This month, female high school wrestlers from across Ohio competed in the third state championship since the Ohio High School Athletic Association sanctioned girls wrestling in 2023.
“This year there were over 1,700 girls, I believe, that entered the girls postseason process at the sectional level, and statewide I believe the number was right around 3,000 girls that participated in some capacity,” said Andrews, a veteran wrestling coach who switched from leading the boys at Marysville High School to the girls in 2023.
With more wrestlers comes a higher level of wrestling, too.
“So as little as three years ago, you could probably pull a kid out of the hallway, teach them some basic technique, and they could be competitive, but what we noticed is just when high school wrestling started six years ago, there’s a number of girls who also started who were in youth and middle school at that same time, and now those girls are are making their way up into high school ranks.”
While girls of all ages have wrestled for many years, there was a big issue: If they wanted to win a state title, they would have to go against boys.
According to Mark Matt, that was a roadblock for a simple reason.
“As they get into middle school and puberty starts to kick in for boys, just the strength difference and stuff starts to become an issue,” said Matt, who has been the head wrestling coach at Greeneview High School in Jamestown for eight years and been in the program for two decades.
For that reason, he dissuaded his twin daughters, Eve and Gwen, from getting serious about the sport as they were growing up.
“When I took the job, they had asked me at various times, and my response had always been very dismissive,” Matt said. “From the standpoint that it’s like there just wasn’t any future in it. There’s no reason to have you go out there and do this because there was no high school version of it available.”
Then came the OHSAA’s blessing for a girls state tournament.
“So I did, of course, then relent pretty quickly and allow them to do some practices with the youth team,” Matt said.
‘It was really exciting’
Eve Matt confirmed her father’s account.
“I always played a lot of sports growing up, and that just seemed like the next one to try,” she said. “When I started out, it just clicked, and it was the sport that I wanted to stick with.”
Now a senior, she said she likes wrestling because it is an individual sport, but her development started slowly.
“You get to put in the work and see the results that come from everything you’ve done,” she said. “At first it was definitely not the best wrestling all the boys who probably started when they were 3 or 4 years old.
“I just it took a couple years before I started winning, but then after that, I think all the experience losing to those boys helped me along the way.”
After winning the state championship at 140 pounds as a sophomore, she missed the 2024 postseason because of injury, but this year she came back to qualify for the state tournament again with a record of 43-3.
At the state tournament, she finished second at 145 pounds while her sister, who was also a two-time state qualifier, finished sixth at 135 to close out decorated careers.
They combined to post a record of 130-11 as seniors.
Eve said she feels good being a pioneer in the sport for girls in Ohio.
“It was really exciting,” she said. “When I started wrestling, I’d be lucky if I got to practice with another girl in the room, and now there’s all-girls clubs that I get to be a part of.
“It’s a lot different from when I was first starting because they’ve got individualized practices where they didn’t feel like they had to get beat up by the boys to get better.”
There are some differences
Stephen Taylor had coached boys wrestling at Centerville since 1996 when he helped start the Elks girls program three years ago.
“I’ve got three kids, and my youngest had begged me forever and ever to wrestle, and I was kind of hesitant,” Taylor said. “So when we got that announcement, she was like, ‘You’ve got to now,’ and I’m like, ‘You’re right. Let’s go.’”
He said more than 20 girls came out for the Elks this season after his daughter and others were beating the bushes for participants three years ago.
Credit: Brad Piper Photography
Credit: Brad Piper Photography
The switch has also forced him to adjust how he coaches.
Some strategies work better with boys than girls, but there is also the matter of how members of each gender tend to be built.
“The flexibility is crazy,” Taylor said. “They twist and contort their bodies in ways that boys just can’t.”
That has forced officials to adjust because there are some positions that will result in a boys match being stopped for safety concerns.
“That’s called potentially dangerous,” he said. “Girls, their shoulders can go over top their head, and whereas a boy, they would stop it right away.”
Taylor also appreciates the energy level his girls bring to practice.
“I absolutely love it,” he said. “It’s kind of reenergized me as a coach. They’re just very infectious.”
Aside from learning which moves and techniques might fit girls better than boys, Mark Matt, Andrews and Taylor all said the sport as a whole is continuing to evolve as other differences arise, including the physical impact of cutting weight.
While boys are allowed to cut weight down to 7% body fat prior to competition, the standard is 12% for girls, and that might need to change sooner than later.
“Now they’re finding that’s incredibly too low,” Andrews said, “and the issue is that, because that’s all happening midstream, there’s some girls at the college level who anticipated wrestling in one weight class, and now they can’t because of that limitation. So I think I would expect that to get to trickle down to the high school level and some modifications and revisions to those minimum weights, but I think it’s still a ways out.”
Results/growth
OHSAA spokesman Tim Stried said all the credit for getting the girls wrestling movement started goes to the OHSWCA.
“The OHSAA is excited to see the growth of girls wrestling across the state,” Stried said. “Participation numbers have more than quadrupled in the last few years, and that is a tribute to our established wrestling programs at high schools across the state in which the boys wrestling programs support and embrace the girls teams.”
Andrews, who was part of a committee to bring that first girls state tournament to fruition, acknowledged there are still some hindrances to continuing to grow the sport, but he sounded optimistic about the future.
Credit: Brad Piper Photography
Credit: Brad Piper Photography
“There are some people who will say, ‘You know, I don’t understand it. It’s not for me, but I support it,’” Andrews said. “And then there’s others who downright still think that it’s not good. They’re not in favor, so some of those stigmas can be a challenge, but all in all, I think it’s moved immensely from six years ago.”
Prejudices aside, girls wrestling also faces something every sport is dealing with at the youth and high school levels: A lack of coaches and officials.
“You have to have coaches who are willing to invest additional time, especially early on,” Andrews said. “A lot of times that means they’re wrestling two separate schedules if they’re doing boys and girls events, and they’re probably not getting compensated for more.”
Dana Matt, who is Mark’s wife and mother to Eve and Gwen, is doing her part to help.
After serving as the team statistician for years, she began helping coach the girls at Greeneview and got her officials license.
She also stressed weight classes from 100 pounds up to 235 present opportunities for girls of all body types.
“That’s something that maybe some people don’t realize,” Dana Matt said. “There’s a lot of girls that are really tiny, and they’re like, ‘Well, I can’t do sports, I’m too small.’ Or they might think, ‘I can’t do sports, I’m too big.’
“Any body type can do it.”
Meanwhile, one of her daughters has already seen wrestling impact her direction in life.
With an eye on joining the FBI some day, Eve Matt wants to major in forensic psychology.
That will lead her north to Tiffin University this fall.
Why does she want to be a dragon?
“Tiffin is actually the only college in the U.S. that has my major and women’s wrestling,” she said.
Credit: Brad Piper Photography
Credit: Brad Piper Photography
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