Female Supremacy Articles - Page 13

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At the same time, high schools began allowing girls to compete alongside boys in wrestling.

The numbers have grown ever since. In Alaska, the number of girls wrestling has steadily increased. Of the 1,267 high school wrestlers during the 2004-05 school year, 74 were girls, according to the Alaska School Activities Association.

That's roughly 6 percent of wrestlers. That also represents an increase of about 50 percent from the reported 36 girls who wrestled during the 2002-03 school year.

If the numbers continue to increase, credit might go to one Alaskan, O'Donnell, who in 2004 earned a spot on Team USA for the debut of women's wrestling at the Summer Olympics.

O'Donnell's journey to Athens, Greece, and her matches there, were chronicled extensively by local and national media.

Before O'Donnell earned her trip to the Olympic Games, though, she was just a student at Nikiski High, living with the family of former Nikiski wrestling coach and current Sitka assistant wrestling coach Steve Gillaspie and undergoing the training that would eventually make her a wrestling icon in Alaska and in the United States.

Gillaspie's daughter Abby, who still talks with O'Donnell regularly, has fond memories of O'Donnell living under the same roof and ultimately convincing the then-seventh-grader to give the sport a try.

"I never saw a girl wrestle until Tela," Abby said. "She was my inspiration to get into the sport."

BATTLE OF THE SEXES