Female wrestling is currently the fastest-growing high school sport in the country. It was featured in the Olympics this past summer, and recently, on January 17, the NCAA approved it to become its 91st championship sport beginning in 2025–2026. This trend has been reflected at Nobles on the Varsity Wrestling Team. This year’s squad has eight female members, compared to six last year and between one and three in previous years.
One of the main factors in this increase of girls on the team has been the welcoming environment and positive team culture led by Head Coach Charles Danhof. Assistant Coach Kim Gilmore noticed this during her first year at Nobles. “[All of the] coaches foster a positive atmosphere by embracing challenge and welcoming failure. More likely than not, your first season of wrestling, you’re going to have a losing record, and you need to get comfortable with failure and in the face of it still come back year after year so you can get better,” Gilmore said. Captain Morgan Gibson (Class I) also praised Danhof. “I think Coach Danhof does a really good job of making it welcoming and less daunting for girls because you can choose to have a singlet or a two-piece. In terms of skin checks and weigh-ins, he’s very sensitive about that,” Gibson said.
“[All of the] coaches foster a positive atmosphere by embracing challenge and welcoming failure. More likely than not, your first season of wrestling, you’re going to have a losing record, and you need to get comfortable with failure and in the face of it still come back year after year so you can get better.”
Danhof credits the culture to his goal of following in the footsteps of the previous longtime coach, Steve Toubman. “Long before my time, Steve Toubman had a really great culture of kids caring for each other and working hard for each other and building camaraderie. It’s a natural segue to have females on the team because we’re all pretty welcoming to anybody. We have new wrestlers on the team every year. As long as you come in and try to learn the sport and work hard, you’re going to be okay, no matter your gender,” Danhof said.
Additionally, the team has a female coach for the first time this year. Gilmore mainly coaches the middle school wrestlers but also helps out with the upper school team. The presences of Gilmore and Gibson, a captain alongside Ben Myers and Altan Marvi (Class I), have been instrumental in making girls feel more comfortable and supported. “Having Coach Gilmore on the team is really awesome. The [female athletes] come talk to me about a lot of different things, but there are things that they will feel more comfortable talking to her about, and they gravitate towards her and will work with her in a different way than they might with some other coaches,” Danhof said.
This year, opportunities for female wrestlers have increased to seven female-only events, including the New England Prep School Championships and National Prep Wrestling Championships at the end of the season. These girls-only meets have been beneficial for female members of the team. “Not all girls are comfortable wrestling guys, and so it’s good for the girls who are not comfortable wrestling guys that they have a chance to compete,” Gibson said. Some female wrestlers only participate in the girls-only matches but meets are open to all genders, and the coaching staff tries to get everyone to wrestle in a match.
The team hopes to keep growing female representation by giving girls’ wrestling more exposure at Nobles. Through assembly announcements and Instagram posts, the coaches and captains hope to educate the community about all the opportunities the sport offers and debunk some common wrestling myths. “I think the big thing is making girls wrestling really visible on the Nobles campus. Hopefully, we can get the message out and girls will know that they’re absolutely welcome in the wrestling room, and they’ll feel comfortable there and learn that wrestling is a ton of fun,” Gilmore said.
“It’s a natural segue to have females on the team because we’re all pretty welcoming to anybody. We have new wrestlers on the team every year. As long as you come in and try to learn the sport and work hard, you’re going to be okay, no matter your gender.”
Additionally, the female-only learn-to-wrestle sessions before the season have been successful over the past few years. They give girls, as well as people of all gender identities, a low-stakes opportunity to get a feel for the sport, also extending to middle schoolers. Kate Osakwe (Class III) helped run one of these sessions and praised their effectiveness. “[They are] really helpful for the new girls. It’s not like you’re going to the first practice, it’s way more low-key with how it’s run,” Osakwe said.
As the program continues to grow, Gilmore and others hope to eventually have enough girls participating to form a separate all-girls team. “In the future, I would love to see entire programs dedicated just for girls’ wrestling, and we can have a separate girls’ wrestling team that goes up against other girls-only teams across New England,” Gilmore said. The impressive rise of female wrestling at Nobles and around the country is well underway, and the excitement and excellence already shown by the coaches, captains, and athletes are sure to carry the girls’ squad far in their expansion and improvement.
