FARMINGTON — Mt. Blue High School wrestling has been recognized by USA Wrestling for its efforts in promoting girls wrestling in the state of Maine.
The school was listed by the national association among 27 other schools across the nation as an honorable mention in their final national high school team ranking for the 2022-23 season, which was put together by representatives from USA Wrestling, FloWrestling and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
According to Alan Kinerson, women’s state director for USA Wrestling in Maine, this is the first time a team from Maine, including boys and girls, was recognized by the national organization.
“[USA Wrestling] asked for feedback from me about things that are happening with women’s wrestling in Maine,” Kinerson stated in a phone interview, “and I told them about this program.”
Kinerson reported the results of the recent MPA [Maine Principals Association] sponsored state championship that was held in February, which garnered them an honorable mention. Kinerson attributes the success of the program to Mt. Blue coach Mike Hansen.
“Mt. Blue has got a nice solid group of female wrestlers that [Hansen’s] done a great job coaching,” Kinerson stated. “He’s created a team environment for them. It’s not just a boys’ team, or girls being on a boys’ team, there’s a feeling and there is energy for the women. He’s given them the opportunity to have that.”
At the state championship, which was held at Wells High School, Mt. Blue had strong showings at the tournament, having five girls place in the top three, with Grace Allen and Kendall Foster becoming champions in their respective classes.
When he is not coaching at MBHS or Mt. Blue Middle School, Hansen is also helping assist young girls across western Maine by bringing them together with Western Maine Women’s Wrestling, which he helps runs with Sarah Rowe and Heather MacDonald.
In February, Hansen appeared before the Regional School Unit 9 board of directors meeting to ask the board recognize the girls in the program as varsity athletes, as well as a varsity team for them as well. As of the writing of this article, the development of that varsity squad has not come to fruition.
According to Superintendent Christian Elkington, the MPA does not currently sponsor a championship exclusively for girls due to not having enough teams in the state of Maine to warrant it. Elkington, however, is a strong supporter of the program and would like to see it continue to develop.
“We would love to see more of our girls want to participate,” he stated in an email. “If more do, to the point of having a full team then that would determine if there was a separate team. As you can see with 14 weight classes you need lots of student-athletes. Allowing girls a place to wrestle, with a co-ed team, having opportunities with a passionate coach, is the best, single effort we can do to support the sport.”
Kinerson feels more needs to be done to better support the growth of girl’s wrestling in Maine.
“Many coaches do their best to give the girls whatever opportunity they can within the current system, which is broken,” Kinerson stated.
According to Kinerson, a team score is not kept for the girl’s wrestling, whereas the boy’s team does have a team score. He also stated that, throughout the season, opportunities for girls to wrestle in matches are much less than boys, which leads to many girls sitting on the sidelines or leaving the program altogether. Kinerson believes that by having a separate women’s division, it will create more opportunity for girls in wrestling.
“All of a sudden, the girls have something to look forward to. ‘I’ve got a match tonight. You know, this is exciting’, instead of just sitting there watching boys perform,” Kinerson stated.
Despite these shortcomings in the current system, Kinerson wanted to emphasize the hard work that Hansen and Mt. Blue have done to be the leaders of girl’s wrestling in the state of Maine.
“Coach Hanson deserves accolades for what they accomplished this year,” he stated. “If there was a team score kept, they would have outscored the second-place team by over double that. They deserve a lot of credit. He deserves a lot of credit.”
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