Senior already has a pin this season

By Greg Seubert

It’s never too late to try something new.

Just ask Amanda Worthey, who’s spending her senior year at Waupaca High School trying sports for the first time.

She’s on the wrestling team now and will compete in her first track season this spring.

“I did it because it’ll help me in the National Guard,” Worthey said. “It’ll keep me in shape.”

This is the second season in a row that Waupaca has had a girl on the wrestling team. Christina Rasmussen competed last season as a senior while also playing on the Waupaca Area girls’ hockey team and, like Worthey, serves in the Wisconsin National Guard.

“She’s my battle buddy for the Guard,” Worthey said. “She told me about (wrestling) and I thought it was interesting. It’s something that a girl never really does.”

She said she’s not getting a hard time from her teammates.

“They guys think it’s pretty cool having a girl on the team,” she said. “It’s something new and I like it. I like traveling, wrestling and getting to meet new people.”

Worthey has only competed in a handful of matches so far this season, but that will change soon, as the Comets still have three conference dual meets and two tournaments on the schedule this month.

She picked up her first pin Dec. 17 at a North Eastern Conference multi-dual meet in Freedom.

“It was a boy,” she said. “He almost had me pinned in the first period, but I pinned him in the second period. This is his first year, too, so we both didn’t really know anything.”

Worthey wrestles at 113 pounds. She didn’t wrestle in the Comets’ latest meet, a North Eastern dual with Fox Valley Lutheran Jan. 7, but did receive a forfeit that resulted in six points for Waupaca in a 36-30 win over the Foxes.

She’s the first to admit that she doesn’t know much about her opponents.

“I just determine their strength by shaking their hands,” she said. “I just go out and wrestle. I actually didn’t really know anything about it. I just knew that you had to basically put them on their back and go from there. It’s one of the toughest sports.”

Worthey also doesn’t get too disappointed if she loses.

“I kind of know the feeling,” she said. “I go against guys that have wrestled forever.”