On February 10, history was made when Carrington Reed became the first girl in Hazelwood Central High School to qualify for a wrestling state tournament.
“I chose to start wrestling because I saw it on a show called Fosters, and I was very interested in it. I found out that my school has wrestling so I tried it out,” said Reed.
Reed recently became the first female wrestler in the school’s history to qualify for state. Though the road to state wasn’t as easy as it might seem, with long winded and grueling practices, it finally felt like it paid off. Although the practices were difficult, Reed loved being on the mat.
“I love to wrestle because of the adrenaline and winning, and seeing where I started from and where I’m at now,” explained Reed.
A lot of girls in her weight class and current level started wrestling in junior high, but Reed started wrestling a little later than that. “I started wrestling freshman year,” she explained.
Although her freshman year of wrestling did not go great, Reed persevered.
“It was really fun, even though I was losing, my coaches made it fun. I got to go to state with one of my teammates and that motivated me to come back next year,” Reed explained.
During her sophomore year of high school Reed became undoubtedly better at the sport.
“I would say I was motivated by the underdog status, there were a lot of people looking down on me, and I wanted to make a name for myself,” explained Reed.
And she did make a name for herself. Reed was the only girl on the Hazelwood Central wrestling team her sophomore year. Being the only girl was rough.
“It was intense and my coach made it very strict which was hard for me,” explained Reed.
Towards the end of her sophomore year wrestling season, Reed wrestled at districts, and it wasn’t all peaches and rainbows.
“Last year I wrestled my hardest match, it was the match to go to state at districts, and I lost,” she said.
The loss didn’t break her spirits though because she came back the following year to redeem herself. This time she was more than determined to make it to state, and she did. She took home 4th place in the district tournament. “I was very emotional, I was literally on the brink of tears,” explained Reed.
Throughout this whole ordeal there was always one person that pushed Reed to be the best wrestler she could be, and that was Coach Carson.
“Even though he has put me through so much, Coach Carson helped me become successful in wrestling. I will always love and appreciate him for what he has done for me even though I don’t show it.”
