First Minnesota All-Girls Wrestling Tournament in the Books

The 2021-22 winter season was the first year that the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) sanctioned girls wrestling. While girls have been wrestling for several years, this was the first year that young women were eligible for their own separate section and state tournaments.

As a result, an all-girls tournament was born in Pine Island, Minnesota. It was the brainchild of Ethan Pierson, Pine Island High School head wrestling coach, who had one girl on his wrestling team.

Since it was newly sanctioned in August of 2021, many team schedules were already in place for the season. Many girls were not guaranteed to wrestle a female before the section tournament. As luck would have it, with weather cancellations in Minnesota and COVID interruptions, the all-girls tournament began to gain momentum as openings occurred in schedules.

Pine Island High School had hoped for more than 100 female wrestlers (250 were currently rostered with the MSHSL) and ended up with 91 athletes weighing-in. Bemidji High School traveled as far as 300 miles to come to the tournament with 10 girls on its team. Decorah High School from Iowa also joined the event. Many head coaches brought their single female wrestler to prepare for section meets. This was the largest and believed to be the first regular-season MSHSL girls tournament in Minnesota.

It was a fitting day with the only female wrestling referee in Minnesota, Cami Snobl, joining the officiating crew. The athletic trainer that day was also female, Emma Gnotke. The wrestlers commented how they usually look across the gym to see if teams have a girl, whereas the Pine Island gym that day was filled with girls.

The day started with an entire group picture of the participating wrestlers, with many parents and coaches standing on the bleachers to be included in the photograph. Everyone knew it was a special day and the anticipation was thick in the air. Knowing it is the 50th year since Title IX made the day even more special. Young athletes were breaking barriers in Minnesota in the year 2022.

When the wrestling started, the gym erupted in normal wrestling fashion with two mats going at once with both sides of the gym filled. Fans stood and shouted “two, that’s two” when there was a reversal and then sat down when the official made the hand signal. Some teams had their male wrestlers in attendance to cheer on teammates. There were moments throughout the day when you could look at any given match and see only females – the wrestlers, the official, coaches, trainer and even the tapper.

The awards and podium ceremony were the exclamation point to finish the day. Wrestlers cheered for one another and celebrated the podium accomplishments. The gym cleared as wrestlers from near and far started their trek back home. The cleanup began, the mats were rolled, bleachers were cleaned, timing system dismantled and the floor swept. The gym was back to normal, no evidence of what took place that day, only a memory with anticipation for the following year to do it all again. The first girls wrestling tournament in Pine Island was in the books.