Local girl puts half-nelson on boys

CINDY WOOD/independent feature writer

She’s definitely not your typical girly-girl type, and Rachel Davis, a sixth-grader at Van Wert Middle School, is the first to admit it.

“I’m just not a normal girl I guess,” Davis said with a laugh.

Cheerleading? Nope. The mall? Forget about it. Nail polish? Absolutely not.

Davis has gone where very few girls have gone before her — the wrestling mat. She recently completed her first season in the Cougar Wrestling Club and scoffs at the notion that wrestling is just for boys.

“Girls can do anything boys can do,” Davis said. “I’m really glad I got involved in wrestling; I think I’m going to stick with it. It’s really fun.”

Davis got involved after hearing about the club during school one day. “They were passing out flyers about it and I saw that only boys were raising their hands that they wanted to join,” Davis said. “So I just raised my hand and that’s how it all started.”

Davis said she wasn’t scared or intimidated at all, but practices in the wrestling room at the school were interesting to say the least. “It wasn’t weird for me at all, but I think it made some of the boys feel a little weird,” Davis said. “We were practicing different moves one day and one boy said he didn’t want to try the moves on a girl. He said it was just too weird.”

That might have been before Davis pinned a boy five times in practice one day. “And he still says I suck at wrestling,” Davis said, adding “he’s probably just mad because I beat him.”

For the most part, Davis said her friends think it’s pretty cool that she’s a girl in a boy’s world. And for those who don’t? “I really love the half-nelson,” she said with a laugh. “You can instantly pin someone with the half-nelson.”

Overall, girl wrestlers are not as rare as one might think. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, the sport of wrestling has grown in participation among high school athletes, girls included. The NFSHS states that the number of girl wrestlers in high schools grew to 5,527 athletes in 2010, which represents a 9.5 percent increase from 2009.

Additionally, the number of teams with female wrestlers in 2010 was 1,287, an increase of 60 teams over 2009. The NFSHS also states that the number of female high school wrestlers has gained every year since 1990.

Texas ranks first in female wrestling participation, followed by California, Hawaii, Washington and Florida.

Back in Van Wert, though, Davis said she’s fully aware she’s in the minority, but she won’t let that stop her. “I just like it, and there’s no reason why girls can’t do any sport they want to do,” she said, adding that she believes she’s the only female wrestler in Van Wert. “I don’t think there are any other girl wrestlers in Van Wert, but I heard about two girls who went to nationals in wrestling,” she said.

When she’s not racking up pins on the mat, Davis is a percussionist in the band and a science fan at the middle school.