Memories are vivid for Raven Rogers, who helped pave the way for girl wrestlers at Ilwaco High School.

One match in particular.

“The guy was clearly stronger than me and would just keep putting me into a nearfall to get points, and was having a laugh with his buddies who were sitting on the side of the mat.”

That was all it took.

“It was humiliating, but I turned that into fuel to work harder and harder. I became very skilled and much stronger and things like that didn’t happen again.”

The next time a boy laughed, Rogers pinned him in 13 seconds.

Pull Quote

‘It was the fastest-growing sport in the WIAA — then we hit covid.’

Kevin McNulty

Former IHS wrestling coach

Rogers began as a freshman at 106 pounds, gaining muscle to compete at 130 as a senior in 2013 and earning a seventh-place medal at the WIAA girls state championships.

“She was a tough girl wrestling for us,” recalled Kevin McNulty of Chinook, former coach at Ilwaco High School.

Enthusiasm

Before Rogers came Nakasha Custer, who placed fourth in 2010, also in the 130 weight class. More recently — just three weeks before covid shutdowns began disrupting everything — Serena Kuhn blazed through Regionals undefeated at 190 and qualified to compete at Tacoma, although she did not place.

“It was the fastest-growing sport in the WIAA — then we hit covid,” said McNulty.

Canada pioneered girls wrestling in the late 1980s, but it wasn’t until 1999 that Hawaii became the first U.S. state to start a program; Texas followed and Washington was third in 2007. Now it is established in about two-thirds of states. Women’s wrestling became a summer OIympics sport in 2004. “That generated enthusiasm. And now there are scholarships to college,” McNulty said. “It has come a long way.”

Rules

Casey Johnson, WIAA sports and activities information director, said Washington began its separate girls division at the state tournament on 2007. But he noted that girls have always been allowed to wrestle.

“However the first time that was expressed formally by the WIAA was in 1987, when the executive board ruled that if a school has a boys’ team only in any sport, girls must be allowed the opportunity to participate.” Title IX was passed before that date and there was no WIAA rule prohibiting girls participation, he added.

McNulty was among Washington coaches who created a three-year program of girls exhibition-type contests staged alongside the boys’ Mat Classic. Kylee Lewis of IHS competed in 2006. “When the numbers continued to grow, we said, ‘Let’s do it,’” McNulty said.

It started with fewer weight classes and grew. The year Rogers won her medal, girls from all the Washington schools wrestled in one bracket.

Support

Paving the way were girls who competed against boys, including Megan Martin of Willapa Valley, who stood on the Class A/B 103-pound podium in 2007 with the top seven boys. Martin then won the girls’ state championship medal at 119 pounds in 2008.

McNulty savored Custer’s 2010 success. She defeated the eventual state champion at regionals.

“One of the things she enjoyed the most was that the girls practiced alongside the boys,” he said. “They practice with the boys because they needed to see people that push them. There was nothing odd about it — they are treated like one of the team members.”

Rogers said that was crucial. “It is a solo sport, but you absolutely need the support of your team behind you,” she said. “When you’re ready to give up in practice your teammates are the ones pushing you farther and harder to get to the next level.”

Belief

Ilwaco assistant coach Frank Womack graduated from Omak High School in 2003 but missed out on wrestling in his senior year because he graduated early and immediately joined the U.S. Coast Guard. He has good reasons to be enthusiastic about the growth of girls’ wrestling: he has three daughters, one a seventh-grader who wrestled at Hilltop last year.

“Our goal is to try to get the girls team up to strength,” he said.

McNulty said the reward of coaching these student-athletes lingers. “I have always respected them in saying that wrestling was an important thing in their life.”

Rogers married her IHS sweetheart Kasey Plato and is home in Ilwaco caring for daughters Marlee and Thea. Supportive coaches inspired her, shaping her mindset.

“You need to believe in you,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks about what you’re doing. If you don’t tend your own flame within, it will go out with the slightest whisper of judgment.

“Wrestling will always be a fond part of my story and I hope I get the chance to step on the mat again through the eyes of a parent — we’ll see!”