Girls wrestling wins city championship

An undefeated season leads girls’ wrestling to second city title.

For the second year in a row the girls wrestling team are city champs.  In a home game the girls took on Carnasei High School.  The Curtis girls brought their A game and defeated them soundly 38-20 in the Curtis gym.  Captain Shannon Henry was thrilled with the victory.  “It was a great achievement and I couldn’t have asked for a better team to help me accomplish it.”       Henry got the pin in the 130 pound weight class. “ I believe the best part of the match was hitting my favorite throw and hearing not only the thump of the girl hitting the ground but the crowd cheering.”

Even injuries were badges of honor. “The best part of the match was when I got a black eye, because it was my first injury since I joined wrestling, said junior Sashoya Williams who wrestles at 148 lbs.”

After the match the girls went straight to the girls sports dinner, trophy in hand.  “It was great to see the girl wrestlers come in midway through the girls sports award dinner with  their trophy and banner, they were so hyped,  it was really cool,” said softball player Athena McGowan.

The girls wrestling team is one of the most outstanding teams at Curtis.  With a record of 9 wins and 0 losses, the girls remain undefeated this year. During their first match the girls won 41-3 against Grover Cleveland, only losing one bout.  On average the girls usually won by 20 points.

According to Coach Alena, girls like an aggressive sport such as wrestling, “they take to it like a fish to water. Once they get over the initial fear of doing it and they realize that they’re really not going to get hurt, they really start to like it,” he admitted.

So what is the draw for girls to join a sport typically dominated by boys?  Omobukola Inegbenijie, a junior and a member of the wrestling team, started wrestling this season. She joined when her friend, the captain of the boys wrestling team, prompted her to join.

Like many other girls, Inegbenijie wasn’t very fond of being a wrestler in the beginning, but once she started she began to enjoy being a part of the team and made many friends. “I think I’m going to join in college,” said Inegbenjie.

Inegbenijie has inspired other students like Zainab Azeez to wrestle.  “My friend Bukie was in it and I’ve always wanted to join from freshmen year, but I never got the chance to but I did this year,” stated Azeez.  She prefers to stay in wrestling than to join any other sports team because “most of the other sports are not fun,” admitted Azeez.

Most girls think it’s a difficult sport but some of the members on the team have different opinions. “It depends because when you first start you’re not used to it, so it’s hard work but then as you keep doing it, it becomes manageable,” explained Azeez.

Nathalie Alvarez, a senior, joined the wrestling team her junior year to become better in rugby.  She quit the rugby team because in her perspective wrestling is a more exciting sport for her. “I wanted a team that was persistent and that practices way harder,” said Alvarez.

Nathalie has had  29 wins and 7 losses during her whole wrestling season. She admits that it is hard work, but still doesn’t prefer to be in other sports. “Once you wrestle, everything else is easy,” said Alvarez. She also plans to pursue wrestling when she is in college.

The girls ended  the season with huge wins in  the PSAL individual championship posting more gold medals than any other school.