Almost a dozen girls will compete this winter for TMB/WWG wrestling team
Karl Campbell practically grew up in a wrestling singlet. He wrestled as a kid, then as a high schooler, practicing in the old sweat lodge known as “The Hut.” His journey predictably resulted in a coaching career with the Tracy- Milroy-Balaton/ Westbrook-Walnut Grove Wrestling program that has lasted for more than 30 years.
And before he started a family with his wife, Diane — a family that grew to include two daughters — he never once gave thought to coaching girls.
“A number of years ago, I told myself there’s no way I’d ever coach females,” said Campbell. “I didn’t want to coach girls — that was probably 20 years or so ago. God laughed at me and gave me two daughters, and the next thing you know, I’m coaching summer fastpitch.”
Campbell has coached the TMB girls’ softball team for a number of years and now finds himself at the helm of the school district’s first-ever girls’ wrestling team.
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We knew as a coaching staff this was coming at some point, we just didn’t know when. I didn’t realize that there were that many girls who wanted to give this a go. And we’ve got some pretty good athletes in our room now wanting to do this.
— TMB/WWG WRESTLING COACH KARL CAMPBELL The impetus of the new TMB/WGG wrestling program, Campbell said, was a conversation he had with Westbrook-Walnut Grove student-athlete Evelyn Rentschler’s father after a softball game a couple of years ago. Rentschler had shown major interest in the sport, but the problem was, there were no other girls, to Campbell’s knowledge, who shared the same sentiment. Rentschler was able to take part as long as she had a training partner.
“Bringing a teenage girl into a big school wrestling room filled with boys that aren’t used to this — I was concerned about what that would look like,” said Campbell.
A year passed, and Campbell and assistant coach Billy Dean ran into Rentschler at a fall sports banquet; that’s when Rentschler introduced herself to Campbell, making it clear as she could that she wanted to try wrestling at the high school level.
“Summer training rolled around, and she contacted me — ‘Can I come to one of the practices,’” said Campbell. “I told her if she could bring a training partner, she would be more than welcome. They did the practice, it went well. I got a text from her after that practice and she said, ‘I got two more that want to try it.’ We had four girls from WWG that wanted to practice. I thought, ‘Well, here we go.’” Campbell admits he wasn’t 100% sure of what girls’ wrestling in Tracy would look like until an interest level meeting that took place for Tracy Area High School student-athletes a week before the first practice. Seventeen girls showed up.
“I think we had 12 at the first practice,” said Campbell. “We’ve had a couple walk away, then another new one come in.”
Campbell said there are a few programs in the area that promote their female wrestlers some have a number of girls.
As far as the schedule, there are four girls’ only tournaments on this season’s schedule. There are other meets that involve teams that also have girls on their roster.
“When we go to St. James for a quad, we know that they have a couple dozen girls involved in their program, so we’ll bring the girls along for that,” Campbell said. “What we won’t do is take them when we know there are not a lot of opportunities for our girls. We’ve been on the other side of it where we’ve had other teams approach us to have exhibition matches where their girls are wrestling our JV boys. I want to provide these girls opportunities.”
Girls’ wrestling has grown since 2009 when Elissa (Reinsma) Wieneke, then a sophomore with the Fulda/ Murray County Central wrestling team, became the first female to qualify for the Minnesota State Wrestling Tournament.
By 2022, 446 girls from 36 schools competed for state titles in 12 weight classes from 110-235 pounds in a girls-only bracket.
The only other girl to wrestle at state before 2009 was Emily Shilson, competing for Centennial and Mounds View; she went to state in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and went on to become a member of the women’s wrestling team at Augsburg University.
Wieneke has been hired to oversee the girls’ program this year, which included 10 girls.
“I believe it’s in the ‘emgering sports’ status with the Minnesota State High School League,” said Campbell. “The MSHSL just expanded from four super sections for the girls to eight sections. There’s only one class, which is different from the boys … each section will qualify two girls, and it will be a full 16-person bracket at the state level with full double-elimination for the girls this year.”
The boys will also have a double-elimination tournament at state this year for the first time in about 30 years, Campbell said, as the state tournament has expanded to a four-day event.
“We knew as a coaching staff this was coming at some point, we just didn’t know when” said Campbell. “The interestlevel meeting is probably what shocked me the most. I didn’t realize that there were that many girls who wanted to give this a go. And we’ve got some pretty good athletes in our room now wanting to do this.”
It’s Campbell’s opinion that girls should only wrestle other girls. He said his goal is to get to the point where TMB/WWG girls take the mat against other girls.
“There’s no better sport to teach self defense, disciple, toughness than what we’re doing right now,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of life skills these girls get out of this.”
