Story by Davis McKinney
Photos by Brenna Elmore
BAKERSVILLE, N.C. – Megan Zelasky is a wrestler. At 113 pounds, the 16-year-old is slim, quick and athletic. On the mat in her navy blue wrestling singlet, she is tough and focused.
She is also a girl, which means she usually wrestles boys.
At most meets she’s the only girl in headgear, but things were different at Women’s Open State Championship Tournament in Bakersville, N.C. on Feb. 24.
That Saturday, Zelasky and 17 other girls took to the mat. Some walked away with medals at the end of the day, but no matches counted toward the girls’ official records, as the tournament wasn’t officially recognized by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.
In NCHSAA events, separate girls’ and boys’ wrestling divisions don’t exist.
“It can be kind of intimidating at times,” she said. “But mostly I’m fine with wrestling guys.”
Intimidation aside, high school is already full of enough awkward encounters. Most teenagers are too scared to ask a member of the opposite sex out to the movies, much less put them in a half-nelson.
If she wants to wrestle girls, Zelasky has to find special tournaments. But that can sometimes be challenging. Zelasky and her mother, Clara, drove more than three hours from their home in Chapel Hill to the tournament in Bakersville. The pair has become used to long treks like these but they’re worth it, she said. Sometimes they even drive out of the state to find tournaments.
“Someone needs to take leadership of this thing in North Carolina so we don’t have to drive to South Carolina or Virginia to find opportunities for her,” Clara Zelasky said.
She’s likely not the only girl in North Carolina making these trips. Trá Waters, assistant commissioner of sports and championships at the NCHSAA, estimates there are almost 300 female wrestlers in North Carolina high schools.
“You get to know all the girl wrestlers across the state pretty well,” Zelasky said.
She’s part of a group text message chat with 13 other female wrestlers. Among the typical teenage discussions, they talk about which tournaments they plan to wrestle in.
Waters said while his office has heard more vocal support for a sanctioned girls’ wrestling division in North Carolina, the sport has a lot more growing to do before that becomes a reality.
“A little over 100 schools would have to have their own women’s wrestling program to be able to have a standalone sport,” he said.
This number comes from a bylaw in the NCHSAA handbook, which defines the requirements for sanctioning a sport. None currently do, and some schools organize off-season wrestling clubs for girls and boys.
Zelasky said she thinks having a separate division would encourage more girls to start wrestling. Ed Duncan, state chairman of the N.C. division of USA Wrestling, feels the same way.
“Having their blessing on it is going to go a long way in terms of encouraging women wrestlers and giving their parents a sense of legitimacy in the sport,” Duncan said.
USA Wrestling offers off-season tournaments like the one in Bakersville. USA Wrestling tournaments are some of Zelasky’s only opportunities to wrestle other girls.
Waters said his office has discussed creating a women’s invitational state-championship tournament recognized by the NCHSAA. If this were implemented, girls would wrestle with their teams during the regular season, but exceptional female wrestlers would be invited to wrestle in a girls-only tournament for an official North Carolina state championship title.
Zelasky said she was first attracted to wrestling because the sport seemed fair. It was the classic two step in, one leaves victorious; “mano a mano” type stuff that drew her in. It makes sense. Amidst the takedowns, headlocks and half-nelsons exist rules intended to place each high school wrestler on the same playing field — or mat in this case.
Zelasky said becoming a better wrestler is her No. 1 priority. Last year, she wrestled 13 varsity matches with six wins and 7 losses.
Only one of her opponents was a girl.
No matter what lies in the future for North Carolina girls’ wrestling, Zelasky has a lot more traveling in the off-season ahead. Her goal is to wrestle 100 matches between now and the next season’s beginning in November. This level of dedication is enough to make anyone tossing around the phrase “you wrestle like a girl” think twice.
“Sometimes I feel like I have something to prove,” Zelasky said. “But it helps me stay motivated.”
[See more HERE: Grappling a different kind of glass ceiling]
I, too, went to CHHS…class of ’86. I now live in PA and 4 of my 6 kids wrestle, one of them being my daughter, a 13 year old 7th grader. She started the season as the team manager and ended the year as the 95lb starter. Thankfully, this year, PA decided to include a girls division in the youth tournament. There was also the Midd2 Atlantic Girls Folkstyle Championships in Gettysburg that declared the winners as Pa state champions. As the father of a true wrestling family, I am glad to see things moving forward, even if in small steps. We still have issues at practice- some parents don’t want the boys practicing with girls, and such. Still, I am glad to see some change in the old-school mentality. How PA, of all states, hasen’t been at the leading edge of this is beyond me. It inspires me as a parent to see what is happening here and other states to give these girls an opportunity to participate in a sport that they are passionate about, including NC. Let’s give these girls all of the support that we can so that they can enjoy the sport and learn the lessons of hard work, perseverance, goal-setting, and a strong mindset that will serve them well long after they walk off the mat.