Would women make good wrestling coaches?

Yesterday I watched one of the Susquehanna Twp JV wrestling team’s dual meets, the ones that last for hours and they go up against 4 or 5 teams. Of course I was not thrilled to be there all day and I had my new book handy (Resurrecting Midnight by Eric Jerome Dickey). My intentions were good, and I set out to really “watch” the matches and be a good wrestling mom.

For the first two matches the team as a whole did not do so well. I don’t know much about the technical terms and rules of the sport, but we were not doing what we needed to do to win matches. My husband was a bit frustrated with our son’s performance and he felt the match he had was over to quickly. Now, this just made me frustrated because I feel you have to encourage the kids even when they don’t win. But hey, what do I know….I am just the mom…not the coach right? Well sitting there, I felt that if the boys got encouragement even when the loose then it will give them strength to continue to the next match. I mean…keep in mind they had 6 of them that day alone.

As I sat through the other matches (in silence not talking to my husband) I started to wonder, “How would the team do if women were coaches?” Women tend to be more attentive and more concerned with the way one feels. We are talkers,feelers and tend to “check-in” to see what others think or feel. I am sure we would do a thorough check in with the wrestlers after each match to see how they felt and what they thought of each match. Now, don't get me wrong I am not saying that men do a crappy job, I just feel that because women come at things in different ways, maybe we would get different results from it. Men tend to have a competitive nature and winning is high on the list of priorities. Women on the other hand want to win, but we also want to make sure that the kids have a good experience and that they enjoy the sport as a whole.

Before the last match the coaches took the boys back to the locker room for what I am sure was the last “pep talk”. I mean, they all had to get up and be at the school by 6:30am, they have to fight their opponents like it was their last fight (times 5), they were all tired and pumped up on sugar so you can just imaged how they felt. Well what ever the coaches said to them worked! When the boys were up for their last team match against Red Land, they brought the fire! Left and right they were kicking butts and taking names later. They were winning match after match. Not everyone won, but they fought hard and won a good bit of them. That day we ended up with 3rd place over all! We never expected to win so that was a huge moment for the boys (and the coaches)!

So for now, my questions remain unanswered...would women make good wrestling coaches? Would we get the same results as the male coaches do? Would the team respond differently to a woman coach? I don’t really know, but as I sat there thinking about how I would react to the team’s performance I could not help but wonder would we get different results if the mothers coached the team or co-coached the team. I guess I will never know the answer to the question as I do not see this happening any time soon. For now, I will just continue to bend my husband ear about it and get my coaching in that way!