HHS Girls Wrestling Steps Onto the Mat

Girls wrestling season is here, but it’s not just any other season, it’s Hastings High’s.

Hastings Senior High School’s new girls wrestling team officially began its first wrestling season this November.

This year will be the first time girls from HHS will be competing on their own team separate from Adams Central High School. With the co-op program ending, HHS will be in Class A and not competing against Adams Central.

“It’s great having our own program not tied to Adams Central,” Girls Wrestling Head Coach Matthew Geiger said. “Just having lady Tigers wrestling will be amazing because something about having our kids represent another school [didn’t] sit well.”

Senior Ashlin George was one of the girls in the co-op program who will now be representing HHS. She wrestled for the Adams Central team since her freshman year and tore both ACLs by sophomore year. After being cleared to wrestle last season, her injuries no longer affected her performance as she won all of her duals and qualified for state.

“There’s kind of mixed feelings because it’s my senior year and I’ve wrestled with the girls at AC for years, but I’m kind of excited,” George said. “I hope to accomplish everything I did last year… and maybe not tear a ligament.”

George looks forward to experiencing a change in routine with the different program.

“Getting to learn new things… that’s always fun instead of going over the same thing every single year,” George said. “I hated stance in motion [drills]. They ran a lot of the same moves… and it was just kind of boring.”

Geiger will be leading the girls wrestling program as head coach, alongside Girls Wrestling Assistant Coach Aleijah Tomlinson. Geiger was the boys’ assistant coach for seven years, so he wanted to try something different.

“I’m excited but also nervous because this is a brand new experience from being an assistant coach and then stepping into head coaching,” Geiger said. “It’s going to be fun… That idea of starting a program… being part of that foundation excited me.”

Geiger looks forward to meeting the girls and building more relationships as he transitions away from boys coaching. However, what he asks of them will not change.

“It’s still going to be competitive and everything, but there’s going to be a little more understanding I believe,” Geiger said. “It’s not like I’m going to expect less or anything like that, but I know there are going to be differences.”

Tomlinson, who became the Jobs for America Graduates (JAG) specialist at the school less than a year ago, met many new faces as assistant coach and has been helping the girls practice technical wrestling moves.

“Getting in and seeing the students in a different light is the most exciting part for me,” Tomlinson said. “They’re pretty kind and welcoming. They do beat me up… but for the most part, it’s all good energy and good vibes.”

She comes from a family of wrestlers, but her primary sport is basketball. Despite Tomlinson’s preference for basketball, she decided to take on wrestling coaching, hoping to be an encouraging role model.

“The need was there for wrestling, and for me, it’s about helping where it is needed even if it’s something not fully comfortable for me,” Tomlinson said. “I think it allows girls to try out too, if they see that even the coach will try something new and get out of her own comfort zone.”

As assistant coach, Tomlinson strives to support the team using the lessons she learned when she was a NAIA collegiate basketball athlete and basketball coach. She believes mental health plays a critical role in all sports and aims to promote that in her coaching, especially with the need to make weight classes in wrestling.

“The only thing we can control is our attitude and effort, and for me, that’s the most important thing,” Tomlinson said. “When you see value in yourself, I do think it helps boost morale overall, so if that’s all students get from it, that will make all of us coaches happy.”

She draws inspiration from her middle school assistant principal, who later became her high school assistant principal, in addition to her woman’s college basketball coach.

“I know the influence coaches can have,” Tomlinson said. “I think it’s what allowed me to be the best version of myself today, so I want to help students be the best versions of themselves.”

Geiger and Tomlinson will not be leading the team alone. Elizabeth Larsen, who was also in the Adams Central co-op program beginning her sophomore year, and George will be utilizing their experience to help new members. However, similar to the boys team, there will not be a team captain.

“We don’t really want to put anybody on that pedestal,” Geiger said.

Since the beginning of the school year, open mats were hosted to prepare for the season. Many girls showed interest in joining during that time. Even so, the official count and roster have yet to be determined because conditioning bootcamp just began.

“The first two weeks are always the toughest,” George said. “At least in previous years, we’ve always lost about half the girls to conditioning.”

Boys wrestling was first sanctioned by the Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA) in 1910, nearly a century before girls wrestling was sanctioned in 2021. Now, girls wrestling is considered the fastest-growing high school sport in the nation.

“It’s something that is awesome we are getting ahead of because I think If we didn’t build and start a new program, we would’ve put the girls behind,” Tomlinson said. “This year is one of those years where we just want girls to come out [and] try out.”

Some students, such as George, are unable to pursue girls wrestling at a collegiate level because not all universities offer such programs. She hopes the expansion of the sport in high school will signal the development of more college programs too.

“I think it’s nice seeing that high schools are starting to push girls wrestling,” George said. “It’d be super cool to see statewide schools and colleges push for that too.”

Tomlinson believes the growth of the girls wrestling in high schools and the introduction of a girls wrestling team at HHS is more than another extracurricular, but the making of history.

“I think it’s perfect for us to be able to grow with the sport because it gives students the opportunities to fully learn things, own it, and have a good time,” Tomlinson said. “Whatever they do now is what history will be in 25, 50, and 100 years from now.”