WRIGHTSTOWN/BRILLION — This year history is being made.
“I’m so excited," said Wrightstown High School sophomore Autumn Vann. "I can’t wait to just get on the mat and have fun with it.”
On Saturday for the first time ever in Wisconsin, high school girls wrestlers will have their own state wrestling meet at the La Crosse Center.
“There’s a lot of girls that probably don’t even know that it’s a sanctioned sport for the high school now," said Dale Galoff, the girls wrestling coach at Brillion High School "Hopefully they’ll see it on TV, hopefully they’ll see it on Facebook or whatever and say, ‘Hey, I want to try it.’”
For Wrightstown head coach Matt Verbeten who has been coaching for 34 years, the girls having their own tournament is long overdue and many people spent lots of hours to get this accomplished.
“To have the WIAA recognize it at the first-ever girls tournament, it’s sanctioned, it’s known across the nation — it’s outstanding," he said. "There’s a lot of work that went in to it. A lot of time went it to it. There’s a lot of people that put a lot of effort into this so it’s pretty awesome for them to finally have their own stand alone state tournament.”
The WIAA is set to have two-time Olympian Adeline Gray there to hand out the hardware.
“The efforts that have been put in by the WWF and the WIAA to make this a super special event is awesome,' Verbeten said. "That’s just one thing. There are a couple of other things they have planned for the girls to make this event special for them, which is the way it should be. They earned it, they worked hard, so it’s awesome to see that going to happen.”
The wrestlers are happy to have their own tournament, but the hope is to be competing on the same stage as the boys one day.
“One of my biggest dreams is to be wrestling at the Kohl Center, just to see all the people there. It would just be cool," said Brillion sophomore Sophia Galoff, who grew up watching her brothers wrestle there for the state tournament.
