Charlotte Spruck, Reporter
@cspruckcourant
Last year the NCHS wrestling team had an exciting new addition to its team, freshman Clare Wagner. Clare joined the team in the winter and has been involved in the sport ever since. As the only girl, she has made a large statement in the realm of local sports.
Clare joined the team not to make a statement, but because she had always been around the sport and liked it. “I always enjoyed the sport, and wanted to be a part of it,” Clare said. She has been interested since she was young and felt that joining a team would be a good way to get involved in wrestling and sports in general.
For Clare, the social aspect was a bit of a challenge in the beginning because she didn’t know anybody, but she said just being herself and being social helped her find a group of friends on the team. She stated “It was difficult the first couple of weeks because I didn’t know any of them. It was really hard to make friends obviously because I was perceived as a little strange, but honestly just being myself I was able to branch out.”
Clare notes that even though she has had quite a unique experience on the team, she has noticed a boost in confidence, “It’s an experience, it’s definitely a different experience being the only girl,” Clare said. “I think that being a freshman and being around all of these boys has helped me to become so much more confident.”
Clare mentioned that her freshman year was much harder for her, but she was able to get through it by just being herself and remaining social. “It was difficult the first couple of weeks because I did not know any of the boys. It was really hard to make friends obviously because I was perceived as a little strange, but honestly just by being myself I was able to branch out.”
Head Coach Paul Gallo, of the wrestling team said his experience of having a girl on the team has changed a lot over the years because, when girls first joined the team it was not nearly as accepting as it is now. “It’s a lot more accepting now. I’ve really had no throwback from the boys; I haven’t had any problems,” Coach Gallo said. He had spoken about how in past years he had had something like this, a total of three times prior to Clare’s participation, and it was not nearly as accepted as it is now.
Although Clare has been successful, her coach said that it was no easy task for her to get this far. “The first year was really hard on her. She did not realize how difficult the sport was. She thought she was in shape, but she came in and her body just wasn’t used to the poundings. She got hurt a lot last year, but she kept working hard.”
Clare’s fellow teammates weighed in on the topic and senior Captain Cass Knox is impressed by her ability to persevere on the team.“ Nobody takes it easy on her and she does not ask for it to be taken easy on her ,” Cass said. “We definitely are impressed and inspired by her attitude.”
As a captain, Cass notices her stamina during a match. “Most of the time she is going to wrestle against somebody who is stronger, bigger, or more athletic than her, but she never complains and never quits.” He said.
