By Michelle K Umbehauer 
I’m a wrestling mom, but I’m a new breed. I’m the kind with my little girl on the mat. Sure, I support our son out there, and I scream like a wild banshee with the rest of the crazy parents, and I’m in awe of the athletes these boys are. But then steps out our daughter. And it’s different.
She decided to join her big bro at practice years ago when word was just starting to spread about the possible emergence of girls’ wrestling. She was only in kindergarten, but I think my husband might have already been thinking college. His stance was a simple tone of come try a practice and see if you get a scholarship out of it. She was the only girl on the team, but she hung tough, was teachable, and took right to it.
Now, five years later, there are nearly 20 young girls on this local team, including her younger sister. There are all-girl tournaments all over the place and state championships are solidified. There are even two girls on our high school team this year with one taking fifth in the state, so we can only hope a program specific for the girls is soon to follow.
Because no, they’re not trying to be one of the boys; they’re just girls genuinely asking for the opportunity to participate in one of the original sports. To be a girl and be a girl who wrestles and do both well. And it’s something incredible.
To see our little girl give absolutely everything she has—physically, mentally, emotionally—and leave it all on the mat is something inspiring. To see the comradery between the other girls in this growing sport is something beautiful. To see the possibility of what might be to come in the future is something hopeful. Something different.
Gold medalist Dan Gable famously said, “Once you’ve wrestled, everything else in life is easy.” But Dan wasn’t a girl. It won’t be easy. Everything else in life might be harder than you thought possible. And possibly just because of the fact that you’re a girl. But boy, will you be prepared.
With grit like a girl, beauty like a girl, perseverance like a girl, hope like a girl . . . when you go out there and you wrestle like a girl. And this mama will be inspired. And this sport will be something different. And this world will be all the better for it.
by Emily Hunt 
by Angela Williams Glenn 
