Getting to Know 2015 Pan-Am Champ Vayle Baker (PA)

[El-Jefe]

Nice interview on TOM with the Benton wrestler.
http://news.theopenmat.com/high-school-wrestling/getting-know-2015-pan-champ-vayle-baker-pa/59274

 

[hlstone]

I have been trying to get my daughter into wrestling, wife is strongly against it. My kid just read the interview and said that we should go watch a Benton dual.

I coach her in soccer and LAX and she is very good, I don't coach her in Field Hockey and she is great. So if I coached her in wrestling, a sport that I know how to coach, how great would she be at that?

 

[Tom McAndrew]

I have been trying to get my daughter into wrestling, wife is strongly against it. My kid just read the interview and said that we should go watch a Benton dual.

Having met your daughter (and wife), and knowing what a good athlete she is, I have no doubt she'd be an excellent wrestler.

It's not an easy path for females to wrestle in PA. The PIAA does not sponsor girls wrestling, so 99% of the time females are wrestling against males. There are challenges in every aspect of the sport:
- they get dressed in a separate locker room
- per PIAA rules, they have to weigh in in their underwear (in part to enable skin checks). And refs (99% male) can not weigh in wrestlers of the opposite sex. The schools have to work it out in advance (whether home or away) as to who will be available to weigh in a female wrestler
- they will be occasionally touched in places by the other wrestler that would be inappropriate off of the wrestling match. From my vantage point, it appears that most of the time it is accidental, or done as part of a move
- they have to wear a hair cover that is integrated with their headgear
- etc

The flip side is that many programs have trouble fielding full rosters, especially at the lower weights, which is where almost all of the females I've seen on a mat in PA have wrestled.

The girls I've seen that are successful are really strong on technique. They don't have the upper body strength, but they make up for it by movement, speed, and most importantly being fundamentally sound (which your coaching would likely provide for her).

From the sports your daughter is involved in, it appears that she really doesn't have a winter sport. I'm sure she's playing LAX, FH, or soccer indoors, but it likely would be a nice addition to her sports schedule. As long as she could balance it with FH and LAX, which I believe are her best sports (and thus best chances for a college scholarship), it might be fun.

I'd caution that with all of the challenged I listed, and some I didn't list, it really can be a struggle. In that situation, I think you would be wise to not push her into it (if you could overcome your wife's objections), but if she expresses interest you certainly could move forward with the process.

Best of luck. I look forward to learning what she decides to do.

 

[El-Jefe]

Two other pieces of caution:
(1) Check Benton's starting lineup before making any commitments to see them wrestle. If for some reason she's not starting (and Benton does have a good youth program), better to know that before taking your daughter. She might want to go anyway, but then at least she knows.
(2) Might consider going to a match at Benton. I don't know how opposing fans would react, but generally home fans are more supportive. (Or maybe your daughter would rather hear negatives, what do I know?)

 

[hlstone]

Two other pieces of caution:
(1) Check Benton's starting lineup before making any commitments to see them wrestle. If for some reason she's not starting (and Benton does have a good youth program), better to know that before taking your daughter. She might want to go anyway, but then at least she knows.
(2) Might consider going to a match at Benton. I don't know how opposing fans would react, but generally home fans are more supportive. (Or maybe your daughter would rather hear negatives, what do I know?)

Benton is only 30mins away, so no big deal. She loves watching wrestling.

 

[hlstone]

Having met your daughter (and wife), and knowing what a good athlete she is, I have no doubt she'd be an excellent wrestler.

It's not an easy path for females to wrestle in PA. The PIAA does not sponsor girls wrestling, so 99% of the time females are wrestling against males. There are challenges in every aspect of the sport:
- they get dressed in a separate locker room
- per PIAA rules, they have to weigh in in their underwear (in part to enable skin checks). And refs (99% male) can not weigh in wrestlers of the opposite sex. The schools have to work it out in advance (whether home or away) as to who will be available to weigh in a female wrestler
- they will be occasionally touched in places by the other wrestler that would be inappropriate off of the wrestling match. From my vantage point, it appears that most of the time it is accidental, or done as part of a move
- they have to wear a hair cover that is integrated with their headgear
- etc

The flip side is that many programs have trouble fielding full rosters, especially at the lower weights, which is where almost all of the females I've seen on a mat in PA have wrestled.

The girls I've seen that are successful are really strong on technique. They don't have the upper body strength, but they make up for it by movement, speed, and most importantly being fundamentally sound (which your coaching would likely provide for her).

From the sports your daughter is involved in, it appears that she really doesn't have a winter sport. I'm sure she's playing LAX, FH, or soccer indoors, but it likely would be a nice addition to her sports schedule. As long as she could balance it with FH and LAX, which I believe are her best sports (and thus best chances for a college scholarship), it might be fun.

I'd caution that with all of the challenged I listed, and some I didn't list, it really can be a struggle. In that situation, I think you would be wise to not push her into it (if you could overcome your wife's objections), but if she expresses interest you certainly could move forward with the process.

Best of luck. I look forward to learning what she decides to do.

The only way my wife would allow her to wrestle is if she was part of an all female team. Sem is looking into a female team so that may be an option, they want her for FH right now, but we are not rich so it would be tough for her being on the poor end of the students.

Thank you for the kind words. Faye is a silent verbal to PSU at age 11 for FH, but she is looking at Villanova