Craving competition

Darcy Gibbs, who admittedly doesn’t often follow the most traveled path, was looking for an unorthodox challenge. The Homewood High School freshman found it on the wrestling mat.

“I first started because I had a few friends on the wrestling team in middle school,” said Gibbs, who was an eighth-grader at Homewood Middle School at the time. “They really inspired me to do it. I thought it was really cool, it’s unique and different. I’m really individual and I like being different.”

How different is her choice of sports?

Veteran Homewood High wrestling coach Eddie Crocker has been coaching high school wrestling in Alabama for 27 years. He doesn’t know the exact number of girls to participate on the high school level in the state but said he’s only come across two girls wrestling on the boys team. One of those — Hannah Gladden of Ohatchee High — is the only girl to qualify for the Alabama State Tournament and she did it twice.

Before Gibbs could become a wrestler, she had to get blessing from her parents, who, according to Gibbs, “were thinking like it was WWE-type stuff.” After she got permission, Gibbs joined the Alabama Wrestling Chicks, which is part of the Warrior Wrestling Club in Alabaster and wrestles in girls’ competitions. 

“That program really helped me a lot,” Gibbs said. “There are a lot of other girls who can help me out. They were just there for me. They relate to me, too.”

Gibbs has plenty of success in girls wrestling. She participated in the United States Women’s Nationals last May in Irving, Texas, placing sixth and earning All-American honors in the 95-pound schoolgirl division. In early February of this year, she placed second in the Alabama Girls Championship, losing in the 95-110 pound schoolgirl title match.

In school competition, though, she wrestles against boys.

“I was super nervous,” Gibbs said of her first match against a boy while wrestling for Homewood Middle School. “I lost so fast. He was a state champ. I really didn’t know what I was doing in the first match but I kind of got a hang of it near the end of the season. I wrestled him again this year and did a lot better – lasting all three periods.”

Crocker wasn’t sure how to react when Gibbs asked to come out for the high school team.

“This is the first for me,” Crocker said. “I have four daughters, who all would have been wrestlers if I would have let them. I’ve never had a girl come out for wrestling in 27 years of coaching so I wasn’t sure what to expect.”

He did, however, know his expectations for Gibbs.

“I didn’t change anything for her,” Crocker said. “She had to adapt to training as a fighter, which is what we are. She’s done everything we’ve asked. I made no exceptions for her and I made no changes of routine. We do sandbag workouts — 25 to 35 pounds — she does the same workout as anyone else. She’s an athlete, that’s how we have to look at it. She chose to be a wrestler so we train her like a wrestler, train her to be a fighter.”

Gibbs wouldn’t have it any other way. She enjoys the camaraderie she has with her teammates and craves the competition. She not only became part of the team but spent most of the season as a starter at 106 pounds. What’s been tough, though, is competing out of her natural weight class. She naturally fits into the 95-pound weight class but the lightest weight division in boys high school wrestling is 106 pounds.

Crocker said having Gibbs on the team teaches an important lesson to her teammates.

“I would think they would have to learn that role models today are different and people’s goal and desires today are different,” Crocker said. “If somebody chooses to excel in a different area, that maybe hasn’t been traditionally a strength, you just got to admire that because they are stepping out and taking a risk themselves. She’s taking the greater risk — socially, emotionally and even physically. All you can do is cheer for her.” 

Gibbs has won her share of matches, which often brings about an emotional reaction from the boys she beats.

“They’ll either start crying or want a rematch,” Gibbs said. “It’s not a good reaction but it is satisfying for me.”

Her reaction is different when she beats a girl. 

“When I wrestle girls, I kind of want to pull them aside after the match, when I beat them, and tell them what they could have done differently,” Gibbs said. “I’m trying to help raise up this sport for girls. It’s not just a boys sport.”

Nearly 11,500 girls in the United States participate in high school wrestling, according to the National Wrestling Coaches Association. Six states — Alaska, California, Hawaii, Tennessee, Texas and Washington — sponsor a state girls high school championship. Women’s wrestling is sponsored in 28 colleges nationally and it is also an official Olympic sport. Gibbs said she has hopes of wrestling collegiately at King College in Bristol, Tennessee.   

For now, though, she’s content with being a good teammate — whether for the Alabama Wrestling Chicks or Homewood High — and soaking up lessons along the way.

“It’s mostly mental toughness and helping others, instead of putting them down,” Gibbs said when asked what lessons the sport has taught her. “It teaches me individuality and other’s individuality and to go do your thing, no matter what.”