Daughter wants to do wrestling!

[Gary]

My oldest daughter is 12 and in Junior High. She announced to me yesterday that she is going to go out for wrestling this winter. She is very athletic and the wrestling coach is also a PE teacher and he actually suggested the sport for her. (I'm thinking she filled a potential weight gap in his roster)

What do you think about girls wrestling against boys?

 

[crowl]

When I was in school they never did co-ed wrestling so that is a new one to me. As the parent of a girl I would wonder about unintentional touching but that could just be me. More importantly what do you think about it?

 

[Peyton]

When I was in high school there was a female wrestler at one of the other schools in our district. Technically speaking, she did okay at the sport, but I remember hearing that she got teased a lot. The teasing would be my biggest concern. However, maybe times have changed enough that she wouldn't have to deal with too much backlash these days.

 

[Len]

I think you should let her go for it. She could be great at it and it could even open up a future for her (in terms of scholarship for college). She might like it and if she doesn't like it, she can always quit. I don't see any problem with it. It's not uncommon for girls to wrestle these days.

 

[fatcho]

My youngest sister wrestled throughout highschool. At first we were all worried about the closeness of the contact but once we went to the matches it was clear that the boys were just worried about winning. Yes, there were some unfair calls from refs. There were boys who forfeited and refused to wrestle her, but for the most part it was a positive experience for her. She did it for four years and was captain for her junior and senior year. During the off season she also did wrestling with the USGWA (U.S. Girls Wrestling Association) and she was nationally ranked with them. She was also a youth wrestling coach and the team she coached was comprised of about 30% Girls.

If you are worried about your daughter being teased, it certainly wasn't the case with my sister. She was elected as a class officer and she was homecomming queen! She said the only thing she didn't like about it was that they always announced the winners over the PA at school by weightclass so every time she won a match, they'd announce her weight to the whole school!

 

[Albert]

I'm not much into wrestling, but if that is her choice and her teacher encourages her, I don't see why not... I have to admit, though, that I'm kind of surprised about co-ed wrestling in schools. I wonder when they introduced it.