Girls high school wrestling is alive and well in the Ohio Valley.
In case you weren’t paying attention, it has been for decades. But with the announcement of Steubenville Big Red starting their own all-girls team, the movement took a giant leap forward on the local level.
This came on the heals of a successful all-girls state wrestling tournament in Ohio, put on by the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches’ Association.
The push is on with the #SanctionOH movement to have the Buckeye State join the near 30 other high school sports governing bodies in making girls wrestling an official sport.
It’s not there yet in Ohio, but it’s close. Big Red’s Ciara Goff is ready for it to be a reality.
She’s an incoming freshman, having started wrestling under her father’s tutelage at GT Wrestling in Weirton and after watching her brother excel at Big Red.
The younger Goff is coming off a season where she finished runner-up in the girls junior high championships.
In American Women’s Wrestling’s ‘way too early’ preseason rankings, Goff is listed at No. 3 for 121 pounds. The two girls ranked higher are both incoming seniors.
She’s one of only three OVAC wrestlers ranked, along with top-ranked Warren sophomore Hayley Snyder (101) and Dover junior Payton Curley (189).
This season is a crucial time in the drive for legitimization on the state level for girls wrestling. Another successful OHSWCA state event should force the OHSAA’s hand for sanctioning.
Not only that, but if at least 25 percent of the member OVAC schools feature separate girls teams, then the conference would add an OVACs for just the ladies.
For now, they are just dreams. But unlike even five years ago, these are attainable dreams with plans in place to make them come true.
What first got you into wanting to wrestle, and once you began competing, what kept you wanting to stick with it and get better? How did it differ for you from other sports?
I grew up around wrestling. My brother Dakotah was one of the best wrestlers to come out of Steubenville. Seeing how good he was, made me want to be like him. So, the day my dad opened up his new facility, GT, I decided I wanted to learn to wrestle. At first, I had no intention of competing. But I immediately fell in love with wrestling. I knew from that point that this would be my sport. I had this passion for the sport that I never felt with any other sport, so I stuck to it and decided to compete.
You’ve wrestled in tournaments all over, but what were your thoughts upon last year learning that the coaches’ association was putting on a girls only state tournament and that put the sport one step closer to fully sanctioned?
I was excited when I heard about the girls states because I knew it would be great for myself and all-girls wrestling. We wouldn’t have to compete against high-school boys muscle. This drove me to continue to find some tough matches to improve my technique so I would be ready to compete with the best girls in Ohio.
Nearly 30 states and counting have sanctioned girls wrestling and more and more collegiate programs are springing up. Do you think it’s just a matter of time now in Ohio, especially with the #SanctionOH movement? What would you tell people who are on the fence?
I believe soon that Ohio will be sanctioned for girls wrestling. Ohio Is one of the best states for boys wrestling, so girls should be just as big! My time traveling with the Ohio girls national team showed me how fast the sport grew, and it’s only a matter of time before it becomes sanctioned. If somebody is on the fence, I would say that a sport is a sport. Sports don’t have genders, and anybody is capable of any sport if they are tough enough to compete. You’ll never know the power of girls wrestling until you see us on the mat.
Given you’ve grown up in the OVAC’s massive footprint, do you think an all-girls OVAC Tournament could be just as exciting as an official Ohio State Tournament, given how well the OVAC puts on the event each year?
It would be very exciting if there were an OVACs for girls. My brother was a four-time placer, three-time finalist, and a champion in the OVAC Tournament. I was a junior high placer as a girl this last year. It would be great to compete in a dedicated girls OVACs. It would really push the Ohio Valley Girls to their limits and see who the best is. I’ve always wished for there to be an all-girls OVACs because I think it is such a great opportunity to show people what we are capable of.
I saw where you were ranked No. 3 for your weight class for all girls high school wrestlers for Ohio. Is it nice to see others recognizing your hard work, and does that only push you further to climb those final two spots to be the top-ranked wrestler and potentially the eventual champion at the state meet this year?
When I saw that I was ranked third, I was upset at first that I wasn’t ranked number one. Then I realized the age and experience of the people ranked around me. They were all seniors, and I’m just an incoming freshman. I have worked hard since I started, and it hasn’t been a great amount of time that I’ve been wrestling. I am going to continue to push myself way past my limits so I can be the best out there. If I can wrestle my best and place first, then I feel like I would be a great inspiration to all the little girls that want to wrestle. That would be the best feeling in the world.
