On Jan. 24 2025, North freshman Skyler Stewart broke a record for the wrestling team by being the first girl at North to win a conference in her weight class. This was a huge accomplishment for both Stewart and her coaches, and she will be going on to sectionals at the freshman-sophomore level in a few weeks.
North’s wrestling team is co-ed due to girls wrestling only being a sport at North for about five years, and they have not had enough girls join to allow for a separate team. Even so, coach David Drews teaches both the boys and girls the same way. However, due to Stewart’s interest in wrestling in college, Drews works with her on some extra techniques from time to time.
“In high school, all wrestling, girls and boys, are all folk style wrestling, but in college, girls switch to freestyle. So I do try to show her things that are gonna be more advantageous when she gets to the next level,” said Drews.
Folkstyle wrestling and freestyle wrestling are similar when it comes to their style. A major difference is that freestyle has fewer rules, which makes folk style a better fit for high school and middle school wrestling. This would make a big difference in what Stewart would be able to do on the mat if she does go to college to wrestle.
“[When you wrestle girls], it’s just completely different, they’re not as strong as guys are,” Stewart states.
This sets some challenges for Stewart when it comes to practices, but hard work always pays off in the end, and for Stewart, it resulted in winning conference at the varsity level. She is not done, though, and has high goals for the future.
“[Stewart’s] goal is pretty simple: to get to state,” Drews said
Drews hopes to develop the sport of women’s wrestling at North in the future, he thinks many people could benefit from the conditioning and getting used to situations that put them out of their comfort zone, like what often happens in wrestling.
“I think Skyler can be a great introduction [to girls wrestling at North], and hopefully if we get a couple more girls out next year, then we can get a dedicated girls coach so we can have an official team,” Drews said.
While Stewart is not going to state this year, her coach thinks that if she puts in the hard work she can get there, and she has three more seasons to do it.
“We’ll see what happens when we get there [state]. But she’ll be there if she puts in the work, she’ll get there for sure,” Drews said.
