TodayGirl joins high school wrestling squad
Print
Share
Email to a friend
Add This
Article RatingBig Spring junior Erin Lowery donned sweats and a T-shirt Tuesday and joined the Bulldog wrestling team for its second official practice of the season.
Lowery, 16, was granted an exception Monday to district policy that bans girls from the football and wrestling teams after writing a letter to the school board requesting an opportunity to compete on the team. The board approved the exception on a 6-3 vote with no discussion. Board members Beverly Miller, Robert Barrick and Saundra Deaver voted against the request.
Moves up from manager
“She came to me and wanted to be something more than a manager,” athletic director Bob Gaetano says. “She wanted to actually participate in it. She thinks it’s the greatest sport.”
Second-year wrestling coach Richard Hilleary says about 30 students are trying out for the team. Big Spring begins the season with the Dog Duals at home.
The district tightened its policies concerning sports participation three years ago. It approved a policy that bans girls from football and wrestling and boys from girls’ field hockey, volleyball and softball teams after three boys played on Big Spring’s varsity field hockey team.
“We’ll be looking at the policy in the near future,” Big Spring Superintendent Richard Fry says.
Girls who wrestled before
Lowery isn’t the first girl to wrestle on a local team. Five years ago, Seneca Schue wrestled as a junior on the Shippensburg Area Senior High School team. While Schue competed through the season, her matches usually ended with her pinned in less than a minute.
