What was once considered unacceptable has now turned into the fastest growing sport in America.

Girls’ wrestling is taking the country by storm and local athletes are joining in on the movement.

Numbers have more than doubled at Aberdeen Central in the past few years and show no signs of slowing down.

“I think there’s a lot of girls, who maybe just didn’t like basketball or they just didn’t naturally fall in love with the sport of basketball or gymnastics, and wrestling is kind of that happy medium where they can use some of that elasticity, but also be a little physical,” said Central girls’ wrestling coach Jake Flakus. “I think that’s honestly what pulls a lot of girls in. They like to be physical. They want a challenging sport and wrestling offers that to them.”

While some girls come from a wrestling background, Flakus said the majority of his wrestlers do not, yet still are able to find success on the mat.

“I’d say the majority of my team doesn’t have a brother that wrestles or they hadn’t wrestled more than two years on the team,” Flakus said. “So, a lot of the girls that I have, even some of those that placed at state, they are very new to wrestling, and they don’t even have a family member that wrestled before. That just goes to show how great of a sport it is to try out, especially if you have no family ties to it or have a relative that’s ever wrestled, you can come in and make big strides just by giving it a try.”

In fact, Central’s lone state champion in the sport, Katrina Gibson, had never even tried the sport before becoming a team member.

Cultural norms have definitely changed through the years. There was a time when girls were not encouraged to compete in wrestling, nor did they have the opportunity. Flakus talked about the transformation of the times.

“When I was younger, girls played with Barbies and that was kind of it. … Now you see, there’s all these girls and they’re not afraid to go out there and throw other girls around on the mat, and they’re physical just as the boys,” Flakus said. “It’s definitely changed, but I think it’s a change for the better and I’m glad to be a part of it.”

As the sport continues to grow, so do the opportunities for teenage girls. South Dakota will have a regional tournament for the first time this year and girls’ wrestling continues to gain more participants and more recognition.

“I have no idea what it’s going to do, but I know that us as a school and us as a state are moving in the right direction,” Flakus said, “especially with getting the girls a state tournament, getting them a regional qualifier. We’re getting girls out, and the girls that we have out are getting other girls out.”

Flakus definitely does his part to encourage girls to come try the sport, especially if they are not in other extra-curricular activities during the winter months.

“I do actively recruit especially if I see someone in the hallway and I know that they’re not involved in other things in the winter. I’ll say, hey you should give wrestling a try, but I think the biggest thing that recruits other girls is the girls themselves,” Flakus said. “So, our girls will reach out to someone they think has potential and say hey, just come out and give it a try.  And then I’ve had other girls, I’ve never even heard of them before, just approach me and say hey, I want to wrestle.”

While wrestling has been a sport that has been traditionally dominated by males, things are evolving. There is still the typical machismo stigma attached to wrestling where testosterone kicks in and boys try to rub each other’s faces into the mat.

However, Flakus noted that females can be just as competitive, albeit maybe in a different manner.

“It definitely might be a different hormone that they’re working with than the boys, but they are just as competitive and sometimes they’re kind of just as mean,” Flakus said. “Instead of face being shoved in the mat, it might be hair being pulled. And even though they’re different, it’s the same type of aggressive style and a lot of the girls that we have out, they might be the sweetest girl, but once they slap on a headgear and they go out to wrestle, it looks like someone else.”

He said that girls have the same drive and desire to succeed on the mat as their male counterparts.

“It’s just because they have that competitive nature. They want to win. And I think really, that’s all you need,” Flakus said. “If you have the will to win, you can be good at wrestling, no matter if you’re getting your hair pulled or getting your face shoved into a mat.”

Flakus noted that while the girls are relatively new to the sport, they display the same aggressive characteristics as the boys. They don’t take their time trying to figure things out. They often go out and try to take their opponents to the mat immediately.

“A lot of our girls kind of have the mentally of I’m going to go out and I’m going to throw you on your back, and if I fail, then I’ll do it again, which I like to see,” Flakus said. “They almost might be not analytical enough, but a lot of our girls, because they’re new to the sport or they know it works, they say I’m not going to mess around with this technical stuff, I’m just going to put them to their back and pin them.”

Time will tell exactly how far the sport of girls’ wrestling will advance, but Flakus hopes that it will someday evolve into one of the biggest activities at Central.

“Our goal is that it just grows into the other big sports programs that we’ve had for years like basketball and football that always have good numbers. That girls’ wrestling would be kind of an icon and especially here at Aberdeen Central,” Flakus said. “We want to be known as one of the top dogs in the state. We want to be known that we’re tough and that we’ve got a lot of girls, and that we know how to wrestle.”