At a wrestling meet, girls wrestling head coach cheers on senior Paris Plough while she competes against her opponent. Plough is member of East’s girls varsity wrestling team.
The Nebraska School Activities Association voted to sanction girls wrestling 8-0, and started the sport in the 2021-2022 school year with 12 weight classes. With girls wrestling now a recognized sport, it has grown a lot at East since then.
“We started with 17, year 1, 22 in year 2 and we started the season with 38 this year,” head girls wrestling coach Brian Irsik said. “It’s growing and it’s a great experience working with so many individuals who are interested in wrestling.”
Girls wrestling isn’t just a part of Irisk’s work life at East. It also affects his home life.
“My daughter’s into wrestling; she’s in fifth grade now. I watched it start to gain steam. We’re starting to look more into sanctioning girls wrestling,” Irsik said. “I kind of wanted to be a part of that journey so that was part of the motivation.”
Many wrestlers have their reasons for joining the team, like it being a sport that they had been interested in for a long time or had friends who were participating in it.
“I was just thinking about it, a friend recommended it to me last year and told me to come out and try it and it kind of stayed,” Plough said.
In Bellevue, East and West have a combined team, and both groups practice together.
“It’s nice because you get to have bonds outside of this school like other people,” Fletcher said. “So if you go to something for West, there are people you can hang out with.”
With so few girls joining wrestling to start with, many quit. This has posed more challenges for Irsik.
“With it being so new, some challenges have been trying to keep a full roster. We might start with 22 kids, but you might finish with 12 and you know some kids bunch up in the same areas,” Irsik said. “The challenge is trying to make it fun and interesting and trying to keep everyone out for a long period of time.”
Irsik hopes to gain more athletes each year. Fletcher is one wrestler who wrestled last year.
“He [Irsik] makes practice fun,” Fletcher said. “Everybody on the team is really nice and the tournaments are fun. Everybody’s good at supporting too.”
![Smile and wave. On August 17, senior Lindsey Burt walks in the Arrows to the Aerospace parade along with the rest of the Bellevedettes. The parade helps local businesses promote themselves and allows for schools to show off their spirit. “[I like] getting to represent the school and the dance team,” Burt said. “To be able to show what we can do.”](https://beaststudentmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/P1201390-1200x675.png)
![Ace. At the Bellevue East tennis courts, snior Jace Taggart prepares to hit the ball during practice. The team works on their technical skills through a scrimmage where they also work on game play. Taggart swings his tennis racket back and keeps his eye on the ball. “I’m definitely going to miss this team, so I try to win as much as possible, but also just having the relationships [with the team] and keeping them connected,” Taggart said.](https://beaststudentmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/unnamed-1-1200x800.jpg)
![Just keep running. It takes a lot of dedication and effort to succeed in cross country, and for the team’s last meet, the athletes ran 5,000 meters (3.11 miles). Placing 30 out of 88 is freshman Hannah Kinsey. “In high school you run like a ton more, more seriously. We train in the summer, we have a lot of meets, we travel farther, and the distance [we run] is longer,” Kinsey said.](https://beaststudentmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/IMG_2630-1200x800.jpg)
