Elissa Reinsma Wieneke would never refer to herself as a pioneer, as others do and will. The 29-year-old, however, is feeling pride this week in knowing that the state wrestling tournament includes a division for girls.
Forty-six girls from 36 schools will compete for
state titles on Saturday at Xcel Energy Center, in 12 weight classes from 100
to 235 pounds. Four individuals in 11 of the weight classes qualified for state
through section tournaments, with two individuals qualifying at 235.
This is the first MSHSL state wrestling
tournament to include female-only brackets, but this is not the first time fans
will witness girls on the mat. As a team member at Fulda/Murray County Central,
Reinsma broke that barrier when she qualified for state in 2009 and returned in
2011 (she was injured in 2010). The only other girl to wrestle at state was Emily Shilson; competing for Centennial and Mounds View, she went
to state in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and now is a member of the women’s wrestling
team at Augsburg University.
I was at the Class 2A Section 3 wrestling
tournament at Luverne High School in March 2009 to witness Elissa clinching her
spot at state. She placed second in the 103-pound division at the section meet.
My report from that day in the Minneapolis Star
Tribune began like this…
With a trip to the state tournament on the line and the match
winding down, sweat dripped from the hardworking young wrestler's face.
Exhaustion was near, but there was no letup. A cotton ball, stuffed into the
wrestler's left nostril, stemmed the flow of blood.
And she didn't mind a bit.
Standing 5-3 and weighing barely 100 pounds, Elissa Reinsma doesn't look the part of a wrestler
when she's wearing a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers. But when she hits the mat,
she makes things happen.
“It doesn’t seem that long ago,” Elissa told me this
week. “It’s crazy. Time just flies.”
Also a volleyball and softball player in high school,
she played college softball while attending Augustana University and Southwest Minnesota
State, graduating with a degree in
sports management and minoring in coaching.
She lives and works in her hometown of Slayton. She’s
the director of Community Education at Murray County Central, will begin her
first season as MCC’s head softball coach this spring and is the first female
member of Slayton’s volunteer fire department. Her husband, Nathan Wieneke, is
a fourth-grade teacher at MCC
and the school’shead baseball coach.
Murray County Central activities director James
Wajer, who was Elissa’s softball coach in high school, said she is one of the
hardest-working people he has ever known.
“What defines Elissa is she’s a perfectionist and
she outworks everybody,” he said. “I think she learned that from an early stage
and wrestling certainly teaches all those things. She was always a coach’s
dream. She had to be kicked off the diamond sometimes if she was struggling
because she wanted to stay and work on things. You had to say, ‘Hey, sometimes
we have those days, go home and relax.’ ”
Elissa wrestled against only one girl in her
high school career, with every other match coming against boys. Her record was 32-10
as a sophomore and 32-7 as a senior. She was unable to win at either state
meet.
Her memories from those state tournaments in
2009 and 2011 include lots of cameras focused on her.
“I was starstruck,” she said. “I felt like I was
pretty humble, I had been wrestling since kindergarten. But to me it didn’t feel
any different. And when you’re in high school you don’t think about how big
things are. It was amazing. Hard work pays off for a reason.”
She’s thrilled to see girls having their chance
to shine at the 2022 state tournament.
“For me it was weird going up against girls,”
she said. “But now that there’s enough to have it, it’s great. Time flies, and
look at what can change.”
She said the lessons she learned from wrestling
have remained with her.
“The fire department had no question about
hiring me because they knew I had what it takes,” she said. “When I face
adversity, nothing will be harder than wrestling.”
Wajer said, “She’s the first female in the fire
department, and you talk to any of those firefighters and she’s one of the best
they’ve ever had. She’s one of the guys and that’s what she’s always wanted to
be.”
--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of
Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn
and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.
Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
No comments:
Post a Comment