Last year, a few LS girls took a risk that left its mark on the school and their own lives. For many years our wrestling team was composed of all boys. A small number of girls had attempted to join the team in past years but always quit after a couple of weeks. When Coach Greely encouraged the girls’ rugby team to join wrestling the following winter, three girls took on the challenge. “Going in I wasn’t particularly nervous about anything,” Jessica Ciaffi said.
“I remember the first practice; I was the first girl to get there and I was worried about making friends.” The three girls on the team quickly became a community, but as for the guys, Jessica “wouldn’t say that they were very accepting at the beginning.” While they were never rude or outright exclusive to the new team members, “It was kind of like the cold shoulder from everybody for the first maybe two months.” However, with support from the coaches, family members, and each other, the girls didn’t give up on being part of the team.
Throughout her two seasons of wrestling, Jessica felt pressure to keep up with the rest of the team in terms of strength and skill, which fueled her dedication. “This year it felt more even,” she said when comparing her skills to the boys’. One of the goals that she set for herself was to win a match against a guy. At a meet this past season she was able to celebrate this accomplishment for the first time! Jessica recalled that this culmination of her hard work was very rewarding, saying, “It was a great moment of like, I finally beat this random guy.” Her coaches and teammates were almost as excited as she was, and even a wrestler from the other team gave her a high five! Jessica’s successes didn’t stop there, and she became the first LS girl to ever place in the postseason tournament. Each wrestler who places in the postseason gets their name printed on a banner that hangs in the gym, and thanks to Jessica there is a brand new banner dedicated to girls.
These extraordinary accomplishments did come at a cost to the girls on the wrestling team. Not only is wrestling “the most physically difficult thing [she’s] ever done,” but it has required a lot of courage from Jessica. The girls took a risk by joining a male-dominated sport and proved that they deserved to wrestle alongside the boys. At the end-of-season banquet, all three girls were given the “trailblazer award,” recognizing that their initiative would be an inspiration to others. “There was no previous girl on the team for me to look at and say okay, she did it so maybe I can do it,” but Jessica hopes she can be that person for future female wrestlers at LS.
