In her initial season as a wrestler, Amanda Simoneau wasn’t sure that she liked the sport. She came out for the sixth-grade team at Wescott Middle School because she wanted to try a contact sport and she had seen professional wrestling on television.

“I really didn’t like it the first year because it was so hard for me and such a struggle learning things,” she says. “I had a hard time, but my mother told me never to quit anything and at the end of the year I realized that I loved it and wanted to do it again. And I got better after that.”

Despite the early misgivings, Simoneau is now in her seventh season as a wrestler. She’s a senior at Westbrook High School and a co-captain on the Blazes squad. Her coach, John Nicholas, admires her determination.

“She was able to stick through four years of a pretty tough sport surrounded by all guys, for the most part,” Nicholas says. “She’s been the only girl we’ve had until this year. Just the fact that she was able to tough it out and stick with it shows a lot of her character.”

Female grapplers are becoming a more common sight on high school wrestling mats around the country. Last year, Marshwood’s Deanna Rix garnered quite a bit of media coverage when she barely missed becoming the first girl to win a state title.

Simoneau’s classmate and co-captain Alex Emery says that it’s “pretty normal” to see girls wrestling in the lower weight classes.

“Amanda’s been on my team since I’ve been here. I didn’t think anything of it,” Emery says. “I’ve seen her get injured in matches and fight through it. She’s got really good drive.”

Simoneau is not the first female to wrestle for Westbrook, but Nicholas said that he believes that she is the first to stick with the sport. The coach adds that she is a talented athlete, not a novelty.

“She doesn’t just go out there because she’s filling a weight class,” he says. “She’s placed in a couple tournaments, and she’s beaten many boys over the course of four years.”

Simoneau, who currently wrestles at 112 pounds, said that she likes that she is part of a team as well as an individual athlete.

“When you do well in a match, whether you win or lose, it’s this whole feeling of satisfaction,” she says, “knowing that you worked hard in practice, and that you’re in good shape.”