Students from around Alaska gathered in Anchorage this weekend to compete in the state wrestling tournament, hosted by the Alaska School Activities Association. Several of those students, young men and women, are from Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka which, in recent years, has built the largest girls wrestling program in Alaska.
Mt. Edgecumbe students Agatha Andrews and Sydnee Kimber met freshman year, but it took until sophomore year for them to warm up to each other.
“When I was a freshman I was really shy. Didn’t talk to a lot of people. Agatha has made me open up as a person and made me a little more… noisy,” Kimber said.
Now seniors, the close friends have a lot in common. Both are All-American wrestlers and state champions — Kimber’s a national champion, Andrews is a finalist. They’ll be competing in the state wrestling competition this weekend in Anchorage. Both could set records for high school women’s wrestling in the state of Alaska in their weight class. And yet, until this year, they haven’t had anything to show for it, because women’s wrestling is considered an ‘emerging sport’.
“The first year they didn’t keep score at all. The second year they kept an unofficial score,” Kimber said. “Last year they did the same thing, and we were the tournament winners. They claimed there wasn’t enough girls. So we didn’t get a trophy. But this year we met their requirement so we get a state trophy if we win.”
Kimber said a lot of athletic programs in the state don’t think women’s wrestling is important.
“A lot of people don’t believe in girls wrestling still. Nobody has a team quite as big as us,” Kimber said. “Our coach, he really promotes girls wrestling. We have probably one of the biggest high school teams in the country.”
That would be Kimber’s dad, head coach Mike Kimber, tall with a bit of a 5 o’clock shadow and a wide grin.
“Sydnee is everything that I thought I was and wanted to be,” Coach Kimber said. “I did wrestle for a couple of years in college. I just didn’t have that in me, but Sydnee has dedicated her time, so she’s ready to go.”
Coach Kimber says wrestling is important for both genders, but with women, there’s a radical shift in perspective about what they can and cannot do.
“It’s the first time in their lives a lot of girls in our program have been told ‘It’s okay to rough house. It’s okay to be competitive, it’s okay to want to win.’ It’s the first time that they’ve been empowered to be in control,” Kimber said.
Control of their futures too. Andrews and Kimber are both seniors, thinking about what comes next. They plan to wrestle at the collegiate level, and eventually, give back to their home communities. Andrews comes from Akiak and has an interest in studying business or nursing. And Kimber plans to go into physical therapy.
“I don’t want to be a doctor, like a surgeon,” Kimber said. “Not needles, and knives and stuff. But physical therapy and to give back to the sports community.”
But before they can do that, a little recognition for their accomplishments wouldn’t hurt.
“I know it’s gonna feel really amazing because we’ve been waiting for it. Now I want to grab it and show it off,” Andrews said.
“We don’t get acknowledged a lot for being girls wrestlers,” Kimber added. “We’ve won state three times in a row and we don’t get any recognition for that. Having a trophy will prove that we deserve it.”
And even if it turns out that there isn’t a trophy, Coach Kimber has another solution. He’ll make a trophy and award to the students himself.
And on Saturday night, the two young women achieved the recognition they’ve been craving. Andrews won her third state title, and Kimber pinned her opponent in 79 seconds to become Alaska’s first four-time state champion in girls wrestling.
