Sydney Petzinger has her hand raised after a first round victory in Fargo, N.D. last summer (Photo courtesy of Ronnie Petzinger)
The message was delivered just before the start of the wrestling match, and it was loud enough that both the girl and her mother heard every word. Sydney Petzinger, then 12, was about to compete for a tournament title, and the opposing coach wanted to make it clear what he thought about a girl wrestling against a boy.
"Let's show them that there's no room for (girls) in this sport!"
Even now, several years later, Ronnie Petzinger gets choked up at the memory of how her daughter was treated. But, when she gets to the end of the story, the proud mother can't hide the satisfaction in her voice as she explains what happened in that match.
"She got in there and pinned that kid," she said.
It was clear that her daughter -- that all girls -- had a place in this sport. And now, at long last, that place is official in New Jersey high school sports starting this weekend thanks to a movement that both came together quickly and feels long overdue.
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Sydney Petzinger is no longer a girl competing in a boys sport. The Parsippany High sophomore will be among the first athletes to compete for a state championship this winter in girls wresting with a chance to hold up a medal in Atlantic City. She no longer has to prove to anyone that girls belong.
"Every now and then you get that person or parent against girls in wrestling, but I don't let that get to me because it doesn't matter anyway," she said. "Women's wrestling is becoming more popular. And it's here to stay."
Officials at the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association voted unanimously in October to make girls wrestling a state-sanctioned sport. New Jersey is just the 12th state nationally to do so and the first in the Northeast, but given the sport's passionate following, it was a no-brainer -- and anecdotal evidence is already supporting that decision.
In Kingsway, more than 40 girls showed up for a practice, a number the head coach called "pretty astounding." In Manalapan, where the first girls dual meet will take place against Jackson on Friday, 15 girls tried out. Girls wrestling is not a new phenomena -- about 120 competed last year. But with the promise of their own championship, that number is expected to climb well over 200.
Sydney Petzinger poses with her trophy from the War at the Shore earlier this year. (Photo courtesy of Ronnie Petzinger)
"It's hard to grow your numbers when there's nothing to compete for," said Lori Ayres, whose daughter, Chloe, competes at Princeton High. Ayres and her husband, Princeton University wrestling coach Chris Ayres, worked behind the scenes with Bill Bruno, an NJSIAA assistant director, to make this a reality.
"We want to celebrate girls wrestling girls," Ayres said. "We're done with the stories of girls wrestling boys.
"Those were the only kind of those stories in 1998, when -- on a dare from the head coach -- Leigh Jaynes joined the Rancocas Valley Regional High wrestling team. Jaynes was just one of a few hundred girls wrestling in high school across the country then, but her experience led to a college scholarship and a spot on the U.S. national team competing across the globe.
Jaynes now trains girls at Total Force Wrestling Club in Pinebrook. She took a team of girls to a prestigious tournament in Fargo, N.D., this summer. The results were promising -- Manalapan's Jesse Johnson finished fourth while Petzinger took eighth -- but Jaynes was more focused on the potential.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we grow as big as Texas and California and Oregon," Jaynes said, pointing to three states with a head start on girls wrestling. Texas, for example, had 4,000 girls competing in the sport last year. Still: You have to start somewhere.
That somewhere is the first tournament of the season in Barnegat, where girls will compete in the Garden State Classic for the first time as an NJSIAA sanction sport. More events will take place throughout the season until, finally, several of the top girls are crowned NJSIAA champions in Atlantic City.
Petzinger, who weighs just 95 pounds, hopes to be one of them. She started wrestling with two of her brothers at a club event, and when they gave it up after the first matches, she kept going. There were sideways glances at tournaments, and parents who made their boys forfeit their bouts rather than face her, and that coach who didn't think she belonged on the mat with another boy.
She proved him wrong that day. Now, all across the New Jersey, girls just like her are about to prove again that there is definitely room for them in this sport.
Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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