My Experience on the Boy’s Wrestling Team

I have always been active in sports. I love competition and best of all I love winning. I recently joined the wrestling team at my high school. It’s not until I joined wrestling that I noticed the great division between male and female athletes.

When I first joined I had many people question why I would join. I had a member of the team ask me if I was serious about joining. I said I was and that I was trying to convince one of my friends to join as well ( a girl). He said he wanted more guys to join, not girls and he told me he wanted to see me lift as much as he could. Many people told me they didn’t expect I would join, including one of the coaches. What ever that means. I left it at that. I wasn’t going to let any of this keep me from joining.

I had my first wrestling match at my school’s wrestling tournament. I got tips from some of the guys on what to do. I heard my name being called and I put my stuff on. I walked up to the table, confirmed my name, and school. My opponent and I shook hands. Less than 30 seconds in I lost. I was a bit disappointed, but I wash’t tough on my self. I walked back towards the team and they patted me on the back as I sat down.

I continued to go to practice. One day we played sharks and minnows. The point of this game is to have the wrestlers go on one side of the mat, the minnows and one wrestler in the middle of the mat, the shark. The shark has to pin as many minnows down possible before they reach the other end of the mat where they are safe without getting off their knees and hands. The game ends when there is only one minnow left.

I was a minnow along with the other guys. We went on our hands an knees. Coach blew the whistle which meant go. I crawled past the shark and made it to the other side. The shark didn’t seem to notice me. Now there were two sharks. The coach blew the whistle and I crawled past the sharks again. I made it to the other side. Now there were three sharks. I heard the whistle and I started to crawl. The sharks started to crawl toward me, then avoided me and pined someone else. I found this odd and made it to the other side. Why would they pass up the opportunity to pin me? The coach noticed none of the boys wanted to get near me and he asked them why they were avoiding me. None of them responded. He blew the whistle and I crawled. Two guys tried to pin me, but I could tell they weren’t using full force. They ended up letting me go and I made it to the other side. The game was over. I was the last minnow.

This bothered me. They didn’t see me as an equal. None of the guys wanted to even try. I don’t know if they were too scared to hurt me or what it was. I told them not to go easy one me. In a real match my opponent wasn’t going to let me win and let his friends see he got beat by a girl. Even my wrestling partner didn’t try. They were delicate with me, as if at any moment they could brake me. This frustrated me, but I couldn’t change the way they behaved.

My next wrestling match was different. We got to the school and the coach told us our line up. I was nervous and didn’t really know what I was going to do. I heard my name called, I walked up to the table, and confirmed my name. I shook my opponent’s hand and the match begun. After what seemed like hours of tossing, turning, pulling, and pushing, I pinned my opponent. The referee raised my arm, declaring me the winner. I walked toward the team and the first thing I heard was not good job or anything even remotely close to that. the first words I heard were, “Welcome to the team!”

The guys started saying this as if I was not part of the team before. I had been practicing with these guys and they didn’t consider me part of the team? To them this was an all boy’s wrestling team and I didn’t belong. I felt like I had to prove my self worthy in order to be part of the team. I had to get their approval.

I don’t know if I will join wrestling agin next year, but I will take this experience with me. I am a girl and as a girl in this society, I will have to work harder than a male to get to the same place or position. I will work hard to beat a boy.