For some time now Grand Forks Central High School and their coaching staff have been leaders of the women’s wrestling movement.  Females have wrestled for the Knights varsity program going back years, with Katie Gavere and Amelia Foltz being the most recognizable recent names.  Now, the Grand Forks Central coaching staff is is looking to pioneer the first girls program with the hope that in the next couple of years, enough girls will compete that a full fledged program sponsored by the school will take shape.  For the time being, the ladies will practice alongside the guys, but it is a huge step in the right direction and one that hopefully more Class A and B schools will take. There was a strong buzz around the future of girls wrestling at the state coaches meeting last February, where the NDHSAA made clear they are interested in moving forward with the sport provided enough schools are putting teams together and filing the appropriate paperwork.

“Right now, we are advertising hard throughout the school in effort to get a strong group of girls out for this inaugural run,”  Grand Forks Central Head Coach Jeff Welsh noted to NDwrestle.  “We will have a meeting in the coming weeks and that will dictate what we are able to do from a numbers standpoint.  Our goal is to have a large enough group that at some point-maybe even this year- we will be able to compete women’s team in dual competition.”

Former Grand Forks Central athlete Katie Gavere will help witht he program as a few days a week, so there will be a female leader in the room for these young women.