Another year rolls around and that means the start of a new season for Girls Wrestling.

As the season starts at Ridgeline Highschool, Girls wrestling coach, Melanie Montierth, gets ready for the future practices and competitions that will soon be happening. “I am super excited for wrestling season to start!”exclaims Coach Montierth.

She goes on to describe “Last year we had 5 girls returning and this year we have not just 7, but we have 18 girls that are signed up right now”.

Coach Montierth believes that this is exciting news because “usually our numbers grow from that and this is just pre-season”.

The sport of Girls Wrestling is rapidly growing in numbers not just for Ridgeline, but for other schools as well such as Mountain Crest who had 56 girls last year which, Coach Montierth explains, is 2 full teams. She expresses that last year, the Ridgeline Girls Wrestling team was able to do exceptionally well by achieving third place with only 8 girls.

Some girls even continue to wrestle in college with scholarships such as Grace Montierth, daughter of Melanie Montierth, who says she attended Hastings college to wrestle.

When asked if she enjoyed teaching girls to wrestle, Coach Montierth answers that she loves seeing the girls excited when their wrestling moves are working in competitions.

Some of the basic moves that are taught in Girls Wrestling are “Takedowns”, “Top Moves”, “Bottom Moves” and “Escapes”. As soon as the opponent’s shoulders hit the mat for 2 seconds then the other player wins.

Some advice that Coach Montierth gives to her players is to “be confident in your abilities” and to stick to the moves that they have been practicing.

Goal setting is also a vital factor in being successful at wrestling, according to Coach Montierth, because it offers realistic and attainable results. She describes that she typically has the girls analyze what they did well and what they can still improve on after a match.

Coach Montierth indicates that the sport of wrestling has many lessons that it teaches along with learning how to wrestle. She explains that one of the best lessons it teaches is “I can do hard things” which can also be applied to any aspect of life. Additionally, she says that joining the girls wrestling team can teach life skills, confidence, self defense, delayed gratification, and team camaraderie.

Even though the competitions are performed individually, it is still a team sport due to the team pushing and training each other to reach their potential, explains Coach Montierth.

The pre-season practices are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30 to 5 and are for anyone who is even a little bit interested in wrestling. If there are any questions regarding signing up, just contact [email protected].