Atlantic girls wrestling is back and has just closed their season however, even with small numbers this team still made big moves this year. Last wrestling season Atlantic’s girl wrestlers were a part of the joint S.W.A.T team (Southwest area team.) There was talk of a split, sanctioning Atlantic girls to form their own team. Now the girls just finished out their season as their own Atlantic team. Girls wrestling has been at AHS before but with too low of wrestler numbers the team was dissolved and the girls wrestled for other teams. But now, Atlantic girls wrestling is back and hoping to grow their numbers.
This season girls wrestling ended with 6 members on the team. This included newcomer Alivia Knuth. Knuth said, “I really wanted to try wrestling out and it is something I had wanted to do for a while.” Knuth said this season was super fun and she can’t wait for next year’s season. This year in the offseason she will be continuing to wrestle with ACE wrestling, along with fellow teammates Leiah and Haley.
Freshman Leiah Thomas has been wrestling for many years with this being her first high school season. Thomas said although the change going from a big team to there only being 7 girls in the room was a “big change.. but it felt more bonded” also a downsized coaching staff was very different but again she said she felt that it was easier to bond with Coach Greving. Thomas said she does wrestling because it has “changed my whole mindset and how I look at things” and has helped her focus on and better herself in aspects in life. She said her favorite thing about wrestling is “being with teammates” and goals for next year include going to state and having a winning record.
‘’Wrestling has impacted my life by giving me more confidence on and off the mat and has helped me build friendships with other girl wrestlers,’’ said junior Lily Johnson. Like Thomas, Johnson agreed that the team aspect of wrestling is one of her favorite things because “it’s so different than other sports”. She said that she thought the coaching staff this year were both great, “both Greving and Coach Lillian haven’t coached girls before so it’s a bit of a change for them but they do everything they can to push us and are always supporting us and making us better.” Overall Johnson, Knuth, and Thomas all expressed that they are looking forward to next season and have raised the bar with their goals.
Head coach Mike Greving said he thought the season went really well with three girls making it to state. These girls consisted of Cadence Kinzie (115) Leiah Thomas (155) and Haley Armstrong(235). Armstrong was able to secure a 5th place finish.
Grieving has been coaching for around 40 years and his favorite part is ‘’teaching people, especially people who are new to the sport, teaching them things that they have never done before that they are completely out of their comfort zone… And every year they get a little better and that is fun to see.” Grieving being an active wrestler has helped him reach out and teach young wrestlers new skills and they “keep him young”. He hopes to expand team numbers next year and his words of advice for anyone interested in joining is “If you hear about a clinic, go out, try, and reach out to someone in the program.”
In all, as girls wrestling closes out on the 2024-25 season they are shooting to pin down some bigger goals next season and gain numbers.
