While Springfield wrestling is as old as the school, the Springfield girls wrestling team saw its inaugural season this year. With a mixture of new and seasoned wrestlers, this team of eight grew together and ended their season with a dual-meet record of 4-0. But how did it come about?
Organizing the team
One of the biggest contributors to organizing the girls’ team and rallying this year’s success was Senior Hailey Murphy.
While many girls have been on the wrestling team, there wasn’t a designated girls team until this year. Murphy explains what this was like: “It felt like [girls] didn’t belong. Since we didn’t have our own schedule, it felt like we didn’t have our own team.”
With this as her motivation, she decided to go to Boys’ Wrestling coach Mr. McCaslin and the superintendent to ask the school to recognize an official girls’ team. Once confirmed, the role of girls’ coach was filled by Coach Miller.
Their successful season
Many things have changed for the girls this year since gaining their own team. Murphy said that they still often practiced with the boys, “but if [they] wanted to, [they] could practice in the other gym or the wrestling room” with just the eight of them. Murphy also said that “[the team] had its own girls’ area on the wrestling mats.”
The new recruits also had a lot to learn. Abby Baskin says that, with the help of the seniors and coaches, “these people were able to go… get multiple wins and do really well.”
For the wrestlers and the team as a whole, this season was full of firsts. Despite being a new team, the girls “won every dual meet and placed really well in the tournaments [they] participated in,” according to Baskin.
With support from Springfield wrestling’s many coaches and each other, the girls expect to have a promising future on the mat.
