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Fitch’s Jessica Smith wins title
On Saturday she won her fifth girls Ohio State
wrestling championship.
AUSTINTOWN — Fitch High’s Jessica Smith isn’t your average high school girl. Don’t misunderstand — she wears make-up, has a boyfriend and hangs out with her friends.
But after school, instead of heading to the mall for some shopping and boy watching, she trades in her school clothes for a wrestling singlet, puts her hair in a ponytail and heads to the wrestling room.
Some girls would be afraid of being the only girl on an all-boys wrestling team, but for Smith it’s become a challenge she’s embraced. And judging by the way she’s performed at practice and in meets, she’s proven she belongs.
“They know I’m not there to mess around, but to wrestle,” said Smith on Saturday after winning her fifth Ohio state championship at the United States Girls Wrestling Association meet at Fitch High. “They have accepted me as a teammate and they treat me very well. It’s a fun experience having 20 brothers.”
Smith’s wrestling schedule keeps her busy year-round, as she competes as a member of the Fitch boys’ team in the winter, before traveling the country to wrestle in USGWA tournaments. Her victories on Saturday improved her season record to 7-0 and she has now won state titles in Ohio and Kentucky this year.
During the boys’ season, Smith competed at 145 pounds on the junior varsity team and finished 15-4. She wrestled several varsity matches this season and won a handful of those bouts.
Fitch coach Brett Powell has seen a lot of wrestlers during his long coaching tenure and doesn’t hestitate to say that Smith works just as hard as any of his current wrestlers. Her work ethic has won him over.
“She’s never intimidated,” said Powell. “Our workouts are very intense and she is in there step-for-step with our guys when we’re conditioning. Nothing she does surprises me. She has the technical skills as good as anyone else; it’s just the strength that comes into play because of where she wrestles in the lineup.
“She just happens to fall right in the middle of where most of the high school boys are wrestling and where a lot of the best athletes are. But she always goes out there expecting to win every match. Only a handful of girls can come in and hang with the type of workouts we do, but she does.”
Smith is nationally known in the girls wrestling arena. As a freshman in 2007, she finished 36-2, losing her only two matches to seniors in overtime at nationals. She’s won state titles in five states. She entered the season ranked No. 2 nationally in her weight class (144).
When Smith burst onto the wrestling scene, there were no other girl wrestlers in the Valley. Since then, she has become the pioneer of the sport and as a result, girls wrestling has become more and more popular.
At the state championships Saturday, there were two other local high school girls, as well as five middle school girls, competing. That follows the trend of girls wrestling nationally, as participation has soared, with about 5,000 high school girls now competing.
Girls wrestling is now a sanctioned high school sport in three states and over a dozen colleges have womens’ wrestling teams. Womens’ wrestling is also an Olympic sport.
Locally, Boardman’s Sarah Guerrier and Molly Moffo competed on Saturday. Guerrier took third in her pool. Moffo, an eighth-grader who competed in the high school division, finished third in her pool.
In the middle school division, Hubbard’s Shirley Flynn won a championship. Brookfield’s Tori Thompson and Boardman’s Taylor Brue each finished second in their pools. South Range’s Megan Daugherty and Hali Derr claimed third-place finishes.
Smith enjoys the competition during the boys’ season and uses it as a steppingstone for the girls’ season.
“Being on the boys’ team keeps me in shape,” said Smith. “Some girls aren’t even allowed on their school’s team because the coaches won’t accept them. I get some tough matches and I get into some positions that I need to learn how to get out of for when I go to nationals.
“Next year, I’m looking forward to wrestling for my school and hopefully going to sectionals and districts. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and I need to learn a few more moves. I know some of the boys are stronger than me, but I think I can still take most of them.”
Smith will continue her season at the USGWA national tournament in Michigan in two weeks. In June, she will travel with women wrestlers from the University of Cumberland to the Olympic Trials.