Girls wrestling takes off at Clyde

CLYDE — Clyde started a girls wrestling club two years ago. Now the Fliers have a full varsity team. Co-head coach Adam Greenslade's inspiration for a varsity program came from watching his daughter Meredith Greenslade, who is a freshman this year on the inaugural varsity team. She came up through the biddy program and even wrestled against the boys. She started at the age of 7, watching her older brothers participate in Clyde wrestling. Clyde's four-member team in 2022-23 was made up of Avery Gaskalla, Audrey Miracle, Olivia Mills and Curstin Hackenburg. The trailblazers qualified for the OHSAA regional tournament, with Miracle qualifying for state. "Over the past several years, the interest level has increased greater than any sport at CHS. Since last year, they've had more girls attending open mats and committing to offseason workouts," Clyde athletic director Ryan Greenslade said prior to the start of the season. "We now have 16 girls on the team for the current season and they will be wrestling a full schedule for the first time in our program's brief history, which means they will be competing in the maximum number of tournaments allowed by the OHSAA." Miracle is Clyde's top wrestler. The 110-pound senior is off to an 8-3 start and is ranked No. 9 in the state in her weight class. "When you got someone like Audrey, other girls see that and think, 'I should be giving this a try,' " Adam Greenslade said. Meredith "Mimi" Greenslade, at 115 pounds, made the Ohio 14U national team last summer. The freshman is 7-3 and ranked No. 10 in the state. Gaskalla, at 100 pounds, was a state alternate last season. The junior finished fifth at an open event at Tiffin University. She is 6-4 and ranked No. 8 in her weight class. Among the freshmen this season are Casey Fisher, whose brother CJ was a state qualifier. Sophomore Mallory Meggitt, a transfer from Woodmore, is the sister of former Clyde star Lance Overmyer, who is now wrestling at Ashland University. Mia Borcado and Aurelia Moya join Miracle's in the three-girl senior class. "Our new girls are performing well and our seasoned girls are doing what they're supposed to do," Adam Greenslade said. The Fliers will compete in the Mansfield Madison tournament on Sunday. Clyde hosted a tournament on December 15 that included girls from 55 high schools. Clyde finished third. "Between middle school and high school girls we had over 500 kids for the weekend," Adam Greenslade said. Clyde is down to 13 wrestlers but is able to fill 11 of 14 weight classes. The road to becoming a varsity sport at Clyde was not easy. Adam Greenslade wrote a letter to then-superintendent Dennis Haft, and the current board members to petition for girls wrestling to become an official varsity sport after the OHSAA decision. "The process at Clyde has been that a sport must be a club for three years," Clyde athletic director Ryan Greenslade said. "In that time, they can participate and compete against other schools, in tournaments, and OHSAA-sanctioned tournaments." The board of education in 2022 approved Adam Greenslade's request for girls wrestling to become a varsity sport in three years time. It only remained a club sport for two years. "Due to the increasing number of girls and the magnitude of the growth, it was decided to take the next step faster," Ryan Greenslade explained. "We decided to hire additional coaches to accommodate the girls wrestling team instead of trying to share the same coaches as the boys team. Since we have a full girls schedule this year and many of the tournaments fall on the same days, we couldn't share the same coaches and give both programs the attention they deserve." That's how Adam Greenslade and co-head coach Dave Stanley got their positions. "We have talked to our current wrestlers about being good ambassadors and encouraging participation amongst their peers," Adam Greenslade said. "Dave and I both started working with the girls after initially becoming involved in coaching with our sons for many years. We are both fully committed to growing the girls team and have been since working with Avery, Mimi and other area girls in our youth programs over the past several years." In 2022, the Ohio High School Athletic Association, saw an explosion of interest from female student-athletes who wanted to compete in their own division of wrestling. In Ohio there were 195 girl wrestlers in 2015-16. That number jumped to 449 in 2019-20 and caught the eye of the OHSAA. The national average of girl wrestlers had gone from 6,000 in 2010 to 28,000 in 2019-20, according to data from the National Wrestling Coaches Association. The OHSAA Board of Directors unanimously approved girls wrestling as a sanctioned sport Jan. 13, 2022. New clocks and wrestling mats were purchased this year by the athletic department and the wrestling boosters. The boosters have also purchased any other equipment that the girls have needed including making sure that the second wrestling room is being used for the girls and not co-ed. "We have a strong wrestling community and the support for the girls program has been outstanding," Ryan Greenslade said. "We've had several individuals step up to coach or volunteer to help in any way possible."