High schools typically have a fair amount of clubs and athletic programs for students to enjoy. But depending on the school, certain sports might not be offered. That's one of the reasons why dad Ken Corcoran created his own woman's wrestling club at East Islip High School. The best part is, you don't even have to be a student at that school to join. The club accepts girls between the ages of 5 and 18 years old.
And it's obviously a popular choice, as more than 50 young women have signed up. That number includes Ken's two daughters, Kendall and Makenna. Both are under the age of 15 yet knew early on that wrestling was something they were passionate about. Especially Makenna, his youngest.
"She was probably 2 or 3 and my wife and I noticed that the only time she ever sat still was when she was either watching wrestling on TV with me or at tournaments," Ken said to Today. That's when he knew it was something she was genuinely interested in.
Here's how he got started.
A few years after showing initial interest, Makenna openly stated that she wanted to start wrestling. Ken was going to sign her up for the boys team, which was already established. However, his wife Danielle persuaded him to start up an all-girls team instead. Once Makenna was wrestling other girls, her love for the sport grew even more.
According to Today, there are 29 states that have yet to add girls wrestling as a high school sport. New York, where Ken and his family live, happens to be one of them. "Until they sanction girls wrestling here in New York, then we'll do what we gotta do to get the girls on a mat that want to be on a mat," Ken said.
Having her dad so involved is a plus for Makenna. "When I'm on the mat and I hear my dad on the side, I know that he loves me and he wants to get me more into the sport. It's the best feeling a kid could ever have," she said. Ken believes that the club isn't just to give girls the chance to play — he's also hoping to teach them valuable life skills.
Ken also believes that he's helping make women's wrestling a more active sport. He's not alone — plenty of people have been fighting for it for years. "I used to say, 'Forget about the ponytail and look at them as wrestlers,'" Ken said. "Because there's gonna be a point where the ponytail's not gonna matter."
The club is called the Team Alpha Girls Wrestling Club. They were founded back in 2015 and have grown tremendously since. They make a point to welcome all girls who have an interest in wrestling and who fit in the large age range. But just having this club exist in the first place will likely inspire women beyond 18 to take up the sport.
Just a year after the wrestling club was established, a woman named Sally Roberts started up the Wrestle Like a Girl foundation. Its main goal is to make sure that women's wrestling is available in more areas and that people realize how important of a sport it is for young women. It's also a sport that should offer scholarships, like many other college athletic programs do.
"Wrestle Like Girl is championing the effort to bring women’s wrestling under the NCAA umbrella as an Emerging Sport by 2020, with the follow-on goal of Women’s Wrestling attaining NCAA Championship Status by 2021," the website states. The organization also supports the start-up of high school wrestling programs that encourage women to participate.
It makes you wonder why it's taken so long for initiatives like these to get started. Shannyn Gillespie helped pen an article for The Open Mat that talked about how women's wrestling was one of the biggest growing sports around, but with only minimal support. She noted that around 17,000 high school women participated in the United States alone. "Despite this inequity, many females do wrestle and thrive in the sport," she said.
Shows like GLOW are also glamorizing the sport. The Netflix series focuses on the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling promotional program — a real show that aired for a few years in the late '80s — and while most of the participants started as actresses, they slowly began to learn how empowering it was to wrestle in a ring.
While the women who were actually featured on TV didn't have much money and weren't fairly compensated for their work, they helped break the mold — while getting hurt in the process. "Girls were hurt frequently, [but] we just wanted to survive for another week, so our characters were able to have more exposure on TV," former GLOW wrestler Angelina Altishin said to the New York Post.
But most participants in women's wrestling are in it for the sport instead of the fame. It's a legitimate sporting activity that women can excel at. Young girls and women today are proving that there's no reason why this sport can't be equally available for women as it is for men.
"The growth of female wrestling is critical to the sport of wrestling at large because it opens up the sport to the other half of the population—girls and women," Sally Roberts stated. "Wrestling supports kids staying in school, getting good grades and seeking opportunities post-high school such as college, the trades or military service. Regardless of each wrestler’s chosen path, they are primed to excel and become leaders."
It's also been proven to be a huge confidence builder. Wrestler Jessica Medina, who currently works as the national women’s team developmental coach for USA Wrestling, is living proof. "I know that it takes courage to pursue wrestling," she said on the TeamUSA website. "When I face new challenges in life or work, or building relationships, I feel confident in myself, because of my experiences in wrestling."
"If a wrestler can put on a singlet to compete against an opponent under a spotlight, they can then feel confident putting on a suit and executing an interview," Jessica added. "Being confident under pressure is a norm for wrestlers." Long story short, wrestling can be an incredible way to boost both physical and mental strength. More people should be like Ken and start up a organization to serve young women in towns where nothing else is available. Just a few more coaches can make quite a big difference.
