Girls Wrestling: 5 Sentinel-area takeaways from Mid-Penn Media Day 2024
The growth of girls wrestling in Pennsylvania continued to reveal itself in the participation and the notes that came out of Thursday's Mid-Penn Media Day session on the PennLive campus in Mechanicsburg.
Coaches and select wrestlers met with the media on the eve of Friday's first official practices for the 2024-25 season, discussing their programs' expectations, rosters, schedules and more.
Here are some takeaways from the Mid-Penn's Sentinel-area contingent.
Almost every local program has seen an increase in participation.
"We have a lot more girls this year that are building the program," said Big Spring's Jordyn Suhina, a regional qualifier last winter at 106 pounds. "It's just helping to push everything up."
The increased participation in the girls programs has also helped draw wrestling interest to the boys' side as well.
"It's incredible," said Camp Hill head coach Chad Gallaher. "Not only has it grown their program, but what we're seeing is what girls organizers told us, that our boys numbers would go up, and they have. It causes growth all around. We have record numbers, really, for all of our teams. For a tiny school, we have a pretty big squad."
NEW COACHES
With the increased numbers, some schools have added girls wrestling head coaches.
Shippensburg added Rachel Kline to coach its girls team. Josh Barrick, the head of the boys program, added Kline to his staff ahead of the 2023-24 season to be a volunteer assistant, and the 2019 Shippensburg grad took the girls head coaching position when it was made available.
"It's awesome," Kline said. "I so wish there was girls wrestling when I was in high school. I would have done it for sure. I tried to, but my dad was like, 'You're not wrestling boys.'"
Northern and Red Land have also added girls head coaches in Dylan Poitrinal, a former Red Land wrestler tabbed to lead the Polar Bears, and Jamie Lepley, the new head coach with the Patriots.
West Perry built the foundation for its future by forming a middle school team.
"We have more girls in the elementary than we've ever had," said West Perry varsity coach Zach Kell. "That was the big push for the middle school girls program, to have a place for them to go and feel comfortable and so our high school team would have a feeder program."
Kell said he expected six girls to join the middle school program and six or seven at the high school level for this year's West Perry varsity team. Among them are Marty Morrrison, a returning state qualifier at 155 pounds and Sadie Innerst, a returning regional qualifier.
EAGLES FIND BALANCE
Cumberland Valley sent seven wrestlers to the inaugural PIAA championships at the Giant Center last winter. With the success came a high standard to meet for the 2024-25 season.
"As the season ramps up closer and closer, our veterans are definitely feeling a lot more pressure from the expectations we built from last year," said junior Lillian Seagreaves, a returning regional qualifier. "We also have so many new girls that there's this light and flowy air in the room of, 'Oh, I'm really excited to try this new thing,' and the veterans, it kind of takes a little bit off of them because they get to share their knowledge."
The knowledge sharing has been part of a busy offseason for the Eagles.
"We've had a really rigorous schedule ever since April," said senior Myah Mulgrew, who qualified for states at 148 pounds. "We've been training four days a week. We have a developing strength training team, and it's really great. ... We always get, like, two-thirds of our team to come out to optional practices."
TRAVELING BULLDOGS
Big Spring beefed up its 2024-25 schedule. The Bulldogs added a home tournament, scheduled for Dec. 21, that features wrestlers from at least 17 different teams. Big Spring also plans to travel, hitting tournaments in Souderton, Jim Thorpe and North Allegheny, a pattern the program started last season.
"We see three different parts of the state," said Big Spring head coach Nate Gutshall. "it's pretty cool for the girls, I think."
Carlisle and Boiling Springs also plan to host a K-12 night in February that will feature bouts at every level culminating with their varsity dual meet in Carlisle.
Tim Gross is the sports editor at The Sentinel and cumberlink.com . Love
