TCU girls are paving the path for girls in predominately boys sports

Sports like football, wrestling, and weightlifting are thought of as male-dominated sports in the United States. The numbers still show that they are still a boys club but they also show that girls are taking an increasing interest in those sports. In fact, girls have been taking more interest in sports overall over the past few decades.

NFSHSA Participation Survey

Information from the National Federation of State High School Association’s (NFSHSA) participation surveys showed that of the high school students in the 1971-1972 school year, only 294,015 girls partook in sports in comparison to 3.67 million boys. By 2023-2024, those numbers increased to 3.42 million for girls and only 4.64 million for boys.

Minnesota’s high school student participation in the 2023-2024 survey showed that 122,738 boys and 101,441 girls participated in some sport. Although weightlifting is not recognized by the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) and therefore are no individual numbers from the NFSHSA survey, the survey does include them now as a sport and there are numbers for students participating in them for both boys and girls on a national level.

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Weightlifting

Part of TCU’s vision of “All Means All” has been incorporating that into such things as sports, providing opportunities when it's viable.

It’s actually a very unique opportunity that TCU has a robust competitive weightlifting program, for boys and girls, when schools like neighboring New Prague do not. This can be attributed to primarily to TCU’s  Weightlifting Head Coach Andrew Meier.

“We had to talk to them (the school board) about the purposes and such, and then they voted on and approved it for the school. We are club status,” said Meier. “I volunteered my services for three-to-four years until I had enough experience and people interested for the school to pay me.”

He comes from a background of weightlifting — in high school and college. His wife, Dawn Meier, said, “Andrew has been into weightlifting forever.” The couple had three daughters — Rylee (12), Annika (14), and Morgan (17). All three of the girls took an interest in weightlifting after their father.

“He’s always been very great at including the girls with him at the weight room. It’s always been a part of their lives,” said Dawn Meier.

Overall, the sentiments of how weightlifting is perceived and inclusive of girls is very positive according to the Meiers. “Within the community, they think it is cool that girls are competing and are doing it, and that there are some girls lifting more than boys are lifting,” said Andrew Meier.

He and his daughters believe weightlifting is something that makes athletes better overall. “I think its something that makes me a better...

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...The TCU Weightlifting Team has had great success with many state first through sixth place finishes for both boys and girls.

Wrestling

Sophomore Trista Gressler (15) has been wrestling since she was in second grade. “I was apprehensive at first, because it was a new thing for the girls to be in wrestling in our school,” said Heidi Gressler, her mother. She had messaged one of the wrestling coaches wives to talk with one of the coaches. “He was very open to it,” said Heidi Gressler. “She went to state and got third place at the MNUSA Youth Wrestling Tournament in the girls division that year.”

Overall in the wrestling circuit on the high school level, there are not enough girls interested to form teams that can compete against each other girl-against-girl. Female players most often wrestle against boys in their weight class. The biggest exception to this is the MSHSL State Tournaments, where girls can choose to wrestle against other girls in their weight class or wrestle against boys. This growing ability shows the increased popularity.

According to Heidi Gressler, there are now 51 teams in Minnesota with at least 10 girls on their team. Trista Gressler chose to wrestle against other girls in her weight class at the state tournament this year, where she took third place after a few highly competitive matches.

Not all groups are accepting of the intermixing of boys and girls though. “We had a few where there were boys that refused...

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...Trista Gressler says wrestling is her favorite sport because, “it means I don’t listen to people who try to bring me down, and it shows me how to make friends.” She continues to be inspired by seeing tournaments now where younger girls are now wrestling other girls, something she didn’t have when she started.

Football

Lillian Klehr (13) has played three years of football, now in 7th grade. “I first told mom and she was very surprised when I told her (that she wanted to play football),” said Klehr. “I had to talk to my dad, and he didn’t have any problems. So, my mom signed me up, and when I first got there I wasn’t treated the same. I would ask them if I was able to play a certain position, and they would tell me no because I was a girl.”

Lillian Klehr said, “I have all boy cousins and we’ve always roughhoused and always like playing football. So, I always wanted to play.”

Josh Klehr, her father, said, “I laughed. I couldn’t believe she wanted to do it (play football). It caught me off guard. She’s good at it. I’m glad she did it.”

“Lilly came home after a couple of practices, ‘Mom! You wouldn’t believe the question one of the boys asked — How do we tackle a girl?’ It was refreshing to see that the outcome is the same as a boy.”

Lillian Klehr would often become a target for other teams to be taken out. Her mother, Alicia Klehr, said, “We can hear other parents and coaches on the other teams, ‘She’s a girl! We got to get her.’ Not with every team, but quite a few. That’s what we have heard on the sidelines.”

Her mother recalled a time last year, in 6th grade, a time when she made it through the line of scrimmage and sacked the quarterback. “She took her helmet off to catch her breath. The boys were saying, ‘I can’t believe you’re a girl!’ The rest of the game, they doubled boys on her, and they ended up pulling her out because she was going to get hurt,” said Alicia Klehr.

Alicia Klehr says that it is a mix of reactions out there with some other teams having their girl on their own team and playing respectfully, and that there were other teams with no girls on their team that played respectful but the adults in the crowd were disrespectful.

Conclusion

Girls playing in these sports are local pioneers, being examples for other children to enter the sport. All of the girls interviewed said they gained a lot of confidence in themselves as well as gained friendship within and well outside their own school. Most of all, they were having a good time participating and they agreed the school helped make the environment for them to play welcoming.

Heidi Gressler said this about her daughter, “Even when she would lose or get pinned, she would have...

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...These trailblazers, as the sports begin to welcome more women into them, will have opportunities for scholarships in their sports and the ability to possibly play at the college level and/or coach thereafter.

“I just think the school needs to — I don’t want to say more welcoming, because they are — But, put out the word that girls should join or could join these sports,” said Alicia Klehr.

Dawn Meier said, “I think it’s great for their confidence and life in general. It’s a very welcoming community.”

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