By Story Snow
For the Sequim Gazette
When I decided to join wrestling in my sophomore year, I was unaware of the profound impact it would have on my life.
As a woman preparing to enter a male-dominated sport with no prior experience, I was intimidated. I feared the worst, but I was met with an unexpected and primarily exciting experience. I was lucky enough to have teammates and coaches who were supportive and encouraging throughout my learning process rather than judgmental of my amateur efforts.
This positive feedback made me feel comfortable enough to grow and further explore my initial intrigue for the sport. For most of my season, I struggled to express myself and connect with my team, but gradually, through quiet observation, I noticed an almost family-like atmosphere among my teammates and coaches that was unlike many other sports teams I had been a part of in the past. This provided a strange comfort that allowed me to be more genuine with my peers and establish many lighthearted connections.
My coaches have been a major influencing factor on my growing motivation and love for wrestling.
As the season progressed, I was shown how much each one of them truly cared about our success and well-being, even outside of the wrestling environment. Both on and off the mat, they encourage us to push ourselves past our mental and physical limitations in hopes of expanding them. These challenges are given to demonstrate the value of hard work and teach us core skills that are helpful on the mat but also provide a healthy foundation for everyday life. When the season was over, I had a newfound motivation to improve myself and not only took the necessary steps to do so but enjoyed the process of building on the techniques I learned at each practice. I found myself craving those small rushes of accomplishment I would get after completing a difficult practice or winning a match and using them to fuel my next achievements.
Shortly after the school year had finished, I was given the opportunity to attend (in June) Kaizen, a highly intensive wrestling camp (in Idaho) that is meant to break us down and build us back up again into stronger wrestlers. Each day we were faced with a series of mentally and physically demanding workouts designed to make us want to give up, but we were encouraged to keep showing up for ourselves and reap the benefits of our discomfort. These experiences enhanced my ability to view challenges through new perspectives and allowed me to find support from my peers. I was glad to be able to connect and practice with girls from all over. Though the community of female wrestlers at Kaizen was small (15 total), the strength and determination of each girl I met was enough of an indication that women’s wrestling is rapidly expanding. Every girl in attendance assisted in bringing more awareness to female wrestlers and I am hopeful that each year, the number of girls attending the camp will continue to increase.
The story on Story
Story Snow is going to be a junior at Sequim High School and plans to wrestle this winter.
Her main goal for the wrestling season is “to experiment more by finding and perfecting moves that work best for me in matches rather than sticking to the safest moves.”
After serving as an alternate to the state tournament last school year, she wants to make it outright this season.
Asked what she’d say to someone considering wrestling, she said, “The best thing you can do is just start.”
“I have been interested in wrestling for years, but never joined because I was too scared of being behind everyone else,” Snow said.
“I wish I would have joined as soon as I was interested. I realized that if you are dedicated enough, you can learn so much in just your first year and you do not have to be perfect as soon as you begin as long as you are making an honest attempt at learning.”
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Last school year, Story Snow, on far right, served as an alternate to the 2A state wrestling tournament. She hopes to make the tournament this school year.
