Before practice on a Monday afternoon, the Spartans, Stuyvesant’s varsity wrestling team, look similar to any other high school wrestling team. Players suit up, discuss techniques, and joke around before the arrival of coach Richard Murray. Yet upon closer inspection, there seems to be something amiss. Lying down on the mats, 6-foot-5-inch junior Jacob Pastor is arm-wrestling a considerably lither teammate. Junior Jane Ko loses the arm wrestle, but is not fazed by the defeat. Ko is one of just three female juniors on the Spartans, including juniors Samantha Sooknarine and Della Chu. The representation of girls on the Spartans has added to the popularity of wrestling at Stuyvesant, and seems to have made the team, and the girls who play on it, stronger as the season progresses.

Because there is no female wrestling team at Stuyvesant, any girl is allowed to try out for the boys’ team. However, prior to last season, there were no girls on the team. Yet when Chu and Ko, who were sophomores at the time, joined, the face of the wrestling team changed dramatically. While Ko admits that “wrestling is a mostly male-dominated sport”, she decided that joining the team would still be a good move. “I thought [wrestling] was a combination of skill and strength and I wanted to work on both,” Ko said.

While Ko started to wrestle because she wanted to get stronger, Chu joined the team because she “was looking for a contact sport to involve [herself] in.” Chu also attributes the no-excuses attitude of wrestlers to her desire to pick up the sport. “I liked the idea of competing against only opponents in my own weight class because I felt that myself and my opponent would both be on an equal footing,” Chu said. Whatever the initial reason, since Chu, Ko and Sooknarine joined the team, the male Spartans have embraced them as friends and teammates. “I think having girls on the team is great because most people perceive wrestling to be an only male sport, but having girls kind of proves that wrong,” junior Krzysztof Miezgiel said.

The presence of girls on the Spartans’ roster also reflects the popularity growth that the team has seen in the past several seasons. While the 2006 team only had 15 students—all male—this year’s team boasts an astonishing 47 wrestlers, and the change has not gone unnoticed. “We get to attract more people since girls have joined; they help us advertise and show their friends, male or female, that wrestling can be for anyone with dedication,” Murray said.

“The team’s definitely gotten more popular since the girls joined,” senior and captain Paul Kim said. While not many students attended wrestling matches at the beginning of last year, the third floor gym is often packed this year with fans watching the match.

Although the team is very comfortable with its female members now, it was not always that way for Chu and Ko. “At first it was awkward but we’re all people and it doesn’t bother me anymore,” Ko said.

Chu agreed. “Male wrestlers also often hesitate to practice with me, because the positions that we get into can be awkward,” she said. Yet most males on the team respect the girls, and appreciate their decision to compete in a sport that the Public Schools Athletic League classifies as boys’ wrestling.

“We’re all the same as wrestlers,” junior Matthew Boccio said. Although wrestling may seem a fairly masculine sport, the Spartans have definitely become not only accepting but proud of their female members.

After Murray gets to practice, the team stretches and starts to jog around the sixth floor dance gym. While Sooknarine and Chu have not arrived at practice yet, Ko jogs with the rest of the team. She easily keeps up with the rest of the Spartans, who, obviously, have grown comfortable with her, as well as Chu and Sooknarine. What started as an awkward integration of two girls has evolved past that, and Chu now freely admits that she is just “one of the guys.”