What is it like coaching girls?

 

As a girls (and only girls) wrestling coach, I get asked that question a lot. 

 

To be simple, it’s fantastic.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed coaching the boys teams I coached for years. I still keep in contact with many of them. I just didn’t know that coaching a girls team would be even better. It’s the best coaching decision I’ve ever made. 

 

Girls listen better. They learn faster. They laugh more in practice. Drilling and laughing can go great together, which would have been a strange concept to me a few years ago.

 

They have a way of caring about their coaches, each other, and making the coaches care about them. Team bonding, and great relationships with their coaches and teammates are priorities to them, often more important than their actual results in wrestling. 

 

Most of all, girls truly “just wanna have fun.” I don’t know how many temporary tattoos I’ve put on in the past couple years. My nails have been painted. I’ve worn a crown. I just found myself in the toy aisle at Walmart searching for fairy toys. 

 

I also get asked, “When are you going to go back to the boys?” as if that’s inevitable, but I’m not going back. This is the first head coaching job I’ve had and I don’t see it as a stepping stone to a “higher-level role” as that question implies. This is the higher level role I want. 

 

Are there negatives? Sure. For example, I can’t wear non-matching clothes to practice anymore without hearing about it. 😂 No-show socks are completely off limits. It’s “low-key cringe” when I try to use some of the new words they use. And apparently, it’s weird for me to wear a t-shirt under a crew neck sweatshirt. That is something I will always disagree with because I will always have a t-shirt underneath!

 

Another common question: “Do they cry a lot?” Honestly, yes, they cry more than the boys, but so what? On our team, we let them cry, show their emotions, and cry with them. Our wrestling room and environment is a safe space for the girls to show how they feel. Girls crying is not a bad thing. 

 

With the relatively new status of girls wrestling too, I get to see brand new wrestlers develop themselves into state placewinners in a short time. I get to see girls who didn’t know girls wrestling was a thing fall in love with the sport. When it’s often our inexperienced wrestler vs. another team’s inexperienced wrestler, the technique we show truly matters. Our choice between periods truly matters; always pick top by the way. 😉

 

If boys wrestling coaches ever feel burned out or like they need a change, I’d recommend coaching girls instead. Or if an opportunity comes up to coach girls, they should go for it. They’ll have fun and love it. I guarantee there are tons of programs throughout Wisconsin (and the country) looking for good people to be their head girls coach.

 

I’m sold on coaching girls. I love my girls and will be coaching girls for the rest of my coaching career.

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- Coach Carl