don’t know if I need to attempt it as a result of it’s such a stigma that it’s a man sport,’ come give it a shot. Come check out it. It’s possible you’ll prefer it. That’s type of the philosophy that I’ve.”
Supply hyperlink
