Central girls look to continue adding trophies to the case

By Jacob Meikel

For the first time in program history, Central girls wrestling saw its hard work translate into hardware.

Last week at the Kansas City Center Tournament, the team secured its first-ever first place trophy to put in the trophy case. The success was several years in the making, even dating back to the years when some of the girls were wrestling in middle school.

“To have these girls, most of them since they were seventh graders, to see them now excel at the high school level is just awesome,” head coach Matt Wright said.

In his third year as head coach, Wright says his job is easy. He tells the girls what to do and they just have to go out and do it. In terms of doing his job, it’s even easier when he has two solid leaders with experience like juniors Ashley Slade and Hailie Wagner.

“I light the fire a little bit, but most of them, it’s those two captains and they just lead the group,” Wright said.

Slade and Wagner’s leadership is led by example. In practice, they’re the two most refined wrestlers. They’re first in line for drills and they exhibit the best technique among the rest of the team. Slade and Wagner have also been there and done that. They are the first two wrestlers in the history of the program to make it to the state tournament when they did so last season, but winning their first trophy as a team was something Slade felt the team was on the cusp.

“Last year I felt like we were close, but just didn’t have enough numbers,” Slade said. “And then this year, after that Central Tournament, I was like, we’re definitely bringing home a trophy this year.”

Wagner was well acclimated to the high school level from day one. She wrestled for the program even in her middle school days. In her time competing, she has learned what it takes to perform at a high level.

“You gotta have the right mindset and the mindset to keep going and to not give up because wrestling is a really hard sport,” Wagner said.

While the numbers for the program may not be exactly what it needs for it to compete for a team state title, the two captains in Slade and Wagner are encouraging girls to consider the sport with the simple message of giving it a try.

“I say just take the chance, enjoy and you’ll never know unless you join. That’s how half of us started getting what we were getting into and then we have this loving family. Everyone’s really supportive,” Slade said.