Doing the Unexpected: What it Means to Be A Female Wrestler
By Ian Busking
If you asked most people, they would probably consider wrestling as a boys’ sport. One person that is trying to change that stereotype is Sidney Milligan, who has faced lots of discrimination in her sport. Being one of very few girls who wrestle is something that Milligan has to overcome, but she has definitely risen to the challenge.
Milligan is not your normal athlete who plays a sport just to play. She has put tons of effort and numerous hours into trying to better herself. And with that, Milligan has big dreams; one of which is to start an all girls wrestling team here in Owasso.
It is very tough to start an all girls wrestling team, due to many factors, but Milligan is trying to change that. She aspires to make an all girls team just like some of the other schools around this area. Milligan has practically begged other girls to join wrestling but she said a lot of people's parents do not want their children wrestling boys.
She infers that, ¨We could have more than enough girls to make a full team, Broken Arrow had less than five girls about two years ago and now they have somewhere around forty.
Milligan really wants to make a change in wrestling to inspire more girls to come join the team here at Owasso. Since the school does not have any other girls, Milligan has faced a few hardships being the only girl.
Photo of Sidney Milligan
¨We did not have girls singlets until about a few weeks ago and I've had to wrestle boys for my whole career,” Milligan explained.
Milligan has wrestled many guys in actual matches because for her first couple years of competing, womens wrestling was not sanctioned. But knowing this does not change her mindset in her matches one bit.
¨I know what I need to do in a match and I know my strengths. Although, sometimes I am very worried about a match beforehand, such as when I wrestled the girl who was ranked first in the nation, when I started warming up I forgot everything other than working to win the match.”
Keeping a balanced mindset is very important in hard matches like Milligan competes in. In her first tournament ever, she competed against an all boys bracket and placed second out of fifteen other guys. Ever since then, Milligan has kept improving which resulted in a huge tournament win at Inola. This tournament went to show how tough it can be.
¨I won my first match 7-3 and the girl I competed against bit me. Then, in the second match I won with a pin in the third period. In the finals I pinned my opponent with one second left in the first period,¨ said Milligan suspensefully.
Keeping her success going has led Milligan to being currently ranked nineteenth in the nation in her weight class, which should be no surprise given that she has already won two state championships.This is a very powerful and impactful message that she wants to send to other girls wanting to pursue their dreams and doing what others are too afraid to do. Go support Milligan and the rest of the Owasso wrestling team as they keep competing this season in hopes to win a state championship.