Inspired by her love of wrestling, Shaylee Gavin, the newly elected president of Bloomsburg Club Wrestling, is ready to take the club to new heights with the goal of putting together CU-Bloomsburg’s first women’s wrestling team.
Shaylee started her wrestling career in her home state, Nevada, where her father coached her throughout her life. In 5th grade, she joined her school’s wrestling team and wrestled for 3 years. After which, she stepped away from wrestling but returned to the sport in her junior year of high school. It was the 1st year that Nevada had a women’s wrestling team, and Shaylee went on to be 1st in regionals and 4th in state. In her senior year, she was 2nd in regionals and 4th in state again.
“It’s just a really different environment with wrestling because Nevada doesn’t have wrestling as big, but that gave girls an “in” to get wrestling bigger in Nevada. So girls [wrestling] is a lot bigger in Nevada than it is in Pennsylvania. But boys wrestling is a lot different.”
Prior to being elected the club president, Shaylee held the position of club captain, where she ran club practices. Now, as president, she holds new responsibilities, and when asked about struggles she might face in this new position, she discussed being respected in a male-dominated sport.
“It might be difficult to gain respect from the people in the club as a woman, being the president of a male dominated sport. So that’s something I’d have to overcome, and kind of prove myself to be knowledgeable in the sport and just accept that not everyone’s gonna like me, but, all I can do is give people my love for the sport and be kind to everyone.”
Trinity Miller, the club secretary, shared her thoughts about her role in creating a female team. “We’re trying to work forward to that and hopefully get a lot more interest. We always want to make it a safe environment for women. It’s a great opportunity.”
In her closing remarks about the goal of establishing a female team for the club, Shaylee expressed both excitement and urgency. “I have been very excited and anxious to start a women’s wrestling team. It had been sanctioned at the D1 level in colleges. And I think it would be really great if Bloomsburg had a women’s team. But right now we just don’t have the interest that we need. So I’m calling out to all the girls out there, you know, if you’ve ever thought about it, if you’ve never thought about it, come see what it’s all about. See, wrestling is such a great sport. It builds your character so well. And there are just so many benefits, physically, mentally, emotionally, to being on a wrestling team.”