Within the wrestling room behind the MacArthur Excessive College gymnasium, you’ll discover the 17-member women wrestling staff honing its craft.
It wouldn’t be unusual to seek out the music bumping as the women paired off to work on a transfer or operating laps across the room to chill down from an extended follow.
Whereas the scene could sound like a day’s work for any highschool sports activities staff, the women wrestling staff 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 staff in Nassau County.
It’s a distinction that the staff — 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 think girls wrestling is being seen in a new light,” Schechtman mentioned. “I think that women’s wrestling is growing around the country, especially on Long Island. And now that there’s developed girls teams, I think the stigma around women’s wrestling is really decreasing.”
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 consists of women not simply from the district, but in addition from different colleges 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 good friend 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 part of my life now and I love it so much,” mentioned junior Justine Zheng, who attends Seaford Excessive College and picked up the game for the primary time this 12 months.
Women wrestling has grow to be one of many fastest-growing highschool sports activities within the nation with the variety of contributors throughout each genders rising.
In New York, there was a 63 p.c enhance in highschool women wrestling participation from the 2023-24 educational 12 months to the present educational 12 months, in keeping with information offered to The Submit by NYSPHSAA.
Nationwide, the variety of women collaborating in highschool wrestling jumped to 50,000 in 2023, in keeping 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 mentioned.
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 staff have observed the affect this system has had in encouraging different women to become involved with the game.
“There’s also like a bunch of younger girls that come to the tournaments and younger brothers and they’ll like see, like, a bunch of girls just, like, being strong and it definitely inspires them,” mentioned Gauri Sharma, a sophomore from Herricks. “I know a lot of girls from my school, they come up to me, they’re not even interested in wrestling, but they’re like, ‘You’re so cool.’ This is like opening a door, like, ‘I wanna try this.’ Especially me when I was in sixth grade, I didn’t even know what wrestling was. And I just, like, discovered it one day.”
“I think next year we’ll definitely have more girls because we’re getting more recognized now,” mentioned Sophia Lombardo, a sophomore from Farmingdale. “Just by word of mouth from all the girls from different districts. So I really hope this team can grow in the next season.”
That’s the hope of Rausenberger as nicely, whose daughter is a member of the staff and envisions the MacArthur program being a place to begin for different women highschool groups within the county.
“The goal for this is to have these girls know that it’s OK to come in here and then hopefully other girls from your school try it out in the years to come,” he mentioned. “After which sufficient of them come the place they will then break off and grow to be their very own staff.
“That’s how we can help grow this. And, you know, first and foremost, and the most important thing, is just to let the girls out there that are like, ‘I don’t know if I want to try it because it’s such a stigma that it’s a guy sport,’ come give it a shot. Come take a look at it. You may like it. That’s kind of the philosophy that I have.”
