Cody Thorn The Bonner Springs Board of Education voted last month to make girls wrestling an official and recognized sport.
The move comes after a banner year of success for Olivia Stean, who won the school’s first state championship in the sport and then later became the school’s first girls All-American wrestler.
The move has been in the offing for a while but the interest in the sport was a big draw behind the move, according to athletic director Douglas Hitchcock.
“We see more girls interested and we got more interested in middle school and just kind through high school,” he said. “KSHSAA adopted it but we didn’t jump on board the first year. We felt we weren’t in a position to do something. We wanted to do it right and take our time and make sure we had a well thought out plan in which way we are going.
“At that point our girls had been practicing with the boys and Coach (Brandon) Jobe and his staff brought home a state champion from state. I said, ‘I think we are ready to go.’”
The girls team will have a separate head coach and own practice time and own schedule. With some of the COVID-19 restrictions lifted there should be more tournaments available this winter to compete. However, it will be a while to see a schedule full of duals as the program will need to catch up to the likes of Washburn Rural, Basehor-Linwood and Baldwin.
“We need to establish them with their own identity,” Hitchcock said.
The program hired Dale Taylor to run the girls program. He has coached in the Bonner Springs youth program and is a Bonner Springs graduate.
The hope is to draw more girls to the sport and target the girls who aren’t playing basketball or competing in weightlifting in the winter.
Jobe knows Stean is already doing her part to bring more girls into the program.
“She is putting girls wrestling in the spotlight here and in the state of Kansas,” Jobe said. “She got a lot of attention for the program and I have an AD who is a wrestling guy and his son wrestles at Lindenwood and he understands and knows girls wrestling is on the rise. He helped develop a schedule and push for a full-time coach. We are trying to fill out all of the weight classes. It is a big goal for us. We are definitely heading in the right direction. It is really big and big for the sport of wrestling and big for Bonner Springs. Overall, it is a big deal.”
Last year there were only three girls that made it throughout the entire season but Jobe said about 20 girls expressed interest in coming out for the sport following last season.
“To have a girls team in my hometown is exciting and hopefully we have more girls so we can have a full squad so we are able to participate in duals,” said Stean, who earned All-American honors at Fargo this summer. “I’m excited to lead the girls for the next three years and hopefully keep helping out with the program. Most of the girls are still apprehensive and scared and don’t want to get hurt. I went out for basketball (in junior high) and it didn’t go well. I was in my weight class and it got mentioned to come out for wrestling. I said, ‘hey, I will try it’ and I instantly fell in love with it.”00
