This 2023-2024 winter athletic season marks the first time that Webb has an official female wrestling team. With six girls total —coming from different grades, levels of experience, and backgrounds— the wrestling program welcomes its newest members in a historically male-dominated sport.
With the spike in VWS interest in Webb’s wrestling program this year, the team is nearly double the size that it was in previous years. The sudden growth may be a result of an influx of new underclassman athletes, and more students —including many girls— showing interest in a wider range of sports; possibly a result of word of mouth “advertising” between students and their friends.
Because of this unexpected growth and a shifted team demographic, Eric Hansen, Humanities Instructor and wrestling coach, has experimented with different ways to lead practices and other team training activities.
“I wanted the whole team to practice together,” Mr. Hansen said. “First, I put the girls with the [boys in junior varsity]- before Coach Duncan came.”
Initially, the team was split in two during practice, with one group consisting of experienced wrestlers and the other of new wrestlers, including some of the VWS students. The two groups would spread out around the upper gym area, working out in the wrestling room, on the field, or even in the trails behind Webb to run.
In addition to a more complex training regime, the program has added two new coaches. One is Anthony Flucker, who also coaches varsity track and football, and the other is Rieanna Duncan, a former high school wrestling champion.
Each of the new coaches has a unique style of teaching, and the team has already become familiar with routines such as the infamous “Flucker’s Funhouse”, an intense conditioning workout that always unites the team.
Even though the team tries to work as a unit as much as possible, Coach Duncan noticed some differences within the girls’ team, which she primarily coaches.
“Girls are so much more coachable,” Duncan said. “I find that when guys are in combat sports, they want to muscle everything- whereas girls are more in tune to getting the technicalities down.”
In addition to observing differences in the girls’ technique, Coach Duncan pointed out the perhaps less visible benefits of integrating the girls team.
“I think that having girls on the team has been good because it shows the others that girls can be just as strong, if not stronger, in so many different ways,” Duncan said. “They are putting in a lot of work, they are getting on the mat and doing the same thing, maybe better than you are. It teaches them to have that respect for when you see a woman on that mat, or a woman in general.”
The team has been doing a lot of hard work and preparation for the upcoming league meets not only in the main wrestling room and outdoors, but also in the newly renovated House of Pride behind Faculty Field, also known as “the hop”. The building was usually only used to store athletic equipment in the past, but a large space was cleared out over winter break to put a wrestling mat and provide an additional training space for the team.
As Webb’s wrestling program grows and improves now more than ever, stay tuned for the league meets starting on Thursday, January 11th and continuing to finals and CIF through the end of January and February.
