Fight like a Girl
Courtesey of Aileen Johns
“It’s not a boy’s sport!” said sophomore Nicolette Bond, a current member of the girls wrestling team.
Wrestling is highly stereotyped as being a boys sport, but three female Las Lomas students are breaking the barrier. Sophomore Mari Johns, freshman Jadyn Hibbs, and Bond have really set the bar for a new era. As opposed to other girls sports, girls wrestling has a vibe of its own.
Johns initiated her wrestling career the winter of her freshman year. This is her second year supporting her team with new knowledge and pursuing the improvement of her skills.
“This year I’ve been more comfortable with trying new things and I think I’ve improved a lot,” said Johns. Working with a class that mostly consists of guys, it can get very competitive. Johns likes a challenge especially when it comes to boys thinking they are stronger because of their masculinity. For girls who want to do wrestling but are too scared of what people would think, Johns replies with, “Just do it and shoo out the haters.” Since there isn’t a specified sport for girls wrestling in college, Johns wants to continue her wrestling career in high school and see where it takes her from there. Johns, two years after starting her wrestling career at Las Lomas, convinced more girls to try out such as Nicolette Bond.
Bond is a newbie at wrestling but enjoys it a lot more than she expected. “It’s a great release and it feels really nice to compete with people one on one,” said Bond.
Doing a contact sport makes one feel a lot more self confident, especially when winning a match. At the season’s start in 2017, Bond had trouble with her self confidence which prevented her from becoming the best wrestler she could be. Bond would watch matches before she was confident to start on her own. When asked if working with boys was uncomfortable Bond replied, “ It’s not weird for me personally but diversity within the wrestling community. “I don’t want them to think of me as weak so I’m very competitive.”
For Bond, the environment is very strict and always pushes her to do better. She mentions her favorite coach, Coach Charley, as one who drives her to her hardest and helps her to improve. Bond wants to pursue her wrestling career until senior year in hopes of joining a girls wrestling team in college. For now, this season she wants to win more matches consecutively and strives to be better in the long run.
As the years go on, both athletes await for more and more girls to join the team. Although the lack of other females may be an obstacle for Bond and Johns, it does not deter their motivation to not only succeed in this sport, but to encourage more gender diversity within the sport.
