Within the wrestling room at the back of the MacArthur Excessive College gymnasium, you’ll discover the 17-member ladies wrestling workforce honing its craft.
It wouldn’t be unusual to search 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 apply.
Whereas the scene could sound like a day’s work for any highschool sports activities workforce, the women wrestling workforce on the suburban Lengthy Island highschool is a little bit of a rarity.
Whereas highschool wrestling — and ladies’ highschool wrestling, particularly — has been rising throughout the nation, MacArthur was the primary all-girls highschool wrestling workforce in Nassau County.
It’s a distinction that the workforce — coached by Nick Rausenberger and Travis Cooksey and captained by senior Gabbi Schechtman — has taken satisfaction in all through its first season in existence.
“I feel ladies wrestling is being seen in a brand new mild,” Schechtman stated. “I feel that ladies’s wrestling is rising across the nation, particularly on Lengthy Island. And now that there’s developed ladies groups, I feel the stigma round girls’s wrestling is actually lowering.”
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 ladies groups.
The MacArthur program consists of ladies not simply from the district, but in addition from different faculties akin to JFK Bellmore, Farmingdale, Syosset, Mepham, Herricks and Seaford.
It’s a mixture of athletes whose expertise vary from having develop into 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 differ from having a member of the family or good friend compete to easily listening to an announcement in school and eager to attempt one thing new, however regardless, the eagerness for wrestling is clear.
“It’s a part of my life now and I like it a lot,” stated junior Justine Zheng, who attends Seaford Excessive College and picked up the game for the primary time this 12 months.
Women wrestling has develop into one of many fastest-growing highschool sports activities within the nation with the variety of contributors throughout each genders growing.
In New York, there was a 63 % enhance in highschool ladies wrestling participation from the 2023-24 educational 12 months to the present educational 12 months, in response to knowledge supplied to The Publish by NYSPHSAA.
Nationwide, the variety of ladies taking part in highschool wrestling jumped to 50,000 in 2023, in response to a report from the Related Press.
In its first 12 months, McArthur didn’t compete in twin meets, as a substitute coming into ladies wrestling tournaments on Lengthy Island, primarily in Suffolk County.
It competed in tournaments in Huntington, Bay Shore and Copiague, Rausenberger stated.
This system will compete within the Nassau County ladies 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 workforce have seen the impression this system has had in encouraging different ladies to get entangled with the game.
“There’s additionally like a bunch of young women that come to the tournaments and youthful brothers they usually’ll like see, like, a bunch of women simply, like, being robust and it undoubtedly evokes them,” stated Gauri Sharma, a sophomore from Herricks. “I do know quite a lot of ladies from my college, they arrive as much as me, they’re not even thinking about wrestling, however they’re like, ‘You’re so cool.’ That is like opening a door, like, ‘I wanna do that.’ Particularly me once I was in sixth grade, I didn’t even know what wrestling was. And I simply, like, found it in the future.”
“I feel subsequent 12 months we’ll undoubtedly have extra ladies as a result of we’re getting extra acknowledged now,” stated Sophia Lombardo, a sophomore from Farmingdale. “Simply by phrase of mouth from all the women from totally different districts. So I actually hope this workforce can develop within the subsequent season.”
That’s the hope of Rausenberger as properly, whose daughter is a member of the workforce and envisions the MacArthur program being a place to begin for different ladies highschool groups within the county.
“The aim for that is to have these ladies know that it’s OK to come back in right here after which hopefully different ladies out of your college attempt it out within the years to come back,” he stated. “After which sufficient of them come the place they will then break off and develop into their very own workforce.
“That’s how we may help develop this. And, you realize, at the beginning, and a very powerful factor, is simply to let the women on the market which can be like, ‘I don’t know if I wish to attempt it as a result of it’s such a stigma that it’s a man sport,’ come give it a shot. Come check out it. Chances are you’ll prefer it. That’s form of the philosophy that I’ve.”