By Ashley McLeod, Staff Writer
Mar 17, 2015, 10:39
COLONIAL HEIGHTS — Zoe McGrady is one 18-year-old that thrives on being busy. So in eighth grade, when her sports for the year began to slow down, she needed to find something to fill her time.
That’s when McGrady decided to take up something a little different from any of the other girls in school. She decided she wanted to be a part of the wrestling team.
“I always played a lot of sports, and I had an off-season so I just decided to try it,” said McGrady. “I was always more athletic and stronger than most girls, so I thought it wouldn’t be as hard as it was.
McGrady went to her parents to tell them what she wanted to do and was met with disapproval.
“We were totally against it,” said Tom McGrady, Zoe’s father. “We didn’t want her to get hurt.”
After a week and a half of persistence from Zoe, her parents finally agreed to let her join the team.
“After thinking about it, we thought it would be a great confidence booster, and she would be able to take care of herself in any situation where she would need to,” said McGrady. “We didn’t realize how good she was going to get.”
Since then, McGrady has been a part of the wrestling team every year except one, when she took a break due to back issues.
Zoe recently finished fifth in a district tournament, the first female to ever finish in the top five. She also participated in a state tournament with all females, tying for first twice, and placing second the third year – losing to a girl who was a two time national champion.
But Zoe wasn’t always at the top of the ranks in wrestling. After joining the team, Zoe began training and learning this sport which she knew nothing about.
“I was now lifting, running, and wrestling every day with a group of guys I wasn’t best friends with, and trying to learn moves that I have never done before. I had no experience, and it was a completely foreign thing I had to learn,” said McGrady.
Not only did she have to completely learn a new sport, but she also had to deal with the fact that she was a female entering into a male-dominated sport.
“At the beginning, it was really difficult because it was hard, and not everyone was very accepting of it,” said Zoe.
Her friends and family thought it was a weird choice for her to get involved in wrestling, and some even saw it as a joke. Most high school wrestling teams don’t have any female competitors.
“When I first started it was really uncommon, so a lot of people didn’t like the idea of me wrestling. I wasn’t as well-received as some of the guys may have been, I had to prove myself to get accepted,” said McGrady.
During her first season on the team, things were a little tough. Zoe did not win any matches. You could tell she was inexperienced, but you could also see she was improving every time. By the second season, she began winning matches.
According to her father, when Zoe won her first match the crowd went crazy seeing this female wrestler win her match against a male competitor.
Once Zoe began to improve, people began to take her more seriously.
“A lot of people respect me now. They see me as a female wrestler and that I’m really strong and tough,” said McGrady.
Zoe’s coach, Jose Henderson, said that she is treated just like anyone else on the team.
“Once you step on the line, a wrestler is a wrestler. And with the proliferation of women’s programs all across the nation, I think that’s more imperative that the guys understand with her experience on the team since eighth grade and also in the women’s league in the offseason, she’s got a ton of experience. Even if they tried to take her lightly or something like that, they would pay for it,” he said.
“She’s lost to some very good folks and she’s beaten some good folks,” he said.
Zoe has worked hard to earn her place in the wrestling world. Before starting tenth grade, she began to run every day as well as go to the gym and lift. Every day after practice she would run three miles.
“This wrestling season, for the entire three months, it was just wrestling, school and work,” said McGrady, who is also ranked number two in her class academically.
Her last year on the team was seemingly her hardest. Her opponents were bigger, with more muscle mass, putting her at a disadvantage strength-wise. But that didn’t stop her; she just trained harder to be the best.
“It makes it so much better to win against guys,” said Zoe. “Even if I don’t win, it’s still an accomplishment if I stop them from pinning me of from scoring points. I usually win by pins, which is really cool”
Following the Eastern Regional tournament, in which she won her weight class, coaches from the Virginia National Wrestling Team have been hounding her to get her to come to wrestle with them in the national competition.
But Zoe has moved on. She is currently wrapping up her senior year, participating in shot put and maintaining her grades.
After graduating high school, Zoe said she doesn’t plan on pursuing wrestling any longer. She hopes to go to the University of South Carolina to study chemical engineering.
Although her wrestling days seem to be over, her drive and hard work paid off, showing other young women that even if a sport is mostly male, as long as you work hard and keep going, you can do anything that any other boy can do.
• Managing editor James Peacemaker Jr. contributed to this story.
