Takin' it to the mats

CELINA - School wresting officials are eager to launch a girls program, assistant coach Jason King told school board members this week.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association earlier this year voted to add girls wrestling and boys volleyball as emerging sports beginning with the upcoming school year, according to an OHSAA news release.

"We want to kind of get in at the ground level on that, be one of the first programs in the area, not just a person here or there," King said.

Asked by board member Bill Sell how girls wrestling will unfold at Celina, King said such discussions are in their infancy.

"That's all still being talked about right now because I think a lot of schools are going to go club first," he said.

Right now, 12 high school girls and 10 middle school girls have shown an interest in wrestling, King pointed out.

"Several of them have already been attending some of our summer mats and they're quickly learning," he said.

Among the girls grappling on the mats is Kenzie Miracle, who will be a sophomore this school year.

"We also had our first female state qualifier, Kenzie Miracle, in the girls state (tournament)," King said about last wrestling season.

The Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association has been conducting a girls wrestling tournament since 2020, according to OHSAA.

To say that Miracle has been around the sport nearly her entire life would be an understatement. Her father James, who wrestled for Celina in the 1990s and himself was a state qualifier in the Ohio High School Athletic Association tournament, has been coaching over 10 years for his alma mater, taking over the high school program in 2011.

After competing in her younger days, Miracle gave up the sport as she went through middle school and the start of high school. But near the end of December, the thought of returning to the mats began to grow.

"Dad always asked me when I quit if I wanted to come back and I would say no," she told the newspaper earlier this year. "Then watching every day, I started to miss it. Hearing about other girls (that wrestled in the lower grades at Celina) and seeing the younger girls in the youth program, I want to be a pioneer for them and show them they can do it, too."

Miracle quickly got back into the routine of grueling practices and began competing in tournaments around the state, posting an 11-4 record and ranking 12th statewide in the 100-pound weight class, ahead of the state tournament last February.

As an emerging sport, girls wrestling will be administered like OHSAA's current 26 recognized sports but will have additional requirements that could lead to full sanctioning in the future, the OHSAA release indicates.

"We will look to keep a very similar format for the girls wrestling and boys volleyball tournaments as what the coaches associations have been doing," said OHSAA Executive Director Doug Ute in the release. "The girls wrestling state tournament is held in mid-February and the boys volleyball state tournament is held in the spring. We have not yet developed tournament regulations, but we'll start working on that so that those two sports hit the ground running next fall for the start of the 2022-23 school year."

OHSAA added lacrosse in 2016 and the sport has continued to grow and now moves out of the emerging sports category, the release indicates.

The association had engaged girls wrestling leaders for several years.

"This move will help those sports continue to grow and allow those student-athletes to compete for an OHSAA state championship. It gives more kids opportunities and that is the mission of the OHSAA," Ute said in the release.

- The Daily Standard reporter Gary Rasberry contributed to this story.